Aamir Khan leads a heartwarming underdog tale in Sitare Zameen Par, blending empathy, sports, and social awareness with strong performances and honest storytelling.
Aamir Khan has earned for himself the sobriquet of a crusader, or an actor with a conscience. In Sitare Zameen Par, which means exactly the same as Tare Zameen Par (Taare and Sitaare are interchangeable in Hindi, both meaning Stars on Earth), the spiritual sequel to Tare Zameen Par, he chooses to focus on persons afflicted with differing conditions, Down syndrome and Autism being two of them. Weaving a plot around this premise, he clubs a bunch of affected individuals as basketball players, and dons the role of a basketball coach. From being underdogs to champions. So the platform is not that much innovative.
In New Delhi, Aamir Khan appears as Gulshan Arora an arrogant, opinionated and ill-tempered assistant basketball coach. On account of an accident, he is put on trial. Although he is condescending and egotistic, the judge, a woman, is considerate, because he is a coach and has no previous criminal record. She sentences him to three months of community service, to coach a basketball team, comprising mentally challenged players. Gulshan finds the sentence ridiculous and refuses to coach “mad people”, but is prevailed upon by his family and well-wishers to accept the sentence, for otherwise, it would mean heavy fines, or jail or both. The judge fines him Rs. 10,000 for disrespecting the dignity of the court, and, he accepts the service sentence, reluctantly.
When he arrives at the community service centre where the coaching is to take place, he is met by Kartar Singh, the manager of then place. Kartar is a charming man and uses earthy metaphors to explain complicated things, like the under-developed brains of his wards. Kartar is an ocean of knowledge, holding forth on chromosomes and genes, and using day-to-day, practical examples. To drive home the fact that ‘normal’ is a relative term, and that every person has his own ‘normal’, Kartar points out that he and Gulshan take differing amounts of sugar in their cups of tea.
Writing credits say “Written by Divy Nidhi Sharma, Based on Champions, by Javier Fesser”. Fesser (Javier Fesser Pérez de Petinto) is a Spanish film-maker who wrote, directed and edited the film Champions (Campeones), in 2018, of which Sitaare Zameen Par is an official remake. The Indian adaptation is by Sharma, who was one of the writers on the successful Lapataa (Lost) Ladies (2023), which Aamir produced and his wife, Kiran Rao, directed.
Writing is in the problem-solution style. A problem comes-up, and a solution is found. Another problem comes-up, another solution is found.
Aamir has delivered a power house performance again and his charm sustains, and you are tempted to overlook the blemishes. Is age (60, now) catching-up? Genelia Deshmukh as Suneeta is a good.
A mosaic of too many characters, the film has Dolly Ahluwalia playing Preeto in real style, Gurpal Singh as Kartar Singh, the sole person seen in the Community centre in the entire film, does full justice to his meaty role. Being a real-life Sardarjee must have helped. Brijendra Kala, as Daulat, continues to get roles that use his unconventional body structure and slurring speech to comedic effect. Deepraj Rana as Paswan, the Coach who undergoes a change of heart, is impressive. It would be unfair to assess the acting abilities of the players, without knowing if any of them were really afflicted with their mental conditions, or are actors performing, so a general high five to Aroush Datta as Satbir, Gopi Krishnan Varma as Guddu, Vedant Sharmaa as Bantu, Naman Mishra as Hargovind, Rishi Shahani as Sharmaji, Rishabh Jain as Raju, Ashish Pendse as Sunil Gupta, Samvit Desai as Karim Qureshi, Simran Mangeshkar as Golu Khan and Aayush Bhansali as Lotus. Naman has to remain poker-faced almost throughout the film, which is the death of any actor. Simran Mangeshkar is a scene stealer, what with her knees ramming opponent team-members at places where it hurts most. It is not clear why only one of the players is called by his surname, Sharmaji, while all the others are addressed by their first names.
Charu Shree Roy’s editing is smooth. Music by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy (songs) is well composed and comes with above par lyrics and singing. However, the film could do with at least one song less. Background score by Ram Sampath flows with the film, without being exceptional. Director Prasanna impresses with his grip and bonafide skills of inculcating empathy in the audience for the visual experience.
This writeup is contributed by Shavez Latif, a film enthusiast and academician by profession in India.
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