Good intentions, poor delivery

When you name a film ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, you are setting the bar too high. As a spiritual sequel to the brilliant ‘Taare Zameen Par’ (2007), RS Prasanna’s directorial follows a similar thematic path. It challenges our idea of ‘normal’ by flipping the lens to focus on those often excluded from that category. Only this time, it’s the so-called ‘normal’ who must adapt to ‘their’ world.

The story centres on a passionate basketball coach, Gulshan Arora (Aamir Khan), who gets suspended after attacking his senior on the court after being called ‘Tingu’ (short). An upset Gulshan ends up with drunken driving charges after hitting a cop’s car. The judge, rather than putting him behind bars, assigns him community service — training a basketball team of intellectually disabled adults.

Initially reluctant, he’s inspired by his estranged wife Suneeta (Genelia Deshmukh) to own up responsibility and build a team. What follows is a familiar arc of redemption and transformation.

The story, at its core, is heartwarming. The team is a vibrant mix of personalities — the broody Hargovind (Naman Misra), flamboyant Lotus (Aayush Bhansali), green thumb Raju (Rishabh Jain), fierce Golu Khan (Simran Mangeshkar) and diligent Karim Qureshi (Samvit Desai), amongst others. The team’s journey across the country, including Chandigarh, and the coach’s gradual transformation are enjoyable.

The film’s climax avoids being entirely formulaic. Though awareness on the differently abled is on the rise, one learns another word: invisible autistic — an individual who may not exhibit the more obvious or stereotypical signs of the condition, making it less noticeable to others.

However, the film falters in execution. Prasanna, who directed ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’, is not able to evoke the Delhi feel, where the story is set. The writing is lazy. Rather than showing it, the special home’s caretaker Kartar (Gurpal Singh) has to explain it all to take the narrative forward. Aamir Khan’s appearance, reportedly modified using VFX to look younger, seems strange. His acting is weird; it’s difficult to relate to his tone-deaf persona. And when he learns, he turns too preachy too soon.

Genelia as Suneeta is unimpressive. Neither does the name ‘Suneeta’ work for her, nor does she come across as a Delhi girl. One fails to empathise with her motherhood dreams or Gulshan’s resistance to be a father. Brijendra Kala and Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari are seasoned actors. Here they are reduced to two-dimensional caricatures. The music is forgettable, the background score adds little, the editing is choppy, and at 2 hours, 39 minutes, the film overstays its welcome.

In a time when storytelling is more mindful of representation, ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ comes off as clumsy and often crass. It isn’t even original. It is an adaptation of the 2018 Spanish film ‘Campeones’, and not a very deft one at that. The emotional stakes aren’t high enough to justify the feel-good payoff.

The subplot of Gulshan’s abandonment by the father and finding the ‘father’ is turned into a joke too.

Ultimately, this is a film with good intentions but poor delivery. It tries to be inspiring but lands as an average offering — occasionally amusing, generating some guffaws. Any comparisons to ‘Taare Zameen Par’ are misplaced; this one doesn’t even come close in either the storyline, execution,

or music.

Aamir Khan carries the tag of Mr Perfectionist with pride. To see the continuity break within the first 20 minutes in the cop car scene comes as a blow.

Much like the Prime Minister’s message that plays before the film, the intent is noble, but the serving is off. The trailer captures most of the film’s high points save for a final twist that adds little and feels out of place.