I couldn't help thinking about the movie I watched last weekend. The title of the movie was "Apna Asmaan". A beautiful movie which revolves around an autistic child Budhi and his parents. The struggles which the child's parents face about social stigma especially in our society where forget about people with learning disabilities even normal children are put through the grind. Budhi is good @ drawing sketches but his parents rarely encourage him. His mom who was good @ Mathematics during her academic career has big dreams to see her son doing well in the same subject. Budhi's sketches only tends to irritate her.

Parents put enormous pressure on the kids so that they can become an Engineer or Doctor and always compare them to their neighourhood kids who do well. No wonder then, when the Board exams or SSC results are out you find the children commiting suicide. Not everyone wants to become an Engineer or Doctor, they too have their dreams & aspirations. I have been through the stress and I know what the pressure is all about.

There was this incident when I was on my way home from Mumbai. One of my co-passengers asked me as to what I was doing in Mumbai and my academic background. I told him that I am a commerce graduate. The expression on his face suddenly changed to that of disdain. He proudly started speaking about his two sons. One is studying @ IIT, Mumbai and the other is preparing to leave for the U.S to pursue his Masters. This gentleman was a bit surprised as to how did I get a break in IT without an engineering degree under my belt...:)

Anyways coming back to the movie Irrfan Khan and Shobana who are good actors in their own right don't leave the audience disappointed. They portray the anguish of the parents quite well. Rajat kapoor as "Dr.Sen" also does well. The real star of the movie is the young kid .He gives a stellar performance as the autistic child who undergoes a transformation into a "Mathemagician" thanks to a novel drug "Brain Booster". Dr.Sen is right when he says "Budhi is not disabled but he's differently abled". The high point in the movie is even in the midst of gloom there are comic situations now and then which helps to break the stranglehold.

It's puzzling as to why such a movie which has even won a prize @ one of the film festivals abroad didn't get an encouraging response from the audience. The theatre was barely half full. True the movie didn't have an Shahrukh Khan or hit songs etc. to pull the audience however it had a good script and excellent performances and most important as the film critic Nikhat Kazmi has written in his film review in Times of India (TOI), it had a topical and relevant theme.

After a couple of busy days work has come back to normal levels.