Aamir Khan is kinda like the Sean Penn of India. A bit of a “bad boy outsider” who makes excellent, worthwhile films and is a very talented actor and all-round consummate professional. He’s perhaps a better dancer, and gets in less fights, but otherwise I think the comparison is apt.

Aamir is already one of the top two or three male movie stars in India, and he may one day be as famous as Sean Penn in the west, too. His 2007 film Taare Zameen Par was recently picked up by Disney for distribution in North America, and retitled Like Stars on Earth. It’s Disney’s first Hindi language release and will be for sale as a 3-disc DVD/CD set on January 12, 2010.

School is designed for the average student

Before I tell you what I think of this movie, I want to tell you something about myself. I taught myself to read and write before I started school. Obsessed with the Arabian Nights, I painted huge murals on my walls of genies coming out of bottles and turreted maharajah’s palaces. I was reading the novels of Charles Dickens when I was about 10. And although I scored top marks at school, and accelerated once (doing grades 3 and 4 in the same year) and skipped once (grade 8), I had a hard time emotionally. I missed about a third of each school year (I just couldn’t bear to go), and quit school the very day I turned 16. In other words, I did not fit the mold. I was not the type of child that schools cater to.

Perhaps I would have had a better time if I went to an arts school or a gifted children’s program. But as it was, I struggled in school not because I was slow, but because I was bright, sensitive and creative.

Like Stars on Earth is about a bright, sensitive and creative boy who has dyslexia — but who has never been diagnosed. His parents think he has a behaviour problem and his father is especially hard on him. The first half of the film is hard to watch as we see Ishaan struggle, alone, and watch as his spirit is slowly crushed. Eventually his parents send him to a boarding school, which would be the worst place on earth for him except that a temporary art teacher arrives — played by Aamir Khan — who soon realizes the boy has dyslexia, and that he is a gifted artist.

This movie may at times be a bit sentimental, but it largely rings true and it made me cry — really cry — several times. Aamir of course is always wonderful, and Darsheel Safary, who plays Ishaan, is exceptional.

And although it is a compelling, moving and entertaining film to watch, the best thing about it is the message — that every child is unique, gifted and deserving of love, care, patience and validation. It’s a really inspiring movie and I hope it’s a huge success in North America, not for the sake of Aamir’s career, but for the sake of bright, sensitive, creative children everywhere.