Notes on Taare Zameen Par
The comments section here turned into a part-discussion of Taare Zameen Par, so thought I’d move some of that to a separate post. I wasn’t planning to blog about the film, because I didn’t have to review it officially (that’s usually the pretext to write an expanded piece for the blog) and things have been very rushed lately. Also, if a film has been extensively written about (as TZP has), I prefer not to add my two bits unless I badly want to make some points that I haven’t seen made elsewhere.
The other thing is, I wasn’t as hugely taken with the film as most people I know were, but at the same time I wasn’t comfortable writing something that would over-stress its weaknesses. Because for the most part, those weaknesses (the occasional preachiness, the shift in tone in the second half, Aamir Khan’s star persona briefly threatening to dominate proceedings) were almost unavoidable given what this film was trying to accomplish. “Message movies†that reach out to a mass audience can’t afford to be too understated – they sometimes have to spell things out – and Aamir probably needed to be in the film to draw that large audience in the first place.
Besides, though I was annoyed by a couple of things (the caricaturing of Ishaan’s father, the validation of Ishaan after he wins a competition at the end), there was nothing that seriously put me off. Given the film’s subject and the way mainstream Hindi cinema has handled these things in the past, it was restrained and tasteful. Darsheel Saffry was superb, as was the music and the way it was used. And on the whole, Aamir and Amole Gupte managed to sensitively convey their empathy and concern for children, without rubbing it into the viewer’s face. (Clarification: if I was reviewing TZP officially, I wouldn’t refrain from stating my view that it played like a public-service documentary in places – but as things stand, I can afford to suspend the critical faculties and appreciate it for its good intentions and other pluses.)
One thing I found interesting was the association of dyslexia (which is a specific learning disability that can be appropriately dealt with) with symptoms that could arise from general introversion/shyness. The first half of the film, seen mostly from Ishaan’s perspective (his imagination-driven interior life being more compelling than most things in the real world around him), isn’t really about a dyslexic kid at all, despite the scene where he tells his teacher “The letters are dancingâ€Â. It’s a much more generalised story that would be recognisable to just about anyone who ever felt isolated as a child or had problems with the staidness of formal education.
And I wonder if this could be problematic – whether it might end up providing false hope to parents whose children are reticent or distanced for reasons other than a tangible medical condition. After watching this film, the uninformed (and overambitious) parents of any child who happens to be a loner or deeply sensitive might think he has dyslexia, and when they find out he doesn’t, it could be even more confusing for them and worse for the kid. (As if we introverts don’t have enough to deal with already, both as children and as adults!)
[Tasteless humour alert]
Watching the first half of Taare Zameen Par and noting how often something occurred that either my wife or I could relate to from our own childhoods, I drifted into another of my short reveries, where I imagined the following murmurs rising from different parts of the hall:
“I used to be fascinated by the way gobs of paint ran into each other on a palette! I must have been dyslexic too!â€Â
“I failed Math when I was nine! Now I know why!â€Â
“I would get up late and spend my time staring out of the window at flowers and birds! I must be dyslexic!â€Â
And so on. Like the famous scene in Spartacus where the rebellion leader’s loyal men stand up one by one announcing “I am Spartacus!†when the Romans ask them to give up their chief. In my reverie, everyone in the theatre shouted “I was dyslexic!†so that the chorus rang through the building and out on the street, each voice trying to drown out the others. (Ironic, considering that one of the film’s points is that dyslexics see things differently and aren’t part of the competing herds.)
P.S. Remember Dawkins’ suggestion that atheists were the new gays – coming out of the closet, bringing their beliefs (or disbeliefs) into the open? In India, if you looked at newspaper supplements in the days just before and after TZP’s release, it was possible to wonder the same thing about people who had dyslexia as children. Or people who thought they had dyslexia as children. They were tumbling out of closets everywhere, hardly a day passing without some minor celebrity (a TV actor, a sports personality) spilling the beans about his own traumatic and misunderstood childhood. I wonder how many of these cases were simply people who…just weren’t that good at Math. (No disrespect meant to those who genuinely struggled with dyslexia, etc etc.)
on Thursday, January 10th, 2008, 11:08 pm in Film › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
I was going to say this here, but didn’t.
