analysis of the movie Taare Zameen Per

              Taare Zameen Par

Introduction:

            “Taare Zameen par” is a Bollywood film directed and produced by Amir Khan. It surrounds a story of a kid of 8-9 years. He is suffering from a psychological disease ‘dyslexia’. No one around him can recognize him that he is a slow learner. All teachers and specially his father behave him very bad by giving him punishment. He has the problem of identifying the words and therefore he cannot read and write properly. After several complain from the school and building, his frustrated father decides to send him boarding school to ‘be disciplined’. There he sinks into a state of fear and depression. But his internal world is rich with wonders that he is unable to convey to others, magical lands filled with colors and animated animals. He is an artist whose talent is unrecognized. At boarding school, a new art teacher gets worried to see the condition of the boy. After investigating, he comes to know the actual reason and attempts to make him brilliant. He teaches him using different techniques which he can understand. In a very short interval, the kid learns everything even reading and writing, and in the ending of year, he gets high grades in his class.

Why I Selected this Film:

            Let’s make one thing clear that ‘Taare Zameen par’ is not one of those films that merely entertains, but also lightens. It is one film that makes you peep into a child’s mind and how some parents, in their desire to make their children stronger academically, forget that there’s also a hidden talent that needs to be nourished and encouraged. A film can change the thinking, attitudes, behaviors and practice of people much faster than any other technique. So, I select this film to inform the parents that don’t force your ambitions onto the delicate shoulders of children, it’s worse than child labor. It is also about the teaching technique of the teachers in our educational system that needs to be improved.

Plot:

            The film starts with the scene of Ishaan in which he was showed in capturing the fish with a different style. Actually he is unable to read and write properly. The words seem to him like dancing. He gets furious at a bit little things. His parents receive complains from building and from school daily. And after receiving a particularly poor academic report, Ishaan's parents send him to a boarding school. This is the extreme point of plot, the separation of son and mother. There he sinks into a state of fear and depression, despite of being befriended by Rajan who is one of the top students in his class. His interest in the study is the same as before. He is punished by an art teacher on the very first day for being not attentive. Ishaan's situation changes when a new art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh joins the school's faculty. Nikumbh's teaching style is markedly different from that of his strict predecessor, and he quickly observes that Ishaan is unhappy and contributes little to class activities. He reviews Ishaan's work and concludes that his academic shortcomings are indicative of “dyslexia”. On his day off, Nikumbh visits Ishaan's parents and asks if he can see more of their son's work. He is stunned by the sophistication of one of Ishaan's paintings, and tells his parents that Ishaan is a bright child who processes information differently from other children in his class, but Ishaan's father is suspicious that the explanation is simply an excuse for his son's poor performance. Nikumbh demands that he read some Japanese text on a box and berates him when he cannot, giving him a glimpse into Ishaan's experience of school. Nikumbh describes dyslexia to them and explains that it is not a sign of low intelligence. He tells them that he can provide extra tutoring that will help Ishaan, highlighting the boy's artistic ability evident in his many paintings and other creative works.

Nikumbh subsequently brings up the topic of dyslexia in class, and offers a list of famous people who were dyslexic. As the students are leaving the classroom, Nikumbh asks Ishaan to remain behind and reveals to him that he too experienced the same difficulties with dyslexia. Nikumbh then visits the school's principal and obtains his permission to become Ishaan's tutor. He attempts to improve Ishaan's reading and writing by using remedial techniques developed by dyslexia specialists; Ishaan soon develops an interest in language and mathematics, and his grades improve.

Towards the end of the school year Nikumbh organizes an art fair for the staff and students. The competition is judged by artist Lalita Lajmi. Ishaan, with his strikingly creative style, is declared the winner and Nikumbh, who paints Ishaan's portrait, the runner-up. The principal announces that Nikumbh has been hired as the school's permanent art teacher. When Ishaan's parents meet his teachers on the last day of school they are left speechless by the transformation they see in him. Overcome with emotion, Ishaan's father thanks Nikumbh. As Ishaan is getting into the car with his parents for summer vacations, he turns around and runs toward Nikumbh. The film ends with a freeze frame shot of Nikumbh tossing Ishaan into the air.

Characters:

1.      Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi

A boy of 8-9 years is protagonist. Whose character changes in the end of movie when he has learnt reading and writing. He plays role as a student who is suffering from a psychological disease. He is an artist whose talent is unrecognized. It is a round character.

2.      Nandkishore Awasthi

Ishaan's father, Nandkishore Awasthi is a successful executive who expects his children to excel. He has his full attention towards his job. He don’t know what his children want and how should he care for them. He wants his son to become a brilliant student but how? He doesn’t know. He is a round character whose mindset is changed by the speeches of sir Nikumbh. It is antagonist in this film.

