Taare Zameen Par is a movie that captured my rapture to the tee - probably in a very egotistic way. I related to both the protagonists, swooned over the treatment and the camera angles, hummed the soul stirring lyrics set to body swaying music and marveled at the story telling prowess of the perfectionist Amir Khan. It is the kind of cinema that makes you proud, that makes u want to own it and brag about it to non Indian movie goers, much like a mom enamored by the achievements of her child.
As a non screen goer, I watched the movie, parked on my living room couch and was in awe. I was in love. I was in an intense feeling of contentment. It was as if an amalgam of complex emotions was transferred to a visual in perfect form. It brought to my heart's realm the many layers of this animal called life. It's been close to a decade since I caught the movie, but there are scenes I recollect to the minutest of detail. I wished to do a full reviewing of the film through my words, but I decided to confine my verbal awe to just one song "Maa"
Before I muse about the song, I need to mention tidbits of wisdom I heard from veteran mothers. "No matter how you ace it, how perfect you are at it, you'll always look back with a regret or two" One wise mom opined. "So don't ever judge yourself too harshly, you do your best, and remember that sometimes your best isn't good enough and that's okay"
"You always play it back in your mind's eye, and always, find ways to improvise" Another mom added.
Twelve plus years of mothering 2 kids, I am already in agreement with the above sentiments. This is kind of a digress form the song, but I had to mention it, cause as a mom, I cringe to put myself in the shoes of this screen mom.
Shankar Mahadevan's classically trained vocals lend the perfect despondence to the heart ripping lyrics. There isn't a need to tell about the visuals that are married perfectly to every word in the background. The song as a whole perhaps nutshells the plight of many helpless situations we face in failing our loved ones - some situations that we are put into, and some, we put ourselves into. But the beauty isn't that at all - the beauty is the empathizing plea of the child - A child that would always, in ways beyond its scope, finds reasoning behind everything the parents put it through...It isn't until later in life, probably, that it gathers a tally of the scratches or scars that it is put through in the name of being raised well.
The choice of words, from the child confessing that he is scared of the dark but never tells - and the urge not to send him away so far that he couldn't trace back the steps to home. There's a particular line where he speaks about "Jab be khabhi papa mujhe jo zor se....." Every time I hear that line, though I know what follows, I brace myself in a pain that only a perfectly administered lyric can inflict upon you. "Chehre pe aane deta nahi, man hi man main Ghabraata hoon maa..." Woah! wait. How is it even possible to take an abstraction and give it the perfect wordage? , and then, as if that isn't enough, we see the child, opening a faucet and wiping his tears. On the count of three....Sigh!!!
I know I can go on and on about every frame and every word and every pause and still not get over the profundity this song had achieved - from the expressions of the dad in the foreground, to the brother weeping in the background and all the brimming but never flowing tears the little kid holds in his large eyes. It is sad that we as humans, sometimes, somehow fail to translate our intentions well into actions. We are so bent upon doing what we think is right for someone that we might crumple a soul in the process. We might be true in many cases but we cease to be right.
The song in a way makes me second guess every decision I make that I think I make in the best interest of a loved one. It tenderizes me, opens me to the soreness of misplaced, well meant decisions.
Like the wise mom said - "We'll always look back and wish we'd done something differently" This thought is probably a redemption we give ourselves to the our shortcomings in the name of love.
For now, I am off to another looping of the number, while I pray I'd look back with as few regrets as I can manage in this hapless emotion we call love and in all the atrocities we commit under that umbrella.
No comments:
Post a Comment