I am fascinated by the movies that Aamir Khan chooses to make. There is a missionary zeal about him to make the world a better place by spurring people to action. I guess most of us forget everything as soon as we exit the movie hall but if after those two and a half hours if one person walks out of the hall and changes his life, he must consider his job well done. That the movie makes money is secondary.
It is easy to say that the movie is about a dyslexia but it goes the root of the human paranoia with all things different .We dont like people who worship different Gods, whose melanin levels are different, who speak a different language or basically who is unlike us. Ishaan played brilliantly by Darsheel is a dyslexic child who does not even know that he is different. Because he is unable to read and write , he has a poor academic record, his teachers dislike him, his father loves him lesser ( at least that is what the child thinks) and he always feels inferior and useless. The one thing he does wonderfully well is painting.
Understanding a child is such a challenge and the people around him are not upto it. Few today in our materialistic world really have the time for it. We are so engrossed with the rat race for success. Irrespective of how well we do in that race , His parents want their child to be ahead in that futile race. Teachers want to keep their horses ahead and schools want their 100% pass records.
But some like Ishaan's mother accepts him and it is her love is what keeps him sane.
However when the teachers insinuate that he could be mentally retarded, his father give up responsibility by promptly sending him to a boarding school. In order to avoid social stigma, they deprive the very love he needed the most. The manner in which he rages from within, withers and almost dies from inside is painful to watch.
Aamir ,the temporary art teacher being dyslexic himself understands him and saves him and prevents this beautiful stars from imploding.
There were shades in the movie which I could relate to myself. I had short sight from class two but I feared the stigma of wearing a spectacle. No one in my family wears spectacles how could I? Being tall I was a last bencher and I never saw the board. However I was terrible at outdoor sports, never took catches in cricker and was quickly labelled a bookworm. It was a fearful secret of mine throughout my childhood and frustrated me, ate me from within. That my mom loved me so much and helped me channelize my energies towards studies and reading and top my classes to help me to feel happy about myself. She played chess and carrom and was my only friend. When I finally spilled the beans and got glasses in class IX I realised how silly I had been . I saw the world and its immense beauty for the first time.
The movie asks many questions of me. Did I have it in you to be a good father to my child - the patience, the understanding, the courage? Can I teach my child to reach out for her dreams and find herself? Can I be strong and love her for what she is when she falls on the ground struck down by reality?
And most important of all, can I make an example of my own life? Something which will tell her what is love all about?
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