3.      Ram Shankar Nikumbh

A teacher joins the school's faculty temporarily when the art teacher goes on a visit to New Zealand. He is basically an instructor at the Tulips School for young children with developmental disabilities. Nikumbh's teaching style is markedly different from the other teachers. He says to students to draw on the page whatever comes in their minds. According to him, arts’ purpose is to give expression of the inter most emotions and feelings. The dialogue of him that I like the most is;

“dunya mein aisay aisay heeray peda hue jinhun ne dunya ka naqsha badal diya, q k wo dunya ko alag nazar se dekhtay thy. Dimag un k zra hat k thy, aas paas waloun se bardasht nhi hua, taklifain khari kr dein. Lekin is k bawjood wo jiitay rhay or aisay jiye k dunya dekhti reh gai”. He is a flat character that remains the same till the end of the movie.

4.      Yohaan Awasthi

He is elder brother of Ishaan Awasthi and an intelligent boy who always stands first in every class and a good player of tennis. He has great love with Ishaan and grants him with gifts sometimes. It is a flat character.

5.      Maya Awasthi

She is the mother of Ishaan and a house-wife who left her job just for her children, just to pay proper attention on them. She wakes up early in the morning and remains busy throughout the day in the domestic tasks. The bonding of love between the son and the mother is remarkable.

Many other characters like Rajan Damodran, teachers and principals of schools, Nikumbh’s friend, and other kids in the building are also present in this movie but I don’t think so that they have much importance to be described. They don’t have much link with plot.

Songs:

            Songs have a strong relation with the plot of the movie. The song in the beginning of the film is "Jame Raho", its musical sequence establishes the characters of the four members of Ishaan's family; for example, the father is hardworking guy, and Yohaan is an ideal son who does all the right things. A robotic style of music is reflected by the machine-like morning routines of the mother, father, and Yohaan. But sudden change in sequence for Ishaan's portion shows that he is different from the rest.

The second song “Mera Jahan” is not much important for the plot. I did not enjoy it because it is too long, did not make sense, and merely showed ‘touristy’ visuals of Mumbai. It is played when one day he leaves the school after realizing that his mother did not sign the math failed test.

When his parents leave him in boarding school, the song plays at that moment brought tears in my eyes.

                        “Main kbhi batlata nhi, per andheray se darta hun main Maa,

                        Yun to main dikhlata nhi teri parwah krta hun main Maa,

                        Tujhay sb hai pta….. Hai na Maa…??

                        Bheerh mein yun na choro mujhy, ghr aa na paon main Maa,

                        Bhej na mujh ko door tu, yaad b tujh ko aa na paon Maa,

                        Kia itna bura hun main Maa….??”

The third song ‘Bum Bum Bole’ is also an inspirational song. In which, some sentences I like the most are;

                                    “Who says fish don’t fly..?

                                    Ever thought of it.?

                                    Does the Sun bathe every day?

                                    Or does he just wet his hair and pretend to be clean..?

                                    These stars, are they twinkling..?

                                    Or in anger, grumbling at each other?

                                    So free your mind

                                    Spread your wings

                                    Let the colours fly

                                    Come on, let’s spin new dreams!”

The song “Taare Zameen Par” follows the theme of "however much you talk about children, it's not enough." Every line throughout the song describes children, and only one repeats: "Kho Naa Jaaye Yeh / Taare Zameen Par".

Conclusion:

This movie is actually a criticism on the teachers and parents and gives some important messages for them. Parents force their ambitions onto the delicate shoulders of their children and they don’t bear the load and becomes unsuccessful and faces punishment from every side. Parents should understand that every child has its own abilities. They should acknowledge the area of interest of the children and then should provide them proper guidance.

The role of parents shown in the film is a typical role existing in our society, may be in different form. For instance most fathers believe that they are responsible for earning money and therefore the internal responsibility of the house including child development is of the wife. This is a very dangerous notion, because the children may develop an indifferent attitude towards their fathers.

Parents should be very careful and try not to make the child realise as if he/she is a burden on them, this affects the self-esteem of the child. A mother being with their children all the time is not giving quality time rather a mother who even spends less time but is of quality is much more important.

Another critical situation is presented in the film that is comparison of the two brothers, a reality existing in our society. It’s not fair. Children are very different from each other; even twins have got different abilities which need to be tackled differently. Praising one child in front of the other and stating that the other is so duffer, creates many psychological problems for the child as it stops the personality development, and affects the self-esteem which many lead to failure in life.

The role of the traditional teachers shown is an eye opener to our society. We should move away with it. In afraid of getting punishment students cram their lesson without clearing their concepts. But on the other hand, the role of new art teacher is quite different. Can we imagine this role of teachers in our schools? All teachers believe that all students have same ability in a class and teaching one student is same for all therefore whatever one student learns in the class should be learnt by all equally well. Is this a right belief? Even teachers blame students, “that stands first in the class and learns all material I give, do I teach him/her differently?”

Another thing is our educational system is that the strength of a class is 70-80 but one teacher is there to teach all of them. Is this possible to have equal attention to all students at a time? Obviously it is not.

The teacher’s attitude towards student should be friendly and nonthreatening, therefore the students are able to follow the instruction and share their problems easily.                                                       I hope that if the parents, teachers and other educationist change their mindset, thinking and also the educational system, then our society will be progressive and it will produce the diamonds that    will change the history of the world.