I agree 100% about the film associating shyness/introversion/interest in artistic rather than athletic endeavors with dyslexia. It’s as if the “dancing letters” weren’t enough to make us feel bad for the kid, so they had to spice it up. I have several kids in my class each year who suffer from dyslexia, but they are often great athletes, and successful socially. I realize that this is America, and that my blogonym for my school is Utopia, but still.
In a way it served to scare one of the younger children with whom I attended the movie. He had only just begun to read and asked his mother, nervously, if this would happen to him. He wasn’t afraid of not being able to read, but about being beaten up.
It could have used some tweaking.
You took your class to a Hindi movie?
Coolest… school… ever.
Awesome review, though I disagree with some points. To me (and I teach), so scenes seemed to remind of undiagnosed ADD kids. His lack of ability to focus, rebeling against the parentals, and even playing around with the dogs. BUT, at the same time, some of his withdrawn scenes in class with Aamir, his disappointment when Mama Ishaan calls, and spending time alone under the stars also reminded me of a child with mild autism. Particularly one scene, where his eyes are so engrossed onto his desk, and when he looks up out of shock of hearing Einstein’s name, his look is uite eerie almost. Like, he’d been jarred from such a REM-like state.
Any one os his scenic symptoms could have alluded to introvertism, ADD, autism, dyslexia, or any other host of childhood paranoias. As a message film, I took it more of a lessom for parents to appreciate and encourage the child in all of us, not so much about the affliction.
BUT, there were 2 moments that reminded me of Manish…I imagined as a child, he must have been just as sharatee…:)
Huh? Sorry, I was just gazing out the window =)
I wanted to share the fact that this movie - with all its faults - impacted both my partner and me. One of those rare Hindi movies that we watched together and which resonated with both of us. l think any parent who has had a child go through the Indian school system will get it. Amir nails the repressive nature of the system perfectly - children getting punished by being rapped on the knuckles, humiliated in front of peers, sadistic school teachers etc . Not to mention the inevitable and odious comparisons made between siblings/neighbors kids etc . If this movie makes even a few parents stop and think about driving their kids crazy with inflated expectations - it would have suceeded. I have seen kids suffer in India and branded stupid because no one understands that they just learn differently.
I wish Amir had cut the songs and toned down some of the off the wall portrayals such as the Hindi and English teachers.
we have a problem with teen violence in toronto public schools. a report has come out that identifies some startling issues - that over a third (may e more) of girls reported being victims of a violent sexual act, a culture of silence to preserve school rep, a gun culture. the prblem extends beyond just the TO projects. there are some recommendations but they all point to fixing the school system. some in the public are countering it by saying this should first be addressed by the community. i was struk by a comment on the radio from a lady who had lost her son to gun violence, that she would like to see uniforms brought to play in the school system.
the following comment had me thingkk
all the problems being talked about here - corporal punishment, duty and obligation, a regimen dictated by parental ambition, peer pressure in education etc. - at a lesser level, these are the solutions being pushed by the toronto report - a regimen driven off scholarly pursuits, disciplinary power etc.
Ah, the search for the ever elusive middle path!
masale.. thanks for taking it in the right spirit. this is taking up a lot of bandwidth in toronto . Here’s a list of recommendations
Among other recommendations by the panel:
Transfers between schools should not be used as an alternative to discipline, and administrators should not urge judges or police to impose conditions that require students to be transferred from their home schools.
School uniforms should be required except where individual school councils opt out. The uniforms should comply with the Ontario Human Rights Code and should be affordable, and the board should subsidize the cost where necessary.
In cases of sexual assault on students under 16, school officials should report the crime to the police and, barring exceptional circumstances, notify the victim’s parents.
In cases of sexual assault on students 16 or older, the decision to file a police report and/or notify parents should be left to the student “in order to encourage victims of sexual assault to come forward and protect the school community.”
Students should be required to wear identity cards on lanyards around their necks “for the purposes of quickly identifying students and intruders.”
In summary the city wants to enforce more discipline. contrast it with the indian system where they want to loosen it up. in each case the outliers will get crushed or get lost. this would be nice but it isnt about to happen.