Taare Zameen Par, Om Shanti Om

Yesterday I managed to see 2 movies – one each by the 2 big Khans of Hindi cinema – Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. The only thing I like about SRK is the fact that he makes no bones about his making good money by making ordinary movies. Aamir on the other hand takes his movies seriously and more than one of them has had a paradigm changing effect on Indian movies, not just Hindi cinema. (For the skeptics, think of what QSQT, Lagaan and RDB have done).

Warning: The discussion may have some spoiler elements on TZP and OSO.

OSO serves to enforce the image I carry of SRK. It is a silly movie entertaining in parts and mostly poor editing. The movie tells the story of Om, Shanti and Om (born again), combining with it the standard elements of a masala movie, including mother & son, villain, murder, love and rebirth, while poking some good and some ill timed fun and older Hindi movies and moviestars. The best part of the movie is the end credits and it is heartwarming to see the end credits and most of the crew appearing in it, having fun. Due credit (no puns here!) to whoever came up with the idea for that. The music is quite ordinary except for 3 tracks – the title track, Dard E Disco, and Ajab si, all of which have been overplayed on FM radio all over the country. Deepika as expected is fresh and does a decent job. Her good looks should earn her atleast a couple of movies and even then she could go the Gayatri Joshi way. The music director Vishal, who also used to be the lead rocker at Pentagram essays a cameo.

You can watch OSO on DVD if you are desperate not to miss popular stuff like me.

Taare Zameen Par is a really good start to Aamir’s career as a director. It was to be expected considering all the rumours about Aamir interfering with most of his directors. One suspects that Amol Gupte had more than a good hand in the success of the movie.

TZP tells the story of a dyslexic kid, his travails and eventual triumphing over the odds. It does so, in a gentle manner using the kid for the most part. In fact, Aamir does not appear till a moment before the interval. The movie stays true to the tale, using the family of the kid to create a very realistic backdrop to its narration. The protagonist essays his role well, being as a mischievous as a 9 yr old can be and generating as much as sympathy as a kid can in the viewers’ eyes. Aamir of course looks younger than he did in RDB and looks as good as only he can. The assorted actors playing the family of the kid, especially the father, turn out great performances. A special mention to Bugs Bhargava as the English teacher. The others playing teachers in the school as well as several child artistes all deliver realistic performances.

The music is well off the beaten track. Although one feels that AR Rahman could have perhaps delivered a better track, the current track is not without its memorable moments. In particular, the track Maa reminds the Floydian buff of the heart rending Mother by the men from the Dark Side of the Moon. The title track is eminently hummable as is Mera Jahan sung by the kids with excellent picturization on the protagonist. The track Kholo Kholo which appears towards the end of the movie as the tale approaches its denouement, does a fantastic job of creating the right mood.

The cinematography is evidence of talent that can match the PC Sreerams and Rajiv Menons of the world in the future and is a vital foil to Aamir’s direction and the music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The editing needs a little improvement and there are several moments, especially ones involving the kids where the kids are obviously conscious of the camera and are looking at the camera rather than being involved in the scene. A keen editor could have snipped these in time to deliver a slicker, shorter movie but one hopes Aamir will only learn from this and move to better movies.

I think the proof of the pudding is in the fact that in the 10 pm show I went to – the audience was mostly of young couples of which the two which sat on either side of me, were in tears during the movie and got up to applaud the climax, as did a lot of other audience members.

TZP is a Must watch.