Sitaare Zameen Par - Deconstructing AK

Sitaare Zameen Par

Hindi - Comedy / Drama

157 min

Rent on Youtube

Prologue

For the longest time, Aamir Khan (and Tom Hanks) have been my favourite actors. AK's films used to be events — one release every two or three years, each with a certain standard. As I write this, it has been 24 years since his landmark chalk-and-cheese performances in Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai (what a year!). It pains me to trace his nosedive in the last decade… but first, the film.

The Movie

Sitaare Zameen Par (SZP) is the official remake of the Spanish hit Campeones (also remade in Hollywood as Champions). Gulshan Arora (Aamir Khan) is a successful but arrogant basketball coach. After clashing with the Delhi team’s head coach, a drunken drive lands him a choice: two years in prison or 90 days of community service. He chooses the latter, ending up coaching a basketball team of specially abled individuals.

Gulshan is a man-child, estranged from his ex-actor wife Suneeta (Genelia Deshmukh) because he does not want children (daddy issues, duh!). He lives with his mother (Dolly Ahluwalia, delightful in a short role). With the help of school warden Kartar Paaji (Gurpal Singh , we know him from Chupa Rustam, candid camera), he slowly learns to set aside his ego and actually connect with his team.

R.S. Prasanna — the man behind Kalyaana Samayal Saadham / Shubh Mangal Saavdhan — keeps the tone “Raju Hirani”-light. Much like the way he did in his first work, the portrayal of a sensitive topic - here involving specially gifted individuals is mature, humane, warmly goofy, never descending into caricaturish, ultra sensitive or turning syrupy.

Late in the film, comes a needless subplot involving Gulshan’s mother — a clear “insertion” to tick the feminism box. I am all for the topics, but it feels forced, much like a track in Aap Jaisa Koi. My plea to the new age writers - Please be bold enough to give these characters their own stories instead of the tokenism. The forced messaging only dilutes the impact and disrespects both the subject and the viewer.

Now, back to Aamir Khan - In Thugs of Hindostan, he was the most irritating thing in the film (not that speaks highly of the film. In Laal Singh Chaddha, his relentless “Hmm” sank an otherwise decent (a decade too-late) adaptation of Forrest Gump. In SZP, he is basically the 🤷 emoji — rolling eyes, shrugging, drifting through scenes. It is repetitive, boring and he seems very disinterested (and he paid for the rights of this movie!). Only a couple of sequences give us a glimpse of the AK we know.

The look continuity is off, he seems tired and jaded, and — third time running — he has  overshadowed by co-actors (including Thugs). Here,  the specially abled cast really shines. With just the three or four scenes each, they leave the kind of warm, fuzzy imprint that stays with you. Gurpal Singh and Genelia are decent.

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy deliver pleasant situational songs, though nothing close to Taare Zameen Par’s haunting soundtrack. SZP is an underdog story you’ve seen a hundred times, but it is a decent watch — thanks to its handling of the theme and definitely NOT for AK.

On AK, It reminds me of another AK down south. A sincere, hardworking actor with a charming face and a good screen presence, simply decided to stop "acting" in the early 2000s and  started coasting. Maybe it was about chasing his high octane passions, the paychecks were just too good to resist. 

All that is needed of him now is to show up and walk across screen in slow motion and mouth punch dialogues. It has been Bad and Uglier as years go past, with no signs of relenting and probably a lost cause. I hope Aamir can find one final wind as an actor we have known.

Epilogue

I rarely rent movies, but when I do, Apple TV is my gold standard for Ultra HD and multi-channel audio. I recently watched Sinners there — a visual and audio treat. SZP, is only available on YouTube. I was pleasantly blown away: top-notch AV presentation, smooth playback, no glitches at all. Hats off to the producers and YouTube for setting the bar high.