Stars On Earth, Tears In My Eyes
Yes, I've been wanting to write this for quite some time. About 'Taare Zameen Par' or TZP as it's popularly called. My husband is extremely fond of movies. Especially good cinema. We experienced Aamir Khan's directorial debut in its very first week. All I can say is - What a film! My father often told me that Aamir had everything in him to become a director. Meticulous, good scripting sense and sensitivity. He had said this back in 1991! What a prediction!
Amole Gupte and Aamir Khan have given Hindi Cinema one of its best movies of all time, I would say. Yes, I have cried in many a movie. But I've sobbed only in a few. Franco Zeffirelli's 'Jesus of Nazareth', an Italian Oscar winner - 'Cinema Paradiso' , an old classic, 'Goodbye Mr. Chips' and TZP. My husband kept looking at me as I was shedding continuous tears. I felt like crying my heart out in the lobby. But somehow, I controlled myself.
I loved the way the whole 'art' bit is handled in the film. Only an artist could think of a film like this one. Thanks to Amole Gupte who himself is an extremely gifted painter. Somehow many sequences reminded me of my life. When I was young, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I would love drawing the Indian potty! Surprised? Well, that was me! My parents found my work of art extremely good. My father said I had a good sense of composition (Now what composition did he see in that shit pot?!!) Both my parents were extremely encouraging, I must say!
When I was a little older, my art teacher in school - Jignesh sir, forced me to partcipate in a drawing competition. In my very first attempt, I stood 3rd in the whole of India. I still have a small photograph of that drawing. It's so childlike. It was of a road accident. There is no sense of perspective in it but there's so much of feeling and observation. A man lying in a pool of blood under a car, a policeman standing idle on one side and an indifferent crowd just staring away at the scene. I wonder what I was thinking when I drew this piece. But now, I read many things in there and I think children are so perceptive. They do understand the faults of the society which probably even the elders don't.
When the protagonist of TZP gets hit with a chalk in the art class for not pointing out a dot on the blackboard, I was reminded of the hopeless system that still exists in our country. How can art be taught? How can you follow rules for art? Art is art. Either it's in you or it's not. It can never be forced on anyone. I loved it when Aamir Khan comes in and asks the children to paint whatever there was in their imagination. That's how art should be 'taught', if I may say so.
He reminded me of my art school professor, Santosh Kshirsagar. We had our share of 'typical' professors who had a set idea of what should be 'taught' and what should the students do. Some had even insulted me for not being a good illustrator. Why could they never understand my forte? But Santosh was god-sent. His ways of 'teaching' were so very different. He gave so much freedom of thought to all of us. He would get his own tape recorder from home for a Calligraphy class and play us music. He would then ask us to shut our eyes, feel the music and then describe it in written words.
Then he would ask us to write a poem with the words we had put down - with or without any sense. After that he asked us to create a font that would befit the poem. What a beautiful way to go about it! He was extremely creative and crazy. He was the only one who saw a spark in me. My ideas were always very different from the others in class and he would really get amused with my thoughts. What the other professors termed as 'not doable', he said 'why not'! I can never forget him ever. I think no one from our class would be able to do so. Our class was the last one he taught. He left our college the very next year. And we all felt the other students had lost out on a great teacher.
I tried to imbibe what I learnt from Santosh when I was approached by my neighbour to take art lessons with her 4 year old daughter. I agreed. But it was one mistake that I should never have made. Most parents (read Gujarati business community) understand only money, not art. What happened was that the little girl came to my place with all her drawing material. I asked her what it was that she wanted to learn to draw. She said, a car. I asked her to draw one. She resisted and kept telling me she didn't know how to. I told her to draw it the way she saw a car. I wanted to see how her imagination worked. She drew a semi-circle, put two circles at the bottom. Okay, that was her car. I said good and then asked her if her daddy's car looked the same. She said no.
That's when I started to show her the basic shape of the car. Then I began asking her if her car had windows. She said yes. I asked her to draw them out. Then the door, the steering wheel etc. She was drawing all this on her own. After the car was done, i asked her where the car would ride. She said on the road. I asked her to draw the road. I asked her if there is anything else we could add on the road. She said signal. I asked her to draw it. She did, with all the lights. Then she said she also saw a policeman on the road. I asked her to draw a policeman and she did. It was a work of a 4 year old. I didn't want to pressurise her to draw perfect human figures. I could never draw them myself. Imagination and composition were the key. She then coloured everything with felt markers and went home happily after completing the picture.
Now the next morning her mom meets me and tells me that I didn't teach her properly. That I took one full hour with her and made only one picture. That she thought the colouring her daughter did was pathetic. I was quite shocked, actually! What was this woman expecting out of a 4 year old? A Rembrandt? She said the other art teacher that she was going to would make her draw atleast 4 things in one hour. A candy, a lolly-pop, a butterfly and a flower to be precise. I told her to send her daughter to her instead. She was looking for an escape actually. The other art teacher was in another suburb and I was right next-door!
Well, I tried to explain art to her but I wasted my breath. Moral of the story was - Kutchi's understand only money. After I saw TZP, I told my husband that I hoped our dear neighbour understood what art was and how children see art. How they percieve so much more than us grown ups.
