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TZP is a film about a 10 year old boy, Ishaan Awasthi, with Dyslexia (a reading, writing disorder). Ishaan struggles to live up to the conventional expectations of his middle class family but a concerned art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh, played by Aamir Khan, notices Ishaan’s problem and helps him out.

The film is absolutely delightful till the intermission. The only thing stopping you from running out and congratulating Aamir and his team is that you do not want to miss a minute of this film. And, then the film starts going downhill. The second half is a let down.

After the intermission, the art teacher (Aamir Khan), arrives on the scene. He takes over the film. In the second half, everyone else is reduced to being either a caricature or a mute spectator. Teachers, Ishaan’s mom, brother, dad, his friends – no one has any meaningful contribution; even Ishaan has barely anything to do except to merely look at this art teacher with  awe.

Here is my take. TZP is clearly a good film with good production values, music, dialogues, acting and direction but a mediocre story. In screenwriting terms, the Setup (Act 1) is great, Conflict (Act 2) is nice and Resolution (Act 3) is poor.

Wouldn’t the following be more engaging and entertaining?

Leaving most of the first half as it is, till just BEFORE Ishaan is sent to boarding school, here is the rest.

Aamir shows up as a replacement to Ishaan’s class teacher in his school in Bombay. Aamir also is an
amateur artist and a hard core Art buff. Moreover, Aamir also has an interesting history, in that he was unjustly fired from his previous school. Although Aamir is not an Art teacher, he is pretty good at
painting. He used to help other students with it and students loved him. The official art teacher of that school felt challenged and envious and so he plots against Aamir and has him fired.

With a few days of being the Ishaan’s class teacher, he notices that Ishaan displays the exact same symptoms as one of his students from his previous school. This puzzles him and leads him to investigate and discover the learning disorder, Dyslexia. He decides to research it in detail including discussions with doctors and all.

Meanwhile, there is an art competition to identify a student who would represent this school. Ishaan happily takes part in this Art competition.

Meanwhile Ishaan’s father is so fed up with Ishaan that he decides to send Ishaan to a boarding school at the end of the semester. Ishaan’s mother and brother mutely accept the decision even though they disagree. Ishaan’s protests fall on deaf ears. Ishaan is very apprehensive and sad.

The next day, the results of the art competition are announced and surprisingly, Ishaan wins the art competition and gets to represent the school. But Ishaan is not happy. Aamir notices this and learns from Ishaan about the decision to send him to boarding school. Aamir intervenes and requests Ishaan’s father to wait till the end of the year. Ishaan’s father, stereotypically, does not care for Ishaan’s artistic talents and does not relent.

But the inter school competition is before the end of the semester and Aamir actively starts helping Ishaan with painting in preparation for the Inter-school competition. This is when Aamir gets really close to Ishaan. He realizes that Ishaan is not that bad even at other subjects when questioned verbally. And, Ishaan loves to learn about painting and look at the pictures of paintings in the art books in Aamir’s formidable art library at his home.

Then cut to the state level inter school competition. The school with the most points from 4 events (elocution, math, science & art) makes it to the national competition. After the first Science and Elocution events, in the Art competition, Ishaan ends up coming 4th. Now their team will have to come 1st in the last event, the Math Quiz in order to go to the Nationals.

Meanwhile Ishaan, Aamir and others are looking at the paintings of the winners. Ishaan is very disappointed and Aamir tries to console him. Ishaan mumbles that he did not know one could make a copy. Aamir is surprised and inquires. Ishaan tells him that the painting that won the 1st place was something he had seen in one of the books at Aamir’s house.

Just when the last event, the “Math Quiz” is about to start. Ishaan and Aamir head to his house to confirm that Ishaan is right. They find the book and painting Ishaan was referring to. They rush back and turn in the evidence to the Art judges. Judges say they will look into it. Ishaan and Aamir then go to last moments of Math Quiz in which Ishaan’s brother is also there. They come 2nd in the Math Quiz and are very disappointed because they will not be going to the National competition. But when the final results are announced, Ishaan comes 3rd in the Art competition and so their team makes it to the Nationals. BTW, on a side note, the student who is disqualified says that he was asked to copy by the Art teacher from Aamir’s previous school. Sweet revenge for Aamir!!

During the competition, Ishaan wins many friends and well-wishers. Just after the celebration over the
school’s win, the half yearly results come out. Ishaan does miserably in all the subjects. Ishaan’s
father is livid. He wants to send Ishaan to boarding school right away. This is when we have the wonderful and dramatic scene from TZP where Aamir tells Ishaan’s parent about dyslexia and so on. Ishaan’s dad does not buy any of that and simply decides to send Ishaan to boarding school but this time Mom and brother stand up to him and stand up for Ishaan. The father has to back down and agrees to wait for the end of the year.

Meanwhile, there is another hitch. To qualify for the national competition; all the team members must pass qualifying tests in any 3 subjects. The problem is Ishaan would almost certainly fail. Aamir steps in, Aamir ropes in Ishaan’s brother and Ishaan’s mother to help Ishaan do well in the qualifying tests.

Meanwhile, Aamir convinces the organizers to allow Ishaan’s tests be taken verbally since he describes what Dyslexia is to them. Later, Ishaan’s team mates also step in to help Ishaan, then other teachers step in and together with Ishaan’s mom, brother and Aamir, all help Ishaan prepare for the qualifying tests for the tournament. The day of the test, everyone is tense, but Ishaan manages to pass and everybody is happy and relieved.

Now we are at the climax - the national competition. By now, Ishaan’s father has also come around to
accepting Ishaan for who he is and is rooting for Ishaan and his team.  Ishaan has to stand 2nd in the
Art event for his school to win. Ishaan stands first in the art competition and his team wins.

And there you have a film with many dramatic, comedic, suspenseful scenes and happy ending.  And Aamir gets to play the low key leader like in Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke.

Several nice graphs - Ishaan transitions to a more-adjusted kid, dynamics within Ishaan’s family change with the dominating and rather chauvinistic dad ending up being more sensitive of his wife’s wishes and appreciative his sons’ talents. Ishaan’s friends are more understanding & teachers are more sensitive.

Doesn’t this sound like more fun?

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