You’ll find a review by one of my friends (Prameela) linked here and I have to say, I agree with her. After a long time, a movie that makes sense. A movie with substance. A movie with an opinion.
I’ve always said it and it always needed to be said at a global level. Finally someone actually used an analogy that I believed in – “Indian families are Stud Farms where kids are simply toys for the gratification/amusement of families and the bidding that goes on over their races is probably way higher than the bidding that happens on horse races.”
The movie makes a good point of showing our ignorant system, our holistic quest for “marks”, and our struggle for a safety-net. Now, I’m not saying that a safety-net is bad. But there are those who want to go out there and risk it. Those who don’t care about a backup, but want to go and do something cool!
And I’ll go ahead and say something even Aamir Khan didn’t dare say explicitely. He seemed to show society as being ignorant. I’ll tell you society is far from ignorant. But pretending to be ignorant allows them to behave ignorant. In reality society is selfish. When Ishan’s (that’s the kid-with-dyslexia’s name in the movie) parents are asked to consider the possibility that Ishan may “have a psychological/psychiatric condition”, the look on their face and their attitude just brought in a surge of hatered in me for a moment. Their first reaction was, “you mean to say my son is retartded?”
Wat the hell? He has a “condition”. He’s not retarded! Moreover, both parents instant thoughts in their minds must be, “How will I show my face to my friends/family/etc.” For God’s sake! He’s your son! How will he show his face in society if you don’t give him proper support and give him self-confidence?
I do hope we see more movies on themes of how our society and so-called-self-declared “ancient culture” is destroying the childhoods of so many kids all over the country. And I’m not talking about illiterate families. I’m talkng about families in cities and metros.
Part of the reason I feel so angry about such people is perhaps I went through a VERY mild dose of what that kid must have gone through – and believe me – a movie can’t even begin to depict what he must be facing. Imagine a world where people don’t understand you because you’re thinking in a different fashion (or perhaps because you are thinking). A world with retarded people who can’t see your intelligence – and in turn calling you retarded because they can’t understand shit you say.
That poor fellow must have been so frustrated and frightened every day of his life! His parents wouldn’t even take him to a psychiatrist. They think forcing him in school would just make his problems “go away”. Who do you think is really retarded here? They’re not even ready to give him a diagnosis.
Is this our great “Indian non-materialistic culture” as opposed “those materialistic westerners” who treat their kids like human beings? Is this our great Mahabharata/Ramayan-descended society? Really? Does anyone of you really feel proud to go out and tell others just what greatness we descended from while treating our own kids like animals in our homes?
