“Ye daulat bhi lelo, ye shoharat bhi lelo
bhale chchin lo, muzse meri jawani
magar muzko lauta do bachpan ka sawan
woh kagaz ki kashti, wo barish ka pani”

The movie reminds us of the above legendary couplets and makes our eyes moist. Everyone can identify with it. It touches to everyone’s heart and really plays the right chords of human emotions. Simply superb!

The Aamir Khan Films montage includes light, fire, water, air kind of elements in its logo which truly represent the artist’s caliber to portray any kind of subject, role, character, etc. all. Apart from being uniquely successful actor, we now have a great director and producer for us. Cheers!

The movie is about a very cute, bubbly and mischievous boy called Ishaan who is always on the wrong side of the bench, class, home, etc. due to his complete outfocus on studies and schedules. He has great trouble in learning Alphabets, Numbers, Manners, and Instructions. Due to this he is always target of his teachers, parents. As he is not good in these all, he tries to escape from it and spends time in other fun activities. He is always in his fun fantasy world. He is good in painting but painting is not life so he must join this race that all other children are participating in…. the race to gain maximum numbers, the race to be top in the sports, the race to be best in arts, race for everything.

Ishaan is unable to be part of all this and hence fails one day in school tests. He also hides the results from parents and even gets a fake absence letter written by his big brother Aahan in the name of parents. Ishaan’s father come to know this and gets very upset with him. When they go to school, they know more of his problems and zero improvement in performances year after years in school. So his father decides to send him to boarding school assuming that he is a spoiled brat reluctant study and behave well. He assumes Ishaan does that all deliberately without understanding his exact problem (the school principal has suggested that they get some medical help on this issue which angers him more).

Poor Ishaan is pushed in more trouble than earlier. He tries hard but can not catch the progress of their students. He is declared total misfit and is being poor handled by the teachers who often assume students to be Schoolwork and homework machines. This totally bursts the self respect of Ishaan and he goes into depression. He even stops painting!

Here comes Ram Shankar Nikumbh, the temporary art teacher who breaths colors, music and life into the dull routine of the schools. Everyone is happy with him. Everybody dances with him but Ishaan is aloof from all that which he used to love a lot earlier. Nikumbhsir tries to analyze his problem and goes to the root of the causes of it. He helps Ishaan get back to normal life and catch with other students. He also brings him back to his colorful world.

How he does that is a treat to watch.

The story is unique and screenplay is excellent. It portrays every small detail of every child’s school life and we instantly connect with it. The problem explained in the movie is brought to light in a very entertaining manner and when it hits to the audience, they really get engrossed in the pains of the protagonist. This has been brought to life by the labor of Amol Gupte, the writer who conceptualized all this. He is said to have witnessed all this in real life. Great job!

Aamir Khan shines as a director and nowhere have we felt that this is his debut film as director. He executes the well written script with sensitivity and subtlety. The brotherly relation  between Aahan and Ishaan, The motherly relation between Ishaan and his mother, The friendly relation between Ishaan and his new friend in boarding school, Rajan Damodaran… he establishes all these in zippy. The mischief’s of Ishaan, his pains, the inability of parents and teachers to understand children’s from their point of view are so real that we admire the observations by the director.

However, on the negative side, the film drops pace in the middle of the movie and lingers too much somewhere on the subject. The actual parts of Nikumbhsir’s efforts to get back Ishaan to normalcy are wrapped up fast. The middle part of the film drags a bit and also bores some. In some part it even feels documentarish. Apart from that he needs applause for success in extracting mind-blowing performances from the little known actors he has cast.

On the performance side, Darsheel Safary can be talent of the year. What a boy! What range of emotions he can display. Marvelous! I hope he is channelised properly in life and does something great in future for himself and this country. Today the whole country is in awe of his Ishaan. Aamir Khan is at his best as usual in the role of Numumbhsir. He makes parents understand their mistakes and get those tears out of everyone who tries to show machoness. Tisca Chopra is excellent as Ishaan’s mother. Sachet Engineer, brother is equally competent. Tanay Chheda as Rajan is good. Vipin Shara as Ishaan’s father is ok.

Music of the film is very soothing. Some songs are long lasting. Cinematography is not very good. Some times we feel that the film does not have very lavish budget except those animations and CGI imagery.

I must mention that Aamir Khan has made BEST use of CGI and animations to take the audience INTO the mind of the boy and explain the exact problem with him. I bet anyone who has seen this movie will be very careful with their children in future and will try to understand the cause of their behavior if it’s out of place.

Kudos to Aamir Khan for daring to make a film on such a subject without commercial value (from other producers’ point of view). Ode to him for executing it so skillfully that it takes everyone to be innoscent world of school days. Everyone can identify with some or the other of Ishaan’s antics which they must have did. If they haven’t…. oh! poor souls !!

BR Rating: ***1/2
BR Verdict: Very Good!
BR Advise: It must be a mandatory watch for every children, youngsters, would be parents, parents, teachers, grandparents, Educationalists, almost everyone. Go watch it, take everyone you can with you. It’s tax-free!

- Reviewed by: Prashen H. Kyawal