I learnt about dyslexia this past weekend when I went to the stinky theater nearby that screens Hindi movies.  In my humble opinion Taare Zameen Par is a good movie and it would have made entry into my top list were it not for a few complaints I have from the movie.  First of all, can it not be just a movie about the lead protagonist(Ishaan)?  Why do I have to be emotionally blackmailed about how cute the kids are how each one is gifted.  The end credits really pissed me off.  Not that I hate kids, but I hate them used just for cheap emotional appeals (and making money out of it) . Secondly, why does the character. played by Aamir Khan, have to be so good?  I mean helping the lady change baby diaper, feeding Parel G to the kid forced to work at a dhaba.  I wish average guys were like that but all those scenes makes me think that you need to be a knight in shining armor to give time and attention to a kid.  I am not saying he should have portrayed a drunkard jerk like Amitabh did in Black.  Just be normal, OK?  And then again why did he need to have dyslexia as a kid?  They say that’s how they showed he could relate to the kid?  Excuse me, I can say that every teary eye owner in that theater was relating himself with Ishaan. You don’t  have to go thru everything to appreciate them.  Empathy happens.

But then this is my blog and my opinion.  People may differ.  There are things that I really liked, I appreciate how they paid attention to the details.  For example when the kid runs away from the school and dyslexia is not explained(and you think, incorrectly, that it’s something related to low IQ) I wondered how he roams about and finds his way back.  The only thing he has problem in is crossing the road, which is later explained.  We even see him solving a huge jig saw puzzle and explaining the meaning of hindi poem quite artistically.  The other thing i really liked about this movie was that the kids played their age.  They were not mouthing dialogues of or behaving like adults.

By the way lifting the Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes in that 3X9 question was pretty lame.

The serious kid movies that really make it to the top of my list are "Masoom", "Iqbal", and "Children of Heaven"