Taare Zameen Par

Whoa, I waited for this one for a really(really) long time.When I was in Shillong, I managed to pop in the middle of a running session on a 70mm Payal Theatre, did not get the feverish frenzy of the crowd sinking in yet.So, I went for TZP last Saturday with a bunch of Hakunas, actually Mallik's lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng pending treat.So we were 6 of us-Gowtham,Luqman, Mallik,Ram, Ramya and I.The movie was a visual treat, the animation was amazing, the vision in the movie has left me speechless.

I went for my fav actor, ended up falling in love with the novelty of direction and concept of cinema he chose.Rivetting performances, amazing camera work and divine music- you have the best cinematic offering of the year.

The jigsaw of lessons and letters, characters and numbers and the herald of class tests marks is a regular pattern in every student's life.The dirty shoes,soiled shirt and the tie losing its important place and the water bottle used for all the signified import- Ishaan swinging by the gate and giving away his test scripts to Sheroo only drives home the fact that intelligence is counter non-productive. A kid who cannot multiply 3 and 9 knows what to do with his test scripts, his one painting on war strategy speaks volumes, also his sandwich hand wash and mixing and choice of water paints!!!

My point is not a cynical one but that intelligence is not books driven but purely inclination and proper nurturing of that,someone who does not fit in the common scheme of things is given a 'duffer', 'idiot', 'dumbo' or dsylexic tag.

About the rat race that parents push their children into, what else!We fail to realise that at the end of the day we are rats only. Why does how much your child or sibling get in a set of subjects so important to get a job, why do firms and organisations fail to remove that "only 60% and above" clause from their eligibility boards???Of course, excellence should be a pursuit never a maddening mania, that your little one loses all the tenderness of what he or she stands for.

The easiest conclusion is that he or she is a problem child, is learning resistant and knowledge revulsive, great geniuses are born then.That is how we perpetrate crime also, many of these tender hearts also think along those lines and get to become brats if too much leniency is displayed. That is where our teaching methodologies fail bigtime. We do not have the maturity and wisdom to identify and tap our kids. The extreme categorisation is dangerous but most of our teachers are left with no choice, either you are a 97 % holder or an average good kid, or worst to worst a failed case.The epithets come for free.

TZP made me weep for some classmates of mine who had difficulties in some subjects and today, thanks to their grit, they are somebody-s in their respective wherever. Also, for the number of times those kids who were branded 'brats' when all you know and remember about them is their 'good morning,miss' and 'bye,bye miss', kneeled outside class and had to complete a mammoth punishment of writing their mistakes 500 times like' I will not forget to bring my maths/ homework', duly signed by the teacher. Punishment methods are novel and cruel also.The famous stick/cane is a child's biggest nightmare,I still shudder at the thought of some who could not control their bladder and another bunch who had rhino skin thick fortitude.

About the myth of boarding school being bad and whatever, I beg to differ. To each his own, a lot of us know some of our best times are those glorious days of pyjama fights and parties in the dingy dorm.Ishaan's heart wrenching 'tujhe sab hai pata meri maa' left me soaked, I don't know why.The breaking point is when one is miraculously saved from further academic abuse after you become so hardened and tough to further agony.

I especially adore the scene when lil' Ishaan prepares for the art mela and goes to his favourite place and stays still, absorbing every breath and moment for his masterpiece. The merging and comprehension of a tender soul with and about Nature left me spellbound.

Also, when the father comes to meet Nikumbh Sir to justify that the Awasthys care for their child and the art teacher aptly retorted if the mother knew about the Solomon Island story.That anecdote about how the Adivasis practise jhum cultivation, they do not cut or chop the trees.They merely stand around the unwanted tree and give their choicest curses, the tree dies on its own.So, the analogy of a child to that of a tender sapling or a tree?? We get the drift, Nikumbh Sir!!!

The importance of self importance and self worth are time honed and externally motivated.It is about time we paid attention to ourselves and what we say or do to others, intelligence is relative, the primary species are wiser and smarter than us, they do not waste time in mindless acts like what Mumbai is witness to. Actually, the normal people are a skewed lot, terribly and ghastly dyslexic, they do not see people walking on the roads, the voyeur in them triumphs and gives them the licence to lose mental fulcrum and do what they do.The literal translation of the movie's title would be 'stars on earth', I beg to differ, stars always rise above the normal and if at all, we have stars on earth, they are fallen and consumed.

Thoroughly zapped and numbed.