‘Sitaare Zameen Par' review: Where Aamir Khan's film fails to hit the sweet spot

An Aamir Khan film is a bit of an anomaly in the current landscape of Hindi cinema. Here's an actor whose superstar credentials have come not courtesy testosterone-heavy action spectacles but by championing narratives that espouse for a better society and celebrate the inherent goodness of mankind.Good intent, though, doesn't always translate into an equally good film. Sitaare Zameen Par is that feel-good film that tries so hard to be likeable that it begins to feel cloying and underwhelming. Few jokes fly, many forced. But by the end, it's pushing for tears.advertisementKhan has played this script before, and it's worked wonders at the box-office. There's the Rajkumar Hirani-directed 3 Idiots and PK and the Khan banner's Taare Zameen Par (TZP) and Secret Superstar. Sitaare Zameen Par is cut from the same social-moral fabric. It has even been billed as a spiritual sequel to TZP, only that it feels laborious in execution.Sitaare Zameen Par, directed by R.S. Prasanna, runs like a two-hour-plus value education class in what makes an inclusive society. That's largely to do with its single-minded focus on the coming of age of its manchild (Aamir Khan), one who refers to neuro divergent or intellectually disabled individuals as 'paagal' and 'mental'. One of his many problematic remarks: 'Team toh normal-on ki hoti hai' (Only normal people make up a team).advertisement
Thus begins a lecture in which the hero gets schooled on the lives and ways of individuals with autism and Down's syndrome, and how they are not to be seen as abnormal but normal beings who need to be treated with dignity and understanding.Khan's character of basketball coach Gulshan Arora learns so the hard and humorous way as he has to train 10 adults as a form of punishment. They all come with their own quirks. One is afraid of water and refuses to bathe; one loves to shoot with his back to the basketball hoop; one can get a bit physical in defence; one simply quits and so on and so forth.It doesn't help that Gulshan comes with a lot of baggage. There's the temper and easily irritable ways; the constant exasperation with the ways of the world suggested with hands in the air and raised eyebrows; the inferiority complex around his frame in a sport that's all about height; the unapologetic ways; daddy issues, which come in the way of him being a father himself; and most significantly, the stubbornness to not see his weaknesses.It's one of the finer facets of the film to show an anti-hero of sorts who does his best to be unlikeable. Only his protges are wise enough to tease him about it rather than put him down. The cast—Aroush Datta as Satbir, Gopi Krishnan Varma as Guddu, Vedant Sharmaa as Bantu, Naman Misra as Hargovind, Rishi Shahani as Sharmaji, Rishabh Jain as Raju, Ashish Pendse as Sunil Gupta, Samvit Desai as Karim Qureshi, Simran Mangeshkar as Golu Khan and Aayush Bhansali as Lotus—does a commendable job of holding court with Khan.advertisementThere's also no faulting or denying the earnestness and significance of the cause here. In an age where being amoral or immoral is associated with being cool, here's a film that throws adages laden with subtext. How do you fault lines such as 'Koi bahar ka nahin hota hai, sab apne hote hain' (Nobody's an outsider, we all belong together) or 'Jo baaki logon se alag hote hain unke liye ladna padta hai' (Those different than us are the ones we have to fight for).The underdog spirit of Sitaare Zameen Par carries it through albeit the matches itself come with no real drama or thrill. Wins are too easy and a real conflict is always miles away. 'Har ghar ko thoda bachpan chahiye' (Every household needs a flavour of childhood), says a character at one point, explaining the behavioural ways of the neuro divergent community.advertisementUnlike TZP, which addressed the ostracism of those afflicted with dyslexia, Sitaare Zameen Par doesn't look too much into the societal perception and unfriendliness towards the neuro divergent community, barring one fleeting sequence in which 'normal people' treat them with contempt. For a film that drills its messaging, it is strangely not too keen to provoke a strong reaction. Sitaare Zameen Par packs in plenty of takeaways but leaves one thinking—a little less education, a little more story please?Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndMust Watch

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