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In my boring engineering degree education, that left me proclaiming at the end that I will not set my foot inside and educational institution again for any kind of full time learning in my life, there was a brief period in Engineering management class, when there was a funny teacher who told me about “So What?” theory of Risk Analysis and Threat and opportunity management. I donno for sure if such a theory existed or was it just his invention. I didn’t care as what he told me made sense. The theory is simple. Any threat or an opportunity, the only way to weigh it is not to pur through cost or other complex heuristic calculation, just create a statement of the situation and prefix it with “So What”, you will get your priority for the problem or task. A cool way of estimating impact and weighing opportunity, all verbal and no math needed! Cool.

 Taare Zameen Par is a flawed cinematic product. It was two dissimilar halves of film making at view. It was as if some really passionate institute guy made the first half, rolled it in a can and gave it to someone in bollywood, who took up the job of completing it, with a star who has a flair for dramatic finish, but happy ending. So am I pissed off - probably yes if I had done a course in Film making in FTII or Adyar film institute. Probably if I had been a film critic who went from Russian consulate to french to German to pour through thousands of films to “Expand the knowledge”. But I happen to be a person with pea sized brain for film making and cinema and little knowledge to speak of on topis such as Mac Gaffin or Mise-en -scene (I have to look up wikipedia for these). However I have some emotional grounding and above all I am a father of a child and concerned at the mountain of educational challenge climbing which I have suffered so many traumatic moments that I had to proclaim as I said in the first para.

It is this that made me think aloud at the end of the movie,

So What if the boy’s brother is shown to be a complete winner to serve as contrast?

So what if Aamir Khan takes a detour and tries to be a little preachy?

So what if there is a competition at the end of the movie forced probably into the script to make Ishant somehow a winner in the eyes of the very same society which Ram Shankar nikumb has proved to be an unworthy judge of talent and potential?

So what if the only friend of Ishant has to be a physically challenged boy?(bracketing for emotional manipulation some woul say)

So what if Aamir Khan has to make the entry right at the interval in the most filmi (according to us) manner possible, with a song?

So what if the film’s colour seems to be different between the first and second half (isn’t the perception that film should have two halves an Indian thing owing to the lengthy nature of our movies)?

So what if the boy should become proficient in all subjects in just half a term?

Inspite of all the so whats that i could put after completing the viewing, it is a big credit to the film and its crew that the answer to all the so whats that I got from myself is a big “doesn’t matter”. Aamir khan might have got the control and credit from Amole under controversial circumstances, but I would still go ahead and congratulate the entire team of Taare Zameen Par (including the Khan who plays the messaianic Super Teacher) for this movie that had to be made for the sake of all young children who are going through motions in the name of learning and millions like me who went through the whole education system as an inescapable torture.

So What if Taare zameen par is not the official entry for any film festival, the mere fact that it has managed to take the message of children to parents like me is good enough - MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH.

So what if I dont mention cinematography and music in this post? This aint a review, just a note of appreciation to the film unit of Taare Zameen par which is truly a diamond on screen for me . Special thanks to Amol for creating the most vivid portrayal of a child in commercial cinema and for that Sivaji Ganesan of boy “Darsheel”.