To end this post, here's a quote from one of my favourite books -
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is rather tedious for children to have to explain things to them time and again.
- From The Little Prince
Amole Gupte and Aamir Khan have given Hindi Cinema one of its best movies of all time, I would say. Yes, I have cried in many a movie. But I've sobbed only in a few. Franco Zeffirelli's 'Jesus of Nazareth', an Italian Oscar winner - 'Cinema Paradiso' , an old classic, 'Goodbye Mr. Chips' and TZP. My husband kept looking at me as I was shedding continuous tears. I felt like crying my heart out in the lobby. But somehow, I controlled myself.
I loved the way the whole 'art' bit is handled in the film. Only an artist could think of a film like this one. Thanks to Amole Gupte who himself is an extremely gifted painter. Somehow many sequences reminded me of my life. When I was young, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I would love drawing the Indian potty! Surprised? Well, that was me! My parents found my work of art extremely good. My father said I had a good sense of composition (Now what composition did he see in that shit pot?!!) Both my parents were extremely encouraging, I must say!
When I was a little older, my art teacher in school - Jignesh sir, forced me to partcipate in a drawing competition. In my very first attempt, I stood 3rd in the whole of India. I still have a small photograph of that drawing. It's so childlike. It was of a road accident. There is no sense of perspective in it but there's so much of feeling and observation. A man lying in a pool of blood under a car, a policeman standing idle on one side and an indifferent crowd just staring away at the scene. I wonder what I was thinking when I drew this piece. But now, I read many things in there and I think children are so perceptive. They do understand the faults of the society which probably even the elders don't.
When the protagonist of TZP gets hit with a chalk in the art class for not pointing out a dot on the blackboard, I was reminded of the hopeless system that still exists in our country. How can art be taught? How can you follow rules for art? Art is art. Either it's in you or it's not. It can never be forced on anyone. I loved it when Aamir Khan comes in and asks the children to paint whatever there was in their imagination. That's how art should be 'taught', if I may say so.
He reminded me of my art school professor, Santosh Kshirsagar. We had our share of 'typical' professors who had a set idea of what should be 'taught' and what should the students do. Some had even insulted me for not being a good illustrator. Why could they never understand my forte? But Santosh was god-sent. His ways of 'teaching' were so very different. He gave so much freedom of thought to all of us. He would get his own tape recorder from home for a Calligraphy class and play us music. He would then ask us to shut our eyes, feel the music and then describe it in written words.
Then he would ask us to write a poem with the words we had put down - with or without any sense. After that he asked us to create a font that would befit the poem. What a beautiful way to go about it! He was extremely creative and crazy. He was the only one who saw a spark in me. My ideas were always very different from the others in class and he would really get amused with my thoughts. What the other professors termed as 'not doable', he said 'why not'! I can never forget him ever. I think no one from our class would be able to do so. Our class was the last one he taught. He left our college the very next year. And we all felt the other students had lost out on a great teacher.
I tried to imbibe what I learnt from Santosh when I was approached by my neighbour to take art lessons with her 4 year old daughter. I agreed. But it was one mistake that I should never have made. Most parents (read Gujarati business community) understand only money, not art. What happened was that the little girl came to my place with all her drawing material. I asked her what it was that she wanted to learn to draw. She said, a car. I asked her to draw one. She resisted and kept telling me she didn't know how to. I told her to draw it the way she saw a car. I wanted to see how her imagination worked. She drew a semi-circle, put two circles at the bottom. Okay, that was her car. I said good and then asked her if her daddy's car looked the same. She said no.
That's when I started to show her the basic shape of the car. Then I began asking her if her car had windows. She said yes. I asked her to draw them out. Then the door, the steering wheel etc. She was drawing all this on her own. After the car was done, i asked her where the car would ride. She said on the road. I asked her to draw the road. I asked her if there is anything else we could add on the road. She said signal. I asked her to draw it. She did, with all the lights. Then she said she also saw a policeman on the road. I asked her to draw a policeman and she did. It was a work of a 4 year old. I didn't want to pressurise her to draw perfect human figures. I could never draw them myself. Imagination and composition were the key. She then coloured everything with felt markers and went home happily after completing the picture.
Now the next morning her mom meets me and tells me that I didn't teach her properly. That I took one full hour with her and made only one picture. That she thought the colouring her daughter did was pathetic. I was quite shocked, actually! What was this woman expecting out of a 4 year old? A Rembrandt? She said the other art teacher that she was going to would make her draw atleast 4 things in one hour. A candy, a lolly-pop, a butterfly and a flower to be precise. I told her to send her daughter to her instead. She was looking for an escape actually. The other art teacher was in another suburb and I was right next-door!
Well, I tried to explain art to her but I wasted my breath. Moral of the story was - Kutchi's understand only money. After I saw TZP, I told my husband that I hoped our dear neighbour understood what art was and how children see art. How they percieve so much more than us grown ups.
To end this post, here's a quote from one of my favourite books -
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is rather tedious for children to have to explain things to them time and again.
- From The Little Prince
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