Sitaare Zameen Par Review: All Emotions, No Magic
Aamir Khan is back again in his most comfortable and loved zone with Sitaare Zameen Par. But despite its title sounding like a Taare Zameen Par sequel, does it live up to expectations? Here’s our Sitaare Zameen Par Review.
In 2007, Aamir Khan took a completely different path from the other two Khans and introduced us to Ishaan Awasthi and Ram Shankar Nikumbh. I don’t think most of us were even aware of dyslexia and its seriousness before this film. He made us realise that not all of us are the same, and our learning methods need tweaking.
Now in 2025, he is back with Sitaare Zameen Par, a spiritual sequel of TZP, which talks about intellectually disabled people. The motto? “Sabka apna apna normal hota hai..”.
Storyline
Directed by R.S. Prasanna, the film is an official remake of the Spanish film Campeones. The film is about Gulshan Arora, a failed and frustrated basketball coach. After a drink driving case, he has been advised by the court to coach a group of intellectually disabled children (Sitaare). But these children may look helpless, but they are smarter than all of us. But is Gulshan here to coach these kids, or is he the one who is being coached? It’s for you to find out at your nearest theatre.
What Works?
Performance
To my absolute surprise, the intellectually disabled actors performed like the biggest superstars in town. Every character from Sunil, Golu, Lotus, Sharmaji, Satbir, Guddu, Bantu, and Kareem are lovable and will make you, their fan. They are given lines and space to shine, and they do that with brilliance. They are not shown in the stereotyped sympathised way but are portrayed as swaggers.
Aamir has given a decent performance too, but it feels like a rip-off of his character from PK and 3 Idiots. It was good to see Genelia back on the big screen after such a long time.
Comedy
To be honest, I thought that I would come out of the theatres with a heavy heart, but to my surprise, I laughed out loud a lot! The comedy is mainly done by the special kids, and they nail it perfectly. Some scenes will remind you of TZP, where these kids teach us tough life lessons with utmost ease. They can be the next big comedians that Bollywood desperately needs.
Emotional Messages
Sitaare was designed to make us all emotional and deliver the messages. It does the same without being overly dramatic or emotional baggage. There’s a scene when Gulshan tells Suneeta that he doesn’t want kids at such a late age because they don’t want them to be autistic. Sunil, who eavesdrops on them, tells Gulshan that even he would not want his child to be like him and prefers a healthy one instead. It will surely make your eyes teary.
Apart from this, the climax, which is not what you would expect, will teach you a lot. Overall, the emotions hit hard and touch the right chords.
What Doesn’t Work?
Flat Screenplay
Since the beginning of the movie, I was hoping that there would be some unexpected and heart-wrenching lows. But surprisingly, nothing happens! The screenplay, despite having all the right ingredients, feels flat without any major ups and downs. The climax scene was somewhat unpredictable, but not something absolutely shocking. If the screenplay included some more twists and turns, then this would have been one of the best movies of 2025.
Direction
R.S. Prasanna has done a decent job in his first film, Shubh Mangal Savdhan. But sadly, he failed to expand himself in this one. Well, the emotional and comedy scenes were enjoyable, but the basketball scenes weren’t shot in the way they should have been. The game scenes are bland and flat, with huge loopholes that any cinephile will be able to spot easily. Back in TZP, Amol Gupte and Aamir did much better than Prasanna, that too almost two decades ago.
Music
The soundtrack of Taare Zameen Par is still in my playlist. It gave us amazing songs penned down by Prashoon Joshi and composed by Shankar, Ehsaan, and Loy. Sitaare sadly fails to match up with its songs. The title track is good, but none of the others will stay with you for a long time. I was sad to see that the musical trio failed to spin up magic this time.
Dialogues
Khan’s movies are known for their dialogues. Like in 3 Idiots, we had – “Jahapana, tussi great ho, taufa kabul karo……”, to Dangal – “Mhari chhoriyan chhoron se kam hain ke?”. But in SZP, we don’t get any remarkable dialogues. This truly breaks my heart.
Too Much Pointing
A great movie will never think its audience to be dumb and keep on pointing out the messages. In SZP, the writers and directors have left no stone unturned to point us towards the messages. Yes, we get it that there’s a message. But it should be subtle and left for the audience to think and find out. This overstuffing of messages and pointing out feels stretchy in the middle section and bores you.
Sitaare Zameen Par Review: Final Verdict
Sitaare Zameen Par has a lot of things that you would expect after watching the trailer. It has its heart; it’s stuffed with amazing performances and messaging, but despite all of these, it misses out on a lot. It will make you miss Ishaan Awasthi and Ram Shankar Nikumbh even more. Nevertheless, it should be enjoyed with your entire family on a weekend, as there will be no OTT release anytime soon.
Rating:
Avik
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