Director: R. S. Prasanna

Language: Hindi

Cast: Aamir Khan, Genelia D’Souza, Dolly Ahluwalia, Brijendra Kala, Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishna Varma, Samvit Desai, Vedant Sharma, Ayush Bhansali, Ashish Pendse, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, Naman Mishra, Simran Mangeshkar

The movie has a message that is delivered in a very interesting way. It is a sequel of Aamir Khan’s 2007 film Taare Zameen Par which too for the first time spoke about kids with dyslexia in a very powerful way. Sitaare Zameen Par is sweet, funny and has a very powerful and touching message. But it will definitely not move you the way Taare Zameen Par did, mostly because it isn’t an original idea.

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Here too Aamir Khan has brought about the idea of special kids in sports and the hurdles that a coach faces in dealing with them. It’s a direct remake of the English sports comedy-drama film, Campeones. Though it replicates the original’s narrative structure of the Spanish version, but it has a very Indianised set-up, understanding the Indian sentiments and the common man’s outlook towards specially challenged kids. Sitaare Zameen Par, in fact, sticks it’s neck out in this matter. It touches upon the socio-political dynamics in a beautiful way.

One thing that is strikingly good about Sitaare Zameen Par is that you don’t need to be a sports movie enthusiast to understand how the plot is going to progress. The saga starts with Gulshan Arora, a junior basketball coach getting suspended from his job for having disciplinary issues. He is a good coach, but not an evolved human being. As a punishment he gets the appointment of being a coach to Neurodivergent adults. In the beginning, he is seen unable to adjust with the kids and doesn’t value their sentiments.

When he is given the challenging job of coaching the team for the National Basketball Championship, he finds it extremely difficult to handle these bunch of kids who have different neurological issues. But it is these kids, Sunil (Ashish Pendse), Satbir (Aroush Datta), Lotus (Aayush Bhansali), Sharma Ji (Rishi Shahani), Guddu (GopiKrishnan K Verma), Raju (Rishabh Jain), Bantu (Vedant Sharma), Golu (Simran Mangeshkar), Kareem (Samvit Desai) and Hargovind (Naman Misra) who eventually teach him how to be empathetic.

Again, but did Sitaare Zameen Par evoke the same feeling, the way Taare Zameen Par did? Hell no! The performances were excellent of each of the characters, including Aamir Khan. And everybody will be able to relate to the character of Gulshan Arora (Aamir Khan) because we too have come across these regular men who find it difficult to empathise with specially challenged people. He finds it difficult to understand that ‘Saab Aapna Aapna normal hai’ (everybody is normal in their own ways). It takes time for his mindset to change.

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The first half of Sitaare Zameen Par is slow_._ The movie picks up only in the second half. The Hindi version may appear like a complete Control C and Control P of Campeones rather than an adaptation, but the film completely touches upon Indian sensibility and their outlook towards specially challenged kids and that all kids are not the same.

Talking about the performances, not just Aamir Khan, each actor, Dolly Ahluwalia, Brijendra Kala, Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishna Varma, Samvit Desai, Vedant Sharma, Ayush Bhansali, Ashish Pendse, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, Naman Mishra, and Simran Mangeshkar and Genelia Deshmukh has done their parts well. Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari, as Preeto (Gulshan’s mother) is a lady whom we can relate to well. She is a person who will go out of her way to make her son happy. And that’s the reason Gulshan too finds it difficult at the end to understand that a mother too has a life and she too want affection.

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But where does the movie falter then? It falters mostly in the storytelling bit. The movie doesn’t pierce your soul, the way Taare Zameen Par did_._ Maybe the concept was new then, doing films with a social issue, hence it was completely lapped up by the audiences. This time the audience has evolved, and our taste buds are also refined, we have seen several films on inclusivity, hence it doesn’t shake us the way Taare Zameen Par did. Having said that, by not completely running down the efforts of the makers, Sitaare Zameen Par is definitely worth your time, though cinematically, it shines only sporadically.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Sitaare Zameen Par is playing in cinemas