Movie: Sitaare Zameen Par

A few days ago, I went for a movie. It must be at least two years since I last went out for a film. 

It was for Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth).

Though this film is similar to his own 2007 film Taare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth), the story is very different. This is an official remake of 2018 Spanish movie Champions.

The central theme is: differently abled people are no less intelligent or less smart than any one of us. In fact, the so-called “normal” people have a lot to learn from the so-called “disabled”.

Gulshan, played by Aamir Khan, is a school basketball coach. He is very good at his game but not as a person. He is full of ego, short-tempered, doesn't know how to get on with people, etc.

He gets into trouble during a tournament and the case reaches the court which asks him to do community service in lieu of a jail term. 

His job: train a basketball team of young adults who are intellectually challenged.

At first, he doesn’t take it seriously, but slowly, the team changes his perspective. 

And he is reformed.

In the end at one point he says: "I am not their coach, they are my coach."

One message from the film was "Everyone has their own kind of normal".

This is a sensitive topic, and Aamir Khan has handled it very well. 

Though there a fair amount of comedy thrown in, characters' personalities are shown with the seriousness and respect they deserve. They are at no point shown as helpless. 

In real life too

It's not the theme alone that makes this movie purposeful, it's also the fact that many of the actors live with disabilities in real life. 

For example, Gopi Krishnan Varma, who plays the role of 'Guddu', has Down Syndrome. He has previously acted in a Malayalam movie, Thirike (2021). 

So too, is Simran Mangeshkar who plays the role of 'Golu'.

Samvit Desai, who is 'Kareem' in the movie, is neurodivergent. Rishi Sahani and Ayush Bansali too are intellectually challenged.

Genelia Deshmukh plays the role of Aamir's wife Sunita, and comes across well in the limited screen time she gets.

What the film seemed to lack

On the downside, I thought the transformation of Gulshan, the coach, didn't come across as powerfully as it should have. There were several points to it, but it didn't look like he was a changed person.

Also, as the movie progressed, many of the sequences in the initial stages seemed predictable, and I seriously wondered where was the story heading to, and how it would end. 

But, I must say, the ending was good, and it packed and delivered the social message quite well.

I’d give a rating of 4 out of 5. 

Overall, a simple, emotional story with an important social message told with warmth and respect.