Taare Zameen Par - Not bad for a first-timer!

Been a while since the last time I put on my writing cap...there's another reason to write again today.

Just came back from school today, and plunged onto the couch straightaway and switch on the TV, and jumped from one channel to another...and stopped at Singapore's Vasantham Channel....Taare Zameen Par.

Filmmakers all over the world have made countless attempts to approached the idea of teaching and learning in their films. Dead Poet Society, Patch Adams, The Miracle Worker, Black, The Ron Clark Story, etc, have approached education world from various perspective, some of which tried to venture new ideas in education, suggesting that a teacher should do this and that to certain kinds of students.

Sadly, most of these movies portray teachers as angels rather than humans. Teachers for these filmmakers, are magician or life-saver from heaven. Equipped with unrealistic teacher characters, these movies done nothing more than just presenting their ideas of what teachers are to them. Most of them are successful in touching hearts though, but as a teacher myself, I always fail to relate to the character of the teacher as presented in films, because they are hugely unrealistic. Teachers' life is no smooth-sailing where a magician like Ram Shankar Nikumbh's can do whatever he thought was necessary without objection from his colleagues and superior. Perhaps some of you who are not teachers might have thought that since teachers are the guidance of life, they know what's best and always do things right. Well, here's the truth; teachers are not angels, and sometimes, teachers too are forced to do wrong things and do not have the capability to do things they think are necessary. Many of times, teachers like me have to just watch students 'killing' themselves in front of us and we got our hands tied down and unable to help. We regret, but that's part of the reality in our lives. We used both our hands to touch as many lives as we can, but the resentment are countless too and in equal number of times, we don't get much opportunity to change things. This might sound a little too pessimistic, but so far, that's what I think of a teacher's life. Of course there are rewarding and happy things about being a teacher, but, in the context of Taare Zameen Par, it was not approached realistically.

Taare Zameen Par is a Hindi movie with Aamir Khan and a superstar-in-the-making, Darsheel Safary. Taare Zameen Par suggested the idea that dyslexic children are not incapable, instead, they are children with capabilities beyond any wildest imagination.

Darsheel Safary played Ishaan, a boy with dyslexia, a learning disorder, causing those with it to have difficulty in reading, writing, and counting the way non-dyslexic kids do. His parents, teachers and schoolmates have constant misunderstanding about him; he was kid with countless excuses, he was stupid, he was a failure, he was every parents' and teacher's worst nightmare. His only talent was in painting, and he was unimaginably spectacular at it, as the film portrays it. Thinking that his child has behavioral problems, his father sent him to a boarding school. Ishaan felt sad, troubled, unwanted, rejected and opt into keeping himself quiet and soundless at all time.

Then came into the spectrum; Aamir Khan, who played Ram Shankar Nikumbh, a former special education teacher who was dyslexic himself. He realized Ishaan's quietness and tried to find out Ishaan's problems. His venture in Ishaan's life brought him to Ishaan's parents and he tried to make Ishaan's parents understand that Ishaan is not a problem, just that he requires a different method of teaching as he approached every knowledge differently. Ishaan's father was initially in denial, especially when Ishaan's elder brother was an excellent student. Mr. Nikumbh then returned to the school feeling really bad for Ishaan, because his father refused to understand him.

Putting the frustration behind, Nikumbh began his work on Ishaan. He obtained support from his superior and began applying different method to teach Ishaan to read and recognize letters and numbers. Ishaan began to progress and coped with his studies, and at the same time, building a good rapport with Nikumbh. Things began to be good around Ishaan and his father began to realize that Mr. Nikumbh was right. Ishaan finally got the recognition for his talent in painting and Mr Nikumbh was then accepted into the school as permanent staff. Happy ending.

Well...to be honest, I am not a fan of Aamir Khan and somehow, still not a fan of him even after the spectacularly successful Taare Zameen Par. But as I am still in honest mode, Aamir Khan was impressive as an actor. But the kid Darsheel Safary, was a true star-in-the-making. He was the plain Taare Zameen Par (star on the earth). He churned perfect picturisation of every drop of emotion and played the character of Ishaan perfectly well that I began to doubt Aamir's performance. The kid actually overshadowed Aamir the living legend!

As of the story, I have some doubts here and there. I am a teacher myself and the idea of having an angel in a form of a teacher suddenly coming to a school and saved the students in need is somehow equal to the idea of Superman flying over the sky and sing 'Here I come to save the daayyy!!!', so it's kind of unrealistic to me. Having said that, maybe it's just me who have not encountered such teacher, who knows?

But to be fair, the unorthodox teaching method adopted by Nikumbh in teaching Ishaan was in-line with special education theory - writing letters in sandbox, shaping letters with clay, and learn numbers by walking up and down the stairs. Any special education teacher in real life would have done the same. Kudos to that part.

But my doubts lies in the simplicity of Ishaan's acceptance towards Nikumbh. In real life, it won't be that easy. Special children are strong opinioted and approaching them won't be that easy to be done in just one attempt of telling how special they are. Nikumbh's life as a teacher appeared to be easy because no matter how problematic the kids are, they don't seem to be rude or impolite, as it normally occur in real school life. And who said excellent students don't have behavioral problems? All schools, be it good school or poor school, located in city or in suburb, big or small in size, do have behaviorally problematic students. The only difference is the approach; weak students will create problems like fighting, talking back, not submitting their work or bullying their schoolmate, but academically excellent students also create problems like putting carbide in aquarium to kill fishes or setting up trap for other students like what we saw in Home Alone.

Also, Nikumbh has broken a rule; he showed favoritism. In a professional teacher's life, a teacher should never show his own preference. Nikumbh's connection with Ishaan was completely humane, but his success with Ishaan shows another drawback. He said art is important for humans so that they can express their feelings; doesn't other kids in his class have feelings too? Not showing favouritism has been a huge debate in education world, as it seemed to prevent teachers to be human. But every rule has a reason behind it, because human's relationship is complicated. Students can be extremely attached to the teacher who inspires them, but there will come a time where they have to let go. If the teacher is the only reason for behavioral changes, all education and effort will be wasted the moment the teacher and student parted ways to go on with their own lives. The ideal way is to make the behavioral changes permanent because that's the right thing to do, not for anyone. But being a teacher myself, I know how difficult to practice whatever we've preached. Moreover, how can he help Ishaan if he doesn't show his favouritism, considering that Ishaan seemed to be the only kid who requires help in the class?

So overall, despite of the excellent performance and heart-wrecking songs (Maa, Taare Zameen Par), the misconception in storyline and its independent interpretation of education theory makes the film to be just 'okay' for me. Nonetheless, Taare Zameen Par does not fail in entertaining. My rating, is perhaps 2.8 over 5, but Darsheel's performance was an absolute 5 over 5. However, as Aamir's directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par is completely not disappointing. Aamir certainly has the talent and potential, though there are plenty of room for improvement. Not bad for a first-timer, and Aamir is absolutely a far better actor than Shah Rukh Khan. Taare Zameen Par makes me understand now, why Aamir is an actor, and why Shah Rukh is merely a star.