Taare Zameen Par (2007)

Director:

Aamir Khan

Writers:

Amole Gupte (dialogue & screenplay)
Amole Gupte (story)

Release Date:

21 December 2007 (Canada)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Every child is special

Plot:

Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colours...

Plot Keywords:

School | Teacher | Boarding School | Art Teacher | Dog

Awards:

11 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Darsheel Safary	...	Ishaan Awasthi
Aamir Khan	...	Ram Shankar Nikumbh
Tanay Chheda	...	Rajan Damodaran
Sachet Engineer	...	Yohan Awasthi
Tisca Chopra	...	Maya Awasthi
Vipin Sharma	...	Nandkishore Awasthi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ayaan	...	Ishaan Awasthi - 10 months
Megha Bengali	...	Mrs. Karnik
Bugs Bhargava	...	Sen Sir
Alorika Chatterjee	...	Science Teacher
Gurkirtan Chauhan	...	Housemaster
Sanjay Dadich	...	Maadhoo
Madhav Datt	...	Loo Bully
Aniket Engineer	...	Young Yohan Awasthi
Krishn Gopinath	...	Satyajit Bhatkar
Munireh Guhilot	...	Dorm Parent
Ramit Gupta	...	Ranjeet
Raaj Gopal Iyer	...	George Sir
Jadav	...	Musician at Mela
Gurdeepak Kaur	...	Housemaster's Wife
Ravi Khanvilkar	...	Mr. Holkar (as Ravi Khanwelkar)
Pratima Kulkarni	...	Principal - St. Anthony's School
Lalitha Lajmi	...	Herself - Art Mela's Chief Guest
Brihan Lamba	...	Arun Poddar
Meghna Malik	...	Victoria Teacher
Girish Kumar Menon	...	Rajan's Father
Veer Mohan	...	Ishaan Awasthi - 2 yrs.
Girija Oak	...	Jabeen - Amir's Co-worker
Prashant	...	Musician at Mela
M.K. Raina	...	Principal - Boarding School
Ricky	...	Munoo Patel
Shankar Sachdev	...	Tiwari Sir
Sonali Sachdev	...	Irene Teacher
Arnav Valcha	...	Kabir Johar
Vitthal	...	Musician at Mela
Vivekanandan	...	Telephone Operator

Also Known As:

Like Stars on Earth (USA) (DVD title)
Stars on Earth (International: English title)
T.Z.P. (India: English title) (informal short title)
Taare Zameen Par: Every Child Is Special (India: Hindi title) (long title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material, brief violence and language.

Runtime:

165 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:PG | UK:PG | India:U | USA:PG | Australia:PG

Company:

Aamir Khan Productions

Trivia:

Claymation has been used in the opening credits of Taare Zameen Par for three minutes and for all the important parts of Ishaan's life. A lot of transitions that take place, like water changing into a spaceship, a fish changing into a jellyfish and so on were created by Dhimant Vyas, who had done the caricature for the movie Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001). Claymation extensively uses the kind of animation that, expectedly enough, uses clay.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the song 'Jame Raho' which portrays the busy mechanical life of the family; the wife is shown ironing a striped short for her husband, next cut, he is shown actually wearing a plain shirt instead of the just hurriedly ironed shirt.

Quotes:

Ram Shankar Nikumbh: lf you fancy racing, breed racehorses, dammit, not children.

Movie Connections:

References Empire of the Sun (1987)

Soundtrack:

Ishaan's Theme

Oxygen to Revive the Soul

A good film on children has always been much needed for Indian film-goers. And when in this moment of dearth one gets treated to a movie that simply touches the soul - needless to say - Taare Zameen Par - does just that.

Aamir Khan proves his mettle as a director. As an actor he is fabulous. The story captures a look at a middle class family who feel the younger kid (Darsheel Safary) is not a patch on the elder one who is a topper at class. The younger one is always struggling with his ABCs and spends more time out of his class rather than inside.

Its only when he is sent to boarding school with the hope that an iron fist will help him improve that he comes across art teacher (Aamir Khan) who correctly identities his problem of suffering from dyslexia and decides to unleash his creativity and make him an achiever.

To know more one should watch this movie since it has elements that everyone could relate towards while at school or boarding, and brings into focus the need for underprivileged and slow learning children to be given the chance to prove themselves with patience and love that would help them merge with mainstream education and become worthwhile contributors.

Brilliant job Aamir and your team for treating the subject with respect, honesty and flair. Darsheel Safary as the struggling kid has done total justice to his role and puts in a performance that will always be remembered.

The movie will make you cry, make you laugh, make you rejoice and come out feeling that there are some people out there who take Indian cinema several notches higher.