Sitaare Zameen Par Movie Review: Aamir Khan is desperate to pull at your heartstrings
Sitaare Zameen Par(2.5 / 5)
In what is probably the most moving scene in Taare Zameen Par (2007), Aamir Khan’s carpe diem-teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh looks over, teary-eyed, as a bunch of neurodivergent kids in bright clothes shyly dance at their school’s annual function. The parents smile, laugh as they spot their kids, jumping around awkwardly trying to match steps. Synchronisation doesn’t matter. Even when they aren’t in a straight line, stars can still make beautiful constellations.
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Written by: Divy Nidhi Sharma
Starring: Aamir Khan, Genelia Deshmukh, Dolly Ahluwalia, Gurpal Singh and Brijendra Kala
It's a touching sequence. There is no line of dialogue, only Shankar Mahadevan’s voice soothing in the title song in the background. While watching Sitaare Zameen Par, I couldn’t help but think about this scene. How subtle and economical it was in putting its point across. The spirit of the spiritual sequel lied in it. There is a lot of strumming in Sitaare… but nothing really touches the heartstrings.
In a sharp contrast to the sensitive Ram, Aamir this time plays Gulshan Arora, an uncouth basketball coach, who gets suspended over punching his senior in the face after an argument. To top it up, drunk and dejected, he rams his car into a police van. The judge sentences him for three months of community service. He is sent to an NGO to coach a basketball team for the intellectually disabled, who are smarter and not as pitiable as he thinks.
It is an intriguing premise, bubbling with possibilities which Aamir is quick to burst. He falls again into the trappings of antics and theatrics, making the same missteps he made in Laal Singh Chaddha (2022). At instances he manages to seep through, a stray line, an expression which gives us a glimpse of a seasoned actor but mostly his head-scratching mannerisms prove to be less nostalgic and more distracting. His character Gulshan is a complex one. He lives with his mother, has separated from his wife Sunita (Genelia Deshmukh) over his unwillingness to have children, hides the trauma of being abandoned by his father and is terrified of elevators. He is a grown man who shirks responsibilities and avoids difficult conversations. But Aamir’s idea of essaying the role of a man-child is playing a child. From the start, Gulshan doesn’t feel like a character that is beyond redemption. He can be rude but he isn’t cruel. He is difficult but not doomed. While being chased by the cops after grazing their car with his, his radio blares ‘Bhaag DK Bose’, a sweet, amusing touch. But he is no Delhi bully.
Gulshan gets disarmed of his arrogance once he starts training the team. Each one of them has a quirk of his own. Aayush Bhansali’s Lotus often gets lost in his thoughts and it’s tough to get what Rishi Shahani’s Sharmaji is saying. Guddu (Gopi Krishnan Varma) is afraid to take a shower but is always eager for a hug while Ashish Pendse’s Sunil is a hypochondriac, who wears a helmet at all times. Satbir (Aroush Datta) gets obsessed with his jersey not being red (How else will his mother spot him in a match?), Rishabh Jain’s Raju talks to or rather reprimands plants and Kareem (Samvit Desai) will never face the basket while going for a free throw. Simran Mangeshkar’s Golu carries a surf board to a basketball match (what if the hotel has a pool?), Hargovind (Naman Misra) hides a secret which doesn’t let him trust coaches and Bantu (Vedant Sharma) thinks whirring a finger in his ear can actually slow down time. Everybody has their own version of normal, we are constantly told. But beyond their eccentricities, we don’t get time to live with these characters. We often see them in relation to Gulshan, what they are teaching him and us in the process. We are told about their professions, but who are they when they are not in court?
Sitaare Zameen Par has its heart in the right place but it often wears it on its sleeve. It becomes didactic, spelling out lessons to the viewer rather than letting them make a journey of their own. It is too eager to reverberate with the masses, so desperate for a group hug that it often overlooks the intimacy of just holding hands. Aamir’s Gulshan becomes a stand-in for the audience, making insensitive comments only to be schooled by the film. Gulshan’s realisations are not his own but the viewer’s. Genelia Deshmukh, as his wife Sunita, gets one scene where she talks about her failed acting career, but that too soon becomes about Gulshan, his shortcomings and insecurities. Often, it felt like characters took decisions only to later justify them to him. Every scene becomes a vehicle for carrying a morality lesson.
Aamir Khan’s films are often a dish for a thinking Indian, served with a side of empathy. They make you sit back and ponder, laugh and wonder. Leading up to Sitaare..' s release, Aamir was everywhere, opening up in podcasts, welling up in interviews and recreating memes. The conversation around the film was important and urgent. He didn’t sell the film to an OTT platform, putting all his money and trust behind theatres. A true cinema loyalist, keen to revive the big screen experience. Everybody in my screening was silently rooting for him. Maybe keeping their fingers crossed. Laughing loudly while silently knowing that the joke wasn’t that funny. You can do it. But sometimes you don’t win. Even amidst roaring cheers from an audience, the short-player, who overcame all hurdles in the past, still misses the basket.