SCHOOL

OF
ELECTR
ONICS
AND
COMM
UNICATI
ON
Vedika Srivastava
P-2 PB-08

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Vedika Srivastava
P-2 PB-08

Taare Zameen Par

A very well-known and acknowledged movie, directed by actor Aamir Khan,

‘Taare Zameen Par’ was released in the year 2007. The celebrated movie is
based on a particular syndrome of ‘Learning-Disability’ and the concept of
‘inclusion’ in schools as well as in our society also. Dyslexia is the central topic
and theme of the film. This film raises awareness of the issue of dyslexia, and
prompt more open discussions among parents, schools, activists, and
policymakers. It showcases the struggles faced by disabled and slow learners in
understanding a concept, dealing with day-to-day life problems, starting from
tying shoelaces to understanding the knowledge concepts in a classroom. It also
considers the problems faced by teachers in handling those children with special
needs, difficulty confronted by their parents in understanding their child
properly, problems and troubles faced by friends, peer groups, near and dear
ones in accepting the child wholeheartedly. Also, this movie is an attempt to
understand the psychology behind non- acceptance of such special children in
the society by their parents, teachers, friends and all others. The movie gives a
message to the viewers for developing an understanding with special children
and to realize that ‘Every child is special’.

The main characters of this movie are the 8-year-old dyslexic child Ishaan
Awasthi and the art teacher at the boarding school Ram Shankar Nikumbh.
Ishaan Awasthi suffered from the learning disorder, which affect the area of
brain that process language and involved difficulty in reading due to problems
in identification of speech sounds, learning and in building the relationship
between letters and words. This movie portrays the distressed life of such
children both at home and school in which they could not cope up with their
daily life in early childhood. But a right teacher, could finally discover and
reveal the hidden art talent in the child and motivate, Ram Shankar Nikumbh, to
build inner confidence, to open in the peers, to demonstrate the artistic creativity
in front of others and what not. A teachers’ role can be life changing for such
students.

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Vedika Srivastava
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It is not very difficult to recognize that the child is a slow learner and needs
appropriate guidance, time, support as well as resources to learn at his/her own
pace. We do not accept such children despite having talents and desires, we
neglect those children. As portrayed in this movie also, a powerful imagination
is destroyed in the classroom. The kind of paintings he draws reflects the
imagination, creativity his mind has. However, the continuous poking by his
parents, teachers, peers made him troublemaker as well as lead to
discouragement of his emotions, his feelings, his desires, wishes and dreams.

The movie is an epic example of the harsh realities in the real world. The
characters like conventional and stereotyped father, caring mother,
understanding sibling, callous teacher, mocking peers and motivating art teacher
can be found in our daily lives also. It reflected parental negligence more
profoundly, which resulted in isolation and seclusion of the child. It highlighted
the barriers faced by special children in schools, homes and adjustment
problems in the society. This movie marked a turning point in the evolution of
the character of the child in Hindi cinema. Setting a rare example, Taare
Zameen Par turned out to be a strong socio-political statement on ignorance
among parents, teachers and educators about little-known disabilities their
children suffer from such as dyslexia.

The movie is an eye- opener to all those parents who neglect their children with
special needs due to their monotonous life, for teachers to empathize with
children and give them more love, care, affection, for teacher educators and
policy makers to make stringent training programs for pre- service and in-
service teachers to deal with children more efficiently, for society to accept
every child like the same way.

Taare Zameen par was a heart touching movie. This movie teaches a lesson to
the guardians, peers as well as teachers how to behave their child or student,
behaving abnormal or very different from the behavior of common children. It
is important to facilitate the development of their unique artistic and other
abilities to its full capacity rather than to overemphasize on the correction of the

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Vedika Srivastava
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disturbed coded symbol operations. We should support and behave with them
with love, we should not label them this demoralizes them.

The pace of the first half gives you time to think of normal children who are just
not academically inclined. The resolution in the second half, however, comes by
too quickly compared to the trauma shown earlier.

Ishaan’s character spoke a lot even with a very few dialogues during the entire
movie. His expressions and body language were amazing. Aamir Khan's entry
into the movie seemed over-the-top and forced, mainly because it was in
absolute contrast with the tone of the movie thus far. The other characters serve
their purpose as caricatures - stereotypical father, loving mother, understanding
sibling, ruthless teacher, and jeering peers.

The songs were beautifully fitted and connected with the audience. No matter
who or what the focus of the camera is, the love it feels towards its subjects
shows in each frame. And, in turn, you fall in love with what you see on screen.
Compositions, lighting, angles, colors all work successfully together to engross
you and very often to enchant you.

Overall, the movie was exciting from start to end depicting all the pain a child
with disability must face in his/her life. After all, not every child with disability
gets a teacher like Nikhumb.

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