Yes… Aamir Khan has brought down lots of stars to earth. He has in fact created stars out of young and unknown people, stars out of unknown characters of Ishaan Awasthi Ramshankar Nikumbh… Yes., ‘stars are born, but can be made too’….seems to be the motto of the movie.
I am glad that Indian cinema is growing beyond the fantasy of teen-age romantic enterprises, it is growing beyond to think about the realities of crores of people, to interpret the lives of disabled, differently abled, deficiently abled!!
The captivating sequence of a train journey to a village in UP, as described in Swades…. A rage against the negligence and least respect for a champion’s life…as shown in Rang De Basanti, An intriguing experience of a physically challenged girl’s life in Black, uniting the nation against the regonal spirits, as in Chak De! India….
Bollywood has grown to these levels, and Aamir Khan’s debut as a director Tare Zameen Par has actually promissed that bollywood will grow beyond these new found values too!
Yes., from an amazing plot to packed performances by literally unknowns, from inane cuteness to the matte of knowledge….. from a childhood to parenting…. from Propheting to Teaching…TZP has it all.
Plot starts with a naughty school going third standard boy, Ishaan Awasti, turning blank and terrified when he is given a sentence to read, when he is given a sum to calculate.
He always seem to be busy reading the footsteps of fishes in the pond, nature of birds on trees, the authenticity of a wall painter, scourge of a haying sea, a drop of rain, a lash of wind…in dream world. He is amazed with these things found around him.
But he seem to have a problem when it comes to studies, He is terrified of his father’s overt expectations of him, he is afraid of the punishments meted out to him at school, he is irritated by his not-so-friendly, always crittering friends!
He is failed in third standard and the principal suspects an abnormalcy in the child. She wants him to be moved to a school teaching the mentally challenged children! Father is furious to hear this about his son.
He gets him admitted to a strict boarding school, as a punishment to the naughty and ignorant child. In the boarding school Ishaan gets dull, and he becomes a “Moooorkh ShiromaNi”, as a teacher scolds him. He loses all his versatility, he stops painting, observing the nature.
And then comes a teacher, as a temporary replacement to a retired art teacher, Ramshankar Nikumbh. Nikumbh immediately gets interested in Ishaan. He discovers that Ishaan is suffering from Dyslexia. And when neither his teachers nor his parents come to rescue the child, Nikumbh himself takes the mantle of helping the child overcome his deficiency. And that comes without making the child aware that he is not normal. Ishaan is shown to be an above average wonder kid.
The story apart, the movie gets a wonderful treatment from both the script writer and the director. Ably supported by superlative music and power packed performances, this movie takes one back to the school, back to the childhood.
Darsheel Safray and Aamir Khan puts up a great show as Ishaan and Nikumbh respectively. Sachet, Visca and Vipin as the family excell in their roles. One can feel empathised with the plot, and characters.
But what is missing here is that one can not relate to something in the movie.
No doubt that this movie is technically excellent, with its gripping scenes, and a dreamy touch. Aamir Khan has come out with a bang on debut.
But yet, you miss the aura of simplicity of Ashutosh Gowariker, melodrama of Bhansali, Shimit Aamin’s gutsy plot.
However, Aamir surpasses your expectations as a director at places, and leaves you with a feeling of could’ve done better at times. Whatever it is, here comes a new thinking director, Aamir Khan. I never liked Aamir like this, before.
I think I will give this movie an 80% marks ;)
But as I started venturing on the ring road towards Marath Halli, had a wee feeling of a longer ride, on one of the National Highways… Suddenly remembered reading a coupla days ago about a Markandeshwara betta situated near Kolar. Being ashamed of the fact that having grown in Kolar, and not knowing about this hill… I felt a chill to conquer it right away. Instantly called Mother to inform about it, and amidst her strong protests, succeeded in getting a green signal to venture further.
In no time I reached Vakkaleri village, stopeed to enquire, and to my luck found that the temple would be open, since there was a marriage that was scheduled for the day there. And I headed to the hill rightaway. Otherwise, since it was a Sunday, I had to take along the priest on my bike to worship in the temple. Mondays the temple would be open till the dusk, it seems. The Markandeshwara beTTa is just 2Kms from Vakkaleri, and a road is laid till atop the hill, steps are also there for the people who preferred walking.
Markandeshwara temple atop the Markandeshwara hill is a 15th Century Ganga monument, that stands on a beautiful hill top. It is said that the great sage Markandeya meditated to escape the strong clutches of Yama(death) with great devotion to Lord Shiva, here. A temple stands as a testimony to it.
I ran straight to Kolaramma temple, Goddess in the form of a scorpion is worshipped here, from ages unknown. A temple is constructed around the diety, that dates back to 12th Century Ganga rulers’ times. The temple was originally built by Cholas, and later enhanced by the Gangas, as the historians put it.
This is a mysterious, an interesting and a beautiful temple. As seen in the picture, outer walls has stone inscriptions that dates to 11th century of Chola times. Inside the temple, we can find some idols that are real huge in size, made by mud, some carved out of stone, all locked up in a room where a utsava murthi of the Mother is placed for darshan. There is one small cleavage in the floor of that passage where another idol of Kolaramma is placed, and they say one can hear the passing of a scorpion thru that opening. Very very mysterious in deed. Here, Along with Kolaramma, there are Sapta matrikes being worshipped.
Someshwara temple, another masterly built monument, located just about 200 mts from Kolaramma temple. This is a Vijayanagara styled monument with ranga mantapa, huge outer space, intricate stone carvings, big raja dwara(main entrance). It is a structure that dates back to 16th Centrury as identified. This is again of a strange existance since there is no other clue of Vijayanagara styled architecture, that is found in Hampi, around this place. Someshwara linga is a swayambhu made of saligrma stone.
Visited two temples, viz., Someshwara and Varasiddhi Vinayaka(popularly Kurudumale Ganesha) temples. Strangely enough, these temples were crowded, first signs of the place getting commercialised, for Good? For bad? Time will answer.
Someshwara temple in Kurudumale. This is a 17th Century Hoysala styled temple, destroyed, re built, and re-rebuilt to the final existance as of today. As written by me in one of the articles 
You can read more about Kurudumale 
We trekked Brahmabetta, a sacred hill where, it is said that here Saptharishis had performed meditation. This is standing amidst the lush green hills and wonderfully mangled mountains. As I enjoyed the cool breeze on top of this hill, a feeling of “Gods must be roaming here” erupted in me. I was touched by the calmness of the place.
I ascended an antenna which was standing alone atop the hills.
We played in the water for about 20-25 mins, I was saddened by the fact that I was unable to bathe in the flowing river water, for it was already dark and it would be risky to stay and play in water at that hour of the day. But the joy of trekking all the way, for such a long distance, in the twilight, made for it. Sadly, the snaps taken here couldn’t come neat as it was as dark as it could be. We walked back to Madikeri, taking the smallest route of over 5Kms this time. Both of us were tired with our 15 KMs trek in this Kodava land.
