LIKE STARS ON EARTH: A Movie Review
By: RMPINILI
Name of the Film: Like Stars on Earth (Every Child is Special)
Taare Zaamen Par (Hindi Original Title)
Producer and Director: Aamir Khan
Prominent Actors: Aamir Khan (as Ram Shankar Nikumbh)
Darsheel Safary (as Ishaan Awasthi)
Film Genre: Drama
Setting: St. Xavier School (Mumbai)
New Era High School
Tulips School for Young Children with Developmental
Disabilities
2007
The movie which is the directorial debut of Mr. Aamir Khan, an astute Indian actor and producer, has made a mark for Indian films in the international market. The film through Walt Disney has reached the international market and eventually reached the hearts of the millions of people, young and old, who had the privilege of watching the film and were moved by the simplicity of its theme and its magnificent purpose. It is a journey into India’s landscape portraying Indian culture yet not limited to India for the universality of ideas has gone beyond mere geographical boundaries.
The film revolves around the touching journey of an eight-year old boy, Ishaan, who is stricken with dyslexia. This illness is the root cause why he is performing so poorly in academics and in other things. The boy Ishaan could not be understood by his parents and teachers alike. Due to lack of training on this special case, they treat him just like any ordinary boy of his age. They have not entered into the world of the boy for they are not aware about his illness and its complications. Thus, the boy is labelled with all sorts of names like idiot, moron, lazy, crazy, stupid, and dumb among others. In short, he is being bullied in this film emotionally as well as physically. His artistic inclination is overshadowed by his inability to cope with the academic pressures and demands. The welcome twist is seen through the intercession of an artistic, patient, well-trained, vibrant art teacher who goes beyond what a teacher is supposed to do. He could understand Ishaan, because he sees himself in him. Just like Ishaan, he too was once dyslexic.
Aamir Khan who collaborated in the making of the film The Three Idiots, is a lead actor in this current film under review. Just like the style of The Three Idiots this film is a mixture of drama and comedy, with drama as the very dominant film genre. Adding on, the two films are similar in terms of musicality. Singing and dancing seem to be the trademark of Khan. Both films are lengthy. In this film, there are more prolonged close-up shots to capture the emotions of Ishaan. The length is valid since both films attempt to present detailed social issues and realities confronting parents, teachers, students, and members of the society in general.
The Auteur Theory (http://britannica.com) holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay. In other words, such fundamental visual elements as camera placement, blocking, lighting, and scene length, rather than plot line, convey the message of the film. Supporters of the Auteur Theory further contend that the most cinematically successful films will bear the unmistakable personal stamp of the director. While this is truly applicable to what Khan did in the filming of this movie, he did not limit himself to the visual elements alone. He went beyond them to include the meaning to be conveyed to the target audience. According to Andrew Sarris (http://wikipedia.org) a director must accomplish technical competence in his technique, personal style in terms of how the movie looks and feels, and its interior meaning. Francois Truffaut adds that a director promotes a consistent theme that makes his influence unmistakable in the work. Nonetheless, there were film critics who openly criticized these earlier definitions of auteur theory which tended to emphasize single authorship. In the book Film Theory and Philosophy edited by Richard Allen and Murray Smith (pages 164-167), the importance of various collaborators in film-making is emphasized. These collaborators are called artists and they all leave a signature unto the film through actorly performance, directorial trademarks, characteristic concerns of the scriptwriters, and others. As a critic, I would like to work on the director’s presence in the film, and at the same time open to the idea that any artistic work such as a film will always be a product of collaboration.
The film authentically reveals the presence of the director’s personal and creative vision. This is Aamir Khan’s directorial debut, and he was aided in the actual filming process by Amole Gupte, the original director and screenplay writer. The presence of the director (Aamir Khan) is greatly felt in the film and rightfully he is considered the author of the film in partnership with Gupte who was at his side for assistance. Several ideas from other critiques (www.wolfpackproductions.com/www.amazon.com/en.wikipedia.org) strengthen this statement.
1. Amole Gupte and Deepa Bhatia developed the story and invited Khan to work with them both as a producer and actor. Gupte gave way to Khan to assume his role as the director when Khan noticed a problem in filming the beautifully written script.
2. There was no other child that Khan wanted to play the role of Ishaan, only Darsheel Safary. He saw the vast potential of the child. In this aspect, Khan was right in asserting his decision to retain the child as the major actor.
