Taare Zameen Par takes Pak by storm

Peshawar (ANI): Aamir Khan starrer Bollywood film Taare Zameen Par, which revolves round an eight-year-old boy suffering from mental disorder called 'dyslexia', has attracted praise in Pakistan too, where schools and college principals have reportedly recommended to their staff to arrange the film's shows for the kids at large.

The disease is mainly characterised by difficulties with learning, how to decode the word, spell, read accurately and fluently and thus involve both doctors and teachers. The movie, which was released in India a few months ago and had won laurels from a cross-section of the society, is expected to be screened soon in the Pakistani cinemas by Geo TV.

The film is seen as a method of making the Pakistani doctors understand the nuances of the disease. "The three-hour-long movie gives our junior doctors a considerable and convenient understanding of the disease," The News quoted Dr Muhammad Hussain, Senior Registrar at Paediatrics Unit of the Lady Reading Hospital, as saying.

Regarding dyslexic individuals, he said they often had difficulty breaking the code of sound-letter association, and they might also reverse or transpose letters when writing or confuse letters with each other in childhood. It was at his recommendation that associate professor and in charge of the 'Children A' ward in LRH, Asmat Ara Khattak had colleagues watch the film.

One the other hand, schools' head are reported to have asked teachers to watch the movie, while in some cases the school administration arranged the shows. Jahangir Khan, who heads Khyber Model School, a chain of inter-provincial schools made it obligatory for the teaching staff to watch the film.

He said not every student learn the same way. "As a result, even though a teacher presents all the needed material in a lecture, he or she might need to change or supplement the way she presents that information to the student with dyslexia," he added.

Jahangir opined that the movie was of considerable help in making teachers and parents understand their children and if they happen to face such a problem, they could handle it in time.