Aamir Khan’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par- Every Child is Special- is a story which manages to make you see children in a different light. He handles the script and his actors with a sensitivity that is very rarely seen in these times. Finally someone has made a film which is actually ‘different’.

Darsheel Safary, plays Ishaan Awasthi, a young lad who is constantly harangued by his teachers and parents for his low grades in class. He can never pay attention in class and the words in his textbooks never make sense to him. The parents are troubled with the constant complaints and pack him off to boarding school. It takes a sensitive drawing teacher (Aamir Khan) to discover that he is dyslexic. What follows is a slow process of unlearning what you knew about your children.

Darsheel Safary is convincing as the dyslexic child, right from the moment he dips his hair into the gutter to catch tadpoles (or were they fish?). He is so gut- wrenching when he reacts to the insensitive people around him that you have to reach for your handkerchief again and again. I will not be surprised if he walks away with the Best Actor Award at this year’s Filmfare awards. Wonder how Aamir got him to emote-  Darsheel’s anger, tears, hurt- all are controlled and real- nothing is over the top.

There are scenes in the movie, which manage to stay with you long afterwards. Like the time, the teacher tries to convince the stubborn father that his child is dyslexic and the father is irked that his son is being labelled retarded. There is a wonderful admixture of animation with the story- as a sort of sneak peek into Ishaan’s head. I admired the director for treating his elder academically bright sibling with respect– any one else could have made him the villain of the piece.

The music by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy is just right for the film. ‘Bam bam bole’ is so infectious that you feel like doing a jig right there. I love the ‘Jame raho’ song which shows how much of automated assembly line products we have become (yeh omelette par hi jeete hai, yeh tonic saare peete hai!). My favourites are the title track and Maa— for their lyrics. Prasoon Joshi should get a dozen stars for writing them. I actually used most of these for a short skit I wrote for a Medical education workshop. They fitted in just beautifully.

I can go on raving about this movie, but this is one film you cannot afford to miss. I didn’t think Lagaan, Devdas or Paheli deserved to be sent for the Oscars, but if this film doesn’t get sent in the now predictable government goof-ups, I would be hugely disappointed.