Cast: Aamir Khan, Darsheel SafaryI have to admit, one of the biggest films of the year 2007 and I couldn't be bothered to watch it! I think a mixture of subject matter and Amir Khan's odd movie choices (I'm thinking Mangal Pandey) put me off despite the rave reviews. Suffering from insomnia and bored of the masala genre I decided to pop the DVD in one evening.
The story is largely based on Ishant, a buck toothed youngster with behavioural problems. A constant thorn in his fathers side, Ishant is sent away to boarding school after one too many misdemeanours. Ishant struggles to cope with life at the school and becomes depressed and withdrawn which draws him to the attention of the new relief art teacher - Ram played by Amir Khan. Ram quickly realises that Ishant suffers from dyslexia and goes about helping the child and proving to everyone that every child is special (see how I wove in the tag line of the film there?!).
The Good: Darsheel Safary is fantastic as the much maligned Ishant, he carries the entire first half of the film on his own as we get to see inside his creative mind whilst feeling his pain when he is unable to connect with his elders and his peers.
The Bad: There were very few flaws in this films (it's not often I say that!)
Verdict: A wonderful story based on a subject that many people would not even have heard of had it not been for this film, which for a country like India is great. As I've mentioned already, the young Darsheel Safary was excellent and Aamir Khan was accomplished in his role. The thing I really liked about this was the fact that the big superstar did not try and over shadow his young co-star. Had this film not had the star power of Khan it would have flopped, can you imagine this starring Suniel Shetty or Fardeen Khan?!
A great film, a change from the usual masala fare and something you can happily watch with the family.
4.5/5
