Taare Zameen Par

As I walked out of the theater, I could see grown men with moist eyes. There were no comments like- 'Aamir Khan stole the show' or 'The title song was good' or for that matter I did not hear any comments at all..

In a strange way there was a general acceptance that - a raw nerve was touched here. The movie demanded a minute's silence to digest the message it tried to convey.

It's a fast paced world.. men are breaking all sorts of records left, right and center. Man running 100m below 9.5s looks a real possibility, 20-20 cricket seems to be catching the craze waves, computers a commonplace now to accomplish our tasks at that lightening speed, 24hrs a day sometimes seem a little less for the work we try to accomplish in a day...

Speed, in short.. has become the name of game. Where is the place for those who do not fit into this world? What happens to the chap who finishes last in the class, where will a non-Engineer/Doctor/MBA be in today's world? Does one have hope if he does not perform academically? Does academic failure in short mean failure in life? Does everyone needs to run in the same track, is it necessary to always take the beaten path? Can one live life on the parallel paths along the mainstream...?

These are some of the questions that the film tries to pose.

In the midst of it all, one message come out strongly- 'It is OK to be different'. World not only requires the fast paced professionals who have become one-too-many, but also those who can bring in fresh ideas, remind us that it is still a beautiful world to live. We also require artists, poets, paintists, actors, musicians...

The story is reminiscent of Dickens caricaturization of Tom Sawer or David Copperfield. The difference seems to be more mental than the physical variety depicted in these classics of Victorian age.

All in all... without getting philosophical, let me just say- this movie is simply too good. This is just the right kind of wake up call for all of us.

As W H Davies has commented in the poem 'Leisure'-
"WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?"

Ciao till next time...Harsha