Taare Zameen Par

I had been taught at every stage of my childhood that extra-sensitiveness was a hindrance to a successful personality. My own father endorsed this theory, and to an extent, he was absolutely right-he always said,'don't build castles in the air'. In real life, too, one needs to be mechanical to avoid needless problems. The wonderful book Alchemist has elaborated upon this to make us go deeper, give up confusion and understand life better.

It tells us that one needs to maintain a balance:keep a watch on your present circumstances, but also look up and dare to dream and realise it. Both are necessary-doing either one without the other would lead to foolishness. At this point, my maturity level tells me that having an ultra-sensitive approach to life is a speciality in some people and a boon in disguise. And as said above, one should not forget to keep a foot on the ground, yet dare to recognise this quality in oneself which could be helpful in realising one's destiny. So, when I cried copiously hundreds of times while watching Taare Zameen Par, I did not hide the tears from others.

The movie was most special to me(and of course for millions of others). We all laughed and cried with the eight-year old Ishaan Awasthi, who represented all of us as a victim of today's cruelty by the world and circumstances, and could not help recollecting our past...the humiliation, the helplessness and the agony that we have all had to face which some people called the necessary dose of punishments to keep our foot on the ground. Ishaan, a dyslexia patient, suffered to the extent that he lost his ability to dream-gave up painting which was his passion and in which lay his heart and soul. He could not read nor write properly due to the disease, and everyone he knew considered him an idiot-a misfit in today's generation of toppers. Then there comes this newly-recruited arts teacher in his boarding school at Panchgani, who changes his life, partly because he sees a resemblance of his own childhood in the boy-yes, he too had suffered from dyslexia before.

It was joyous to see the smile coming back on the young M.F.Hussain Master Ishaan gradually as Aamir gave him the keys to go back to his world of kites, fishes and spaceships by transforming him to enable him to compete with others in academics and other activities. What made this movie truely extraordinary was that it laid bare the sad and inhuman mindset of Indian household today, which always compells children to lose their personality to survive in today's society. It forced the people to analyse, reflect and rectify their mistakes. It gave a platform for kids and teenagers to express their pain. No, social messages as deep as this are not confined to art-films alone.

The movie is special because of the message and lessons of life in it. Aamir Khan and Amole Gupte have done a service to the society-the whole of India should thank them for opening the eyes of millions..TAKE A BOW.