3. He personally attended to the needs of his child actors. He wanted them to look and act naturally.
4. He hired lifeguards when he came to learn that the pond where the children were to play was 15 feet deep.
5. Khan scrapped the Claymation project when he saw it was not turning the way he wanted it to be.
6. When the designs of Ishaan’s notebooks did not meet his expectations, he scribbled the notes himself using his left hand so as to show dyslexic writing.
7. He personally attended to the re-arrangement of the music and to recording them. He worked on making them fit every given scene. Even if told that they were very lengthy, he justified his insistence on retaining the length based on their value to the film.
8. Khan applied illusory camera tricks, but eventually had to remove some of the scenes which contributed to the slowing of the pace as observed during the screen tests conducted.
The adapted ideas from other movie critiques strengthen the fact that in this film, Khan’s presence is greatly felt in every angle either as a movie director or an actor. Nonetheless, the film is greatly a product of collaboration.
The 2-hour and 45 minutes running time is too much for a movie that literally follows a very simple plot. Scenes showing Ishaan sent outside of the classroom, his exploration of the city, the solitary scenes in the boarding school, are a bit long to the extent that these scenes have become overly sentimental and painful. One will be led to shedding tears. Yet, I agree with the director that these scenes are necessary to portray Ishaan’s character. Ishaan’s portrayal of a lot of controlled emotions in several scenes is truly amazing and has justified the scenes’ length. Similarly, the scene of Khan’s entrance as the temporary art teacher is also quite long. The dancing scene is too long. However, it serves its purpose well enough in the film. It gives the viewers the opportunity to compare and contrast the lively moment with that of Ishaan’s blank reaction to it. Khan’s performance as a director is amazing; as an actor spellbinding.
The film is not choppy – only there are dull scenes and even unnecessary ones that if cut can contribute to the tautness of the plot. For example, Khan’s encounter with a little boy vendor and the very long trip that he takes from the boarding school to the house of Ishaan show some scenes that could be remedied. Even the video clips inserted side by side with the ending rolling credits are no longer necessary. So much is shown in the film that can make one imagine more about the scenes and sights in India. The clips only make the heart heavier. The ending with Ishaan tossed up high on air taken in still shot is enough to drive home the message of hope.
The schools are well-chosen. St. Xavier School is a metropolitan school with standards expected to be followed by all its students. These standards include academic excellence, neatness, discipline, and the like. The other school The New Era High School is a boarding school really typical of how we conceive a boarding school to be with a long line-up of beds, common bathrooms, and a mess hall. The pond area is specially chosen because it is where Ishaan usually communes with nature. The vastness of the horizon accentuates that desire to be understood by the big world. In addition, its stillness reveals the longing of a quiet heart. The amphitheatre is spacious and in the painting scene it shows the landscape appropriate for such an activity.
The background music is appropriate. It allows one to enter into the world of Ishaan with a mysterious feeling. It stirs up one’s emotion to a certain level which is beyond comprehension. Songs included in the major scenes were well-written as well as beautifully sang and recorded. Noteworthy is the background song for Ishaan’s mom that speaks of the longing of a child to be with his mother, who is his shield and protector. With this background music, Ishaan is shown with one big tear rolling down from his left cheek. This is one giant scene that has captured my heart. The tear so small speaks so much of how a child painfully controlled his bursting emotion. With the lines of the song: “I feel pain no more, I’m numb, All feeling has left me empty, You know everything Mama,” Ishaan’s expression aptly relates to the lines of the song. The same song is played when the family of Ishaan leaves him and he is seen just standing still near the entrance gate to the boarding school. In this scene Ishaan is showing just a blank stare on his face, indicative of his numbed feeling. These are very painful scenes intensified by the suitable background music. Khan is successful in evoking all these emotions through the music which he carefully reviewed.
Despite its long sequences of scenes and dialogues which have made the movie stretched its running time, in itself the film deserves to receive all the awards it could have. It may not have reached the Oscar’s, an award-giving body still the film is worth the time one may spend on it. I have watched the film more than once, still I felt the same painful emotions and I was able to enter into the world of the mother, the teacher, and that of Ishaan’s. The emotions painted on their faces even in silence are enough to soften one’s heart. In this film, one can easily empathize with the actors. The film has reached a proportion that has further elevated the credibility of Aamir Khan as an actor, director, and producer, and rightfully the auteur. The performance of Ishaan leaves a lasting imprint in the heart of the audience.
WORKS CITED
Book
Allen, Richard and Murray Smith, Eds. Film Theory and Philosophy. Great Britain:
Oxford University Press, 1997.
Electronic Sources
Film Critiques. Retrieved @ www.wolfpackproductions.com
What are the Philosophical themes portrayed in this movie ?
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ReplyDeleteWhat is the theme of the movie?
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