You had been a child, do you remember?
When did you last remember your school?
When did you last think of your childhood friends, your pranks & punishments?
Do you listen to you what your kid says, everytime?
Which one of the last movie made you cry?
If you haven’t in recent past, TZP will do all this to you & more. If you are a parent who’s bringing up his/ her kid(s) or if you just have a sensual heart, you can’t stop your tears watching this movie. I found the movie closer to my heart, probably because I was a difficult child or my love for painting or may be it reminded me of my responsibilities now, as a dad .
TZP is a movie directed & produced by Aamir Khan, his debut effort behind the camera.
Storyline*
Ishaan(Darsheel Safary), 8 , was different from any other child of his age . Apparently, he seemed a grossly disobedient child, who would always end up being on the wrong side, yelled at by adults. Only animals & colours seem to interest him & he loves to stay in his imaginary world. Comparing him with his topper & a sports champ elder brother, his dad gets dejected eventually & admits him into a boarding school.
Being away from his parents & grossly misunderstood by teachers, Ishaan sulks in pain & goes into a deep solitude. Ram Shankar Nikumbh(Aamir Khan), a temporary Art teacher- arrives, recognizes Ishaan as a dyslexic kid & walks extra mile to study his past, including meeting up with his parents. He eventually builds a strong bond of love & understanding with Ishaan, convinces everyone about his talent & let everyone know, what he is.
Every Child is special*
The movie centers on protagonist Ishaan, & the movie belongs to him. Darsheel Safary as the dyslexic, imaginative & creative child is superbly natural & it’s his expressions, which keeps our heart tormented & activate the tear gland. Aamir Khan’s debut as director proved his mettle. His presence, behind the camera is probably better than in front of it.
I bet, Ishaan will force every viewer to remember the small happiness we had as a child- the small poodle of water to jump on before boarding the school bus, broken crayons, the best-friend-stray- dog, punishment to stand outside the classroom, imaginary fights in shower & most importantly how we wanted to be understood by our parents & teachers, to leave us alone & let us do what we loved.
*Pain & painting
The first half of the movie is set in Mumbai & beautifully depicts the rush & stressful life of Ishaan’s family- his villainous no-nonsense laptop hogging dad (Vipin Sharma), an affectionate mom (Tisca Chopra) who’s torn between love, responsibility & worry for her children & a loving brother Yohan **(Sachet Engineer). The entire first half is dedicated to Ishaan, his school & his family to establish his character through elaborate & extremely detailed scenes of his house, school & neighbourhood.
Second half, the movie is confined into the picturesque New Era boarding school at Panchgani. Aamir khan as Nikumbh the art teacher & Tanay Chheda(remember the kid in Don?) as the best friend of Ishaan will remain memorable for their performances. The Art mela scene with humongous number of kids must have been a nightmare to organize.
The movie encourages Art in the form of paintings as a therapy to free one’s mind & let the imagination fly. Isn’t it beautiful to see a child paint?
What touches the heart*
The convincing portrayal of a kid who’s just happy in his own imaginary world. Darsheel Safary is just perfect as a different kid, happy & content. Note he doesn’t have much dialogues to say in the movie. But his expressions- at school, in front of his dad, with his friends are deeply touching. Shots like taking the fish out of drain, digging nose or just staring out of his classroom window to a poodle of water, is meticulous. Aamir as a director did a wonderful job.
Tisca Chopra wonderfully enacts the loving mom, especially when Ishaan is left alone at the boarding school. I could’nt stop my tears to the background song “Ma” with touching lyrics like “kya main itna, bura hoon, ma?”.
The movies’ music is absolutely great by SEL. Each song contains simple but immensely meaningful https://lyrics. Prasoon Joshi’s words are magical; each song with its theme, context & story is beautifully picturized either as BGS like “Ma” or “Jame Raho” or more upbeat & vivid “ Bam bam Bhole”. The sweet title jingle “Taare Zameen Par” lingers forever. "Bheja Kum" echoes " leave us kids alone" from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
The title credits at the beginning of the movie is brilliantly done with fishes, kites, colourful creatures - a visual treat. After Satyajit Ray’s Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne, I don’t remember any director to spend so much time & effort in a movie title. Similarly, at the end when the title credit rolls, alongside video clippings of children with their mundane actions kept me & rest of the audience glued at our place. At the end, the full house started clapping, eyes still moist. The movie had a standing ovation on first day last show in that premium Mumbai multiplex.
The shot where Aamir convinces Ishaan’s dad by asking him to read the Chinese letters on a toy box, is marvelous way to convey the mesage. All we need to spend is time with our kids with a little bit of patience & understanding.
What does’nt…
Aamir Khan is known as a meticulous artist with a perfectionist bend of mind. The movie clearly expresses so; scenes are done with precision detailing, using hues & music. However, I felt at few places things were bit over dramatized, some just prolonged the movie without much value addition.
The dad (Vipin Sharma) was shown too heartless & brutal. I refuse to accept the fact that, in contemporary nuclear family scenario, dads can afford to be that idiotic. Probably this was done to create sympathy towards Ishaan, which was unnecessary. Same logic goes to the cruel art teacher, who unbelievably uses the ruler to inject concentration. Hateful.
The mother bird clip feeding her babies was inserted from archive. Nikumbh’s bus journey & shots of the co-passenger baby’s diaper change could have been edited too. Nikumbh’s love for kids was evident from one of the lovely scene, where he treats the chhotu with chai-biskoot on the highway.
I also wonder why the school shown were all boys? Doesn’t make any difference, but just an observation.
My rating- 4.5*. Half a star just for the smiling face painting, which can be of your kid’s or mine.
Let’s touch the sky and reach the stars.
ps: Lovely offcial website - https://taarezameenpar.com/. You can hear the songs & read the beautiful https://lyrics.