Taare Zameen Par

Stars on earth. 

In this Hindi movie directed, produced and acted by Aamir Khan, each child in this world is referred to as "Stars". That's why the title of the movie is 'Stars on Earth'. When was the last time you stargazed? I just did a few minutes ago. Have you ever noticed how beautiful the skies are at night? Accompanied and manifested by the moon and stars, it's so breathtakingly beautiful, you wouldn't want the sun to rise so soon. Just when you thought the day has turned dark and gloomy, the stars and moon shine from above. How beautiful, how special, how wonderful. It's like a gift from God.

To describe each children in this world as stars, is to tell them how special they are. Yes, each child is special. How can they not be? They are the voice of tomorrow. They are our hope for a better future. Yet, they are stamped, crushed and wrapped in boxes just like products are made in factories. The bad products or better known as "defect manufacture" will be thrown and tossed aside while the rest will be ready to go into the market. What happen to those "defect manufacture"? Are they not worthy of a second choice? No, according to stakeholders. We have so many valuable products with high quality and value, why should we care for the "defect manufacture"?

What if you are the "defect manufacture"? What if one day, somebody decides you're not good enough? You don't have a value because you have nothing to offer to the world. What happens to you? Is it the end for you? The answer is No. Thanks to Aamir Khan, we can all breathe an air of relief because the world is not just about the big race. Starting from 3 Idiots to this movie, he is educating people movie by movie, about living life to the fullest and not caring about the mainstream idea that once you fail, you lose forever. We each have our own specialty, and we each have to be proud of who we are.

Before watching this movie, I never knew about Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a reading disorder. Both children and adult can have dyslexia, depending on different reasons. Adults usually have it after a traumatic brain injury, stroke or dementia while children might have it due to genetic and environmental factors. Simply put, people with dyslexia struggle to recognise and differentiate characters, causing them difficulty to read. Once reading is interrupted, it's harder for them to catch up on other subjects as well. People who do not know about Dyslexia often label these children as 'problematic', 'not trying hard enough' and 'having attitude problem'. How can a child like you survive in the real world? You can't even pass basic Math or English. Or so they say.

I have always believed that movie is a good way of educating people. This movie speaks for me. Every child is special. No matter what grade you get in school, you are special. Don't ever label yourself based on the result on your examination paper. What is written on the paper does not define your value. You are much more valuable than the grade on the paper. Even if you get straight As, it doesn't give you a guarantee that you will survive in the real world. Not everyone is born to be an academician. Some are good in music, some excel in language. We don't have to be the same as everyone else. We are special in our own way. :)

P/s : If you haven't watched the movie, get out of your shell and watch it!       

Mrs Doubtfire

There's been endless programs in the school, so I have not been able to continue my movie night with the F5s. Thankfully, last Saturday I decided to proceed with Movie Night even though they need to study for Formative 1. I strongly believe that taking a break for two hours from studying is a needed break and healthy at times. Non-stop studying can cause depression - All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Those who wanted to take a break came and watched the movie, the rest studied in their dormitories.

Here are the questions for last week's movie night :-

1) Is it important to have both a mother and father in the house? Explain.

2) Do you like the ending of the movie? Why?

3) If you are the director of the movie, how would you end the movie?

Bear in mind that this is a movie review. The questions that I gave should be answered based on the input that you get after watching the movie. It's also good if you could answer based on your personal experience besides the forthcoming input that you get from the movie. I had a good laugh watching this with the F5s. Only 7 of them watched the movie till the end. The rest were too tired from the Nuqaba' program the whole day. It's okay, at least you guys tried :) Can't wait for the next movie night. 

My Sister's Keeper

It was Saturday night and I called all the F5 girls who are staying at the hostel to meet me in one of the classes. As soon as everyone has arrived, I told them that they will have to watch a movie every Saturday night because it would be part of their writing assignment. I'll pick a movie, make them write reviews about the movie and let them write it on their blog. Of course, they jumped after hearing the word 'movie' and 'every Saturday night'. Who wouldn't right?

So the first movie that I showed was, 'My Sister's Keeper'. The subtitle went crazy (again!) so they had to listen and rely on my explanation here and there. If they could watch it with the subtitle, I'm pretty sure many of them would have understood the story better. This movie collected 95 million worldwide. I'm not surprised cause it's a really good movie. The whole team did an amazing job. The acting was superb. It's derived from a book written by Jodi Picoult. Gotta thank her for writing an amazing book!

As someone who has experienced taking care of a family member who has cancer, this film definitely becomes very personal to me. Sometimes it's hard to talk about the pain that we have in our hearts. Watching this movie reminds me that I'm not alone. My family members are not the only ones having to say goodbye to a cancer victim. Some had to go through worse experiences. At least we only suffered for two months before he left us forever. Kate (in the movie) had leukemia since she was 6 years old. It lasted till she was 17. 11 years of surviving cancer. Now that's a real survivor.

If you're interested you could buy the dvd, I can assure you, it would be worth every cent. Or you could just watch it online. The question that I gave my students was, "Were the parents fair to all their children?". Looking forward to read their feedback, movie review and answer to that question. See y'all in the next post!