Reviewing the message of Taare Zameen Par

Last night, I saw Taare Zameen Par – recently released movie by director-actor Aamir Khan. This touchy movie was about a dyslexic boy, whose parents failed to recognize his disability and thought that his reading and writing problems are due to his un-attentive and irresponsible attitude. The movie’s message was that the parents should not force their kids to outperform because every kid is not the same. Great! Great message! I would love to see the tough parents transforming into undemanding ones after seeing this movie. I would love to see the parents becoming just facilitators and allow their kids to develop on their own. But, I am afraid that this wouldn’t be the case.

When I was a kid, I was forced by my parents to study hard. I was even beaten by them many times for not paying attention towards studies. NGOs working against child abuse – please don’t fold your sleeves, I love my parents! Coming back to me, I was an average student who wasn’t even good at arts (like the kid in movie was) or sports. What would have been my career if my parents wouldn’t have compelled me to study? I am too scared to find an answer.

I am not justifying the pressure which parents put on their kids. I am justifying that this pressure couldn’t be avoided by parent’s initiatives. In India, parents know that in this extremely competitive environment, if their kid is the only one who is not performing, the kid is going to suffer in future. Game theory applies here. This thought makes them a demanding parent and they expose their children to atrocities like homework, tuition classes, no fun time etc. This problem of “tremendous pressure on kids to perform” is a problem of Indian educational system. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, system problems cannot be cracked easily by individual’s initiatives. We need policy based initiatives. To get rid of the excessive burden on kids, we need a new educational system where there is only learning and no competition till a particular age. NCERT and other educational bodies recognized this problem much before the movie was released and are coming up with innovative solutions.

For the time being, I would say that the parents would appreciate this movie and the movie’s message from their heart but would forget it soon after. Given the increasing competition in Bollywood, who knows, Mr Aamir Khan would also forget the movie’s message when it will be about his kid’s career as an actor in Bollywood.