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Home > Bollywood Movie Reviews > Taare Zameen Par Excellent Acting Debut, Commendable Directorial Debut APK | December 22, 2007 Rating: ***.75 (***** Very Good, **** Good, *** Fair, ** Average, * Bad) User comments Production Designer: Mitu Tiwari-Nilofer Amrohi. Cinematography: Setu. Concept, Research & Editing: Deepa Bhatia. Costume Designer: Priyanjali Lahiri. Gaffer: Ramesh Sadrani. Hair Stylist: Avan Contractor. Key Make-up: Jogendra Gupta. Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi. Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Production Designer: Shruti Gupte. Sound Designer: Nakul Kante. Writer & Creative Director: Amole Gupte. Producer & Direction: Aamir Khan. Executive Producer: B. Shrinivas Rao. Co-Producers: Ajay Bijli-Sanjeev K. Bijli. Banner: PVR Pictures-Aamir Khan Productions. Release Date: 21st December, 2007.  Aamir Khan's directorial debut is impressive. It is a simple, straightforward story about a child with dyslexia. The theme is relevant, the child actor Darsheel Safary is excellent and the movie is a good watch. Its easy to identify or relate to the protagonist's predicament, in some way or the other. The movie slows down in the second half deliberately. The music, the narration and the two main actors-Darshan and Aamir work for the movie.Ishaan Awasthi is an imaginative, bright kid; but academics leave him miffed. Pressure at home, punishments at school, and the possibility that he might repeat the year third time in a row puts his parents in a fix. He is sent to a boarding school, where he withdraws into a shell and gives up even the one thing that sets him free viz. painting. Enter a temporary art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh. He takes a personal interest in each child, and something about the now morose and depressed Ishaan draws Ram to him. Unlike the rest of the staff, he has an open approach to everything and lets the students be. Once he understands that Ishaan has dyslexia, he steps in to help the boy; he fills the color back in the child's life. The first 30 minutes spent in establishing each character is good. Ishaan at school and home, his teachers, his achiever elder brother who dotes on him, his caring but frustrated mother, his father worried and fed-up with the kid. There are songs that are part of the narrative, very few dialogues and some humor. Once the boarding school idea comes into the picture, it takes a heart-wrenching turn, followed by a touching song that shows the child's agony away from home the first time. The flip-book showing one kid in the family moving away and out is shown repeatedly, achieving the required effect. The Art Mela is a nice idea, but has a slow start. It ends well, but by then the movie is slowly slowing down to a stop. The teachers ham a little during this Mela sequence. The last 30 minutes could have been better, for the whole competition part of it dilutes the emphasis on not needing to be in a rat race all the time. Of course, it is meant to indicate that a kid can have his own sphere of expertise and that studies are not the be-all end-all of it.  Shankar-Eshaan-Loy have done a good job with the music, with lovely lyrics by Prasoon Joshi. The picturization of the songs is wonderful, and the timing and incidents in the songs (and Darsheel's expressions) rock.It's a sincere attempt. It's kept simple throughout, with is not loud or overdone. The character is identifiable and the actor is simply superb. It's a touching movie, with pace and content that all age groups can understand, like and appreciate. The audience is evolving, and with that is mainstream cinema. TZP has given to us a good debutant director with huge potential and an eye for detail and a really good actor and SEL-Prasoon Joshi's flawless music. |