On October 29th, Aamir Khan was at a screening of Taare Zameen Par at the International Dyslexia Association annual meeting, which was held in Seattle. The film was shown to an audience of 200 and after Aamir took part in a question and answer session. He wrote about the experience on his blog and here are some highlights from the post titled “Sleepless in Seattle”.
Aamir, of course being the perfectionist he is, pointed out that the film was not shown in its best light in a conference room with bad acoustics and only a DVD projection. He wrote that he was very nervous once the lights went down, “As the lights dimmed I was really nervous. Here were people who know all about Dyslexia and work in the field of learning disabilities. Also, whenever I watch my work around 6 months after it has released I usually hate it, and this time was no different. As the film played out I kept squirming, wishing I could disappear into my seat.”
“And then finally the film got over and the lights came on….. to an ABSOLUTELY THUNDEROUS STANDING OVATION!!!”
Aamir was very moved by the reaction of the audience to the film, “I was so overwhelmed. Then I came forward for the Q&A and saw the tears streaming down the cheeks of the audience. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see so many people cry! Needless to say I was part of them, I cry at the drop of a hat. And here were people from all over the world who had dedicated their lives to helping children with learning difficulties. I was so glad that IDA had chosen to screen TZP at their annual conference, and that I was able to make it to Seattle. And I felt so blessed to be part of a film that touches people so deeply.”
He went on to say that it was amazing to see how the film has been received all over the world, “Everyone just loved the film and it had struck a really deep chord. In fact the reaction was exactly as it had been with audiences back home in India. It really amazes me how people from all across the world react to some films in pretty much the same way, which reaffirms the fact of how similar we all are no matter which part of the globe we come from.”
Darsheel’s performance once again was the talk of the film and the audience also praised the screenplay and music. The audience wanted to know when the film would be in theaters in the US and Aamir explained it had already been released. The members of the audience then said that the film should be re-released in the US market. They also requested that perhaps the film could be dubbed in English, “They felt, and rightly so, that they wanted their children to see the film and were afraid that the smaller kids will not be able to read the subtitles. So I’m going to look into that. At the very least the DVD release here can incorporate a dubbed version as well.”
Aamir closed the blog writing, “ Well, you can imagine that I didn’t get much sleep that night. So on the night of the 29th there was at least one person who was sleepless in Seattle, and this time it wasn’t Tom Hanks.”
