Ishaan Nandkishore Awashti is an eight year old boy who always day dreaming and dislikes school and fails every test and exam. Ran Shankar Nikumbh is an art teacher who voluntarily taught Ishaan to read and right. Maya Awashti is Ishaans mother who gave up her career to raise her children. Nandkishore Awashti Ishaan's strict, hard, dominating father. Yohaan Awashti who is Ishaan's elder brother.
The film sets the story in a typical house and school of an ordinary student in India.
Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi (Darsheel Safary) is an eight-year-old boy who dislikes school and fails every test or exam. He finds all subjects difficult, and is belittled by his teachers and classmates. But Ishaan's internal world is rich with wonders that he is unable to convey to others, magical lands filled with colour and animated animals. He is an artist whose talent is unrecognised. Ishaan's father, Nandkishore Awasthi (Vipin Sharma), is a successful executive who expects his children to excel. His mother, housewife Maya Awasthi (Tisca Chopra), is frustrated by her inability to educate her son. Ishaan's elder brother, Yohaan (Sachet Engineer), is an exemplary scholar and athlete, which Ishaan is frequently reminded of. After receiving a particularly poor academic report, Ishaan's parents send him to a boarding school. There he sinks into a state of fear and depression, despite being befriended by Rajan (Tanay Chheda), physically disabled and one of the top students in his class. Ishaan's situation changes when a new art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan), joins the school's faculty. An instructor at the Tulips School for young children with developmental disabilities, Nikumbh's teaching style is markedly different from that of his strict predecessor, and he quickly observes that Ishaan is unhappy and contributes little to class activities. He reviews Ishaan's work and concludes that his academic shortcomings are indicative of dyslexia. On his day off, Nikumbh visits Ishaan's parents and asks if he can see more of their son's work. He is stunned by the sophistication of one of Ishaan's paintings, and tells his parents that Ishaan is a bright child who processes information differently from other children in his class, but Ishaan's father is suspicious that the explanation is simply an excuse for his son's poor performance. Nikumbh demands that he read some Japanese text on a box and berates him when he cannot, giving him a glimpse into Ishaan's experience of school. Nikumbh describes dyslexia to them and explains that it is not a sign of low intelligence. He tells them he can provide extra tutoring that will help Ishaan, highlighting the boy's artistic ability evident in his many paintings and other creative works. Nikumbh subsequently brings up the topic of dyslexia in class, and offers a list of famous people who are considered dyslexic. As the students are leaving the classroom, Nikumbh asks Ishaan to remain behind and reveals to him that he too experienced the same difficulties with dyslexia. Nikumbh then visits the school's principal and obtains his permission to become I shaan's tutor. He attempts to improve Ishaan's reading and writing by using remedial techniques developed by dyslexia specialists; Ishaan soon develops an interest in language and mathematics, and his grades improve. Towards the end of the school year Nikumbh organises an art fair for the staff and students. The competition is judged by artist Lalita Lajmi. Ishaan, with his strikingly creative style, is declared the winner and Nikumbh, who paints Ishaan's portrait, the runner-up. The principal announces that Nikumbh has been hired as the school's permanent art teacher. When Ishaan's parents meet his teachers on the last day of school they are left speechless by the transformation they see in him. Overcome with emotion, Ishaan's father thanks Nikumbh. As Ishaan is getting into the car to leave with his parents, he turns around and runs toward Nikumbh. The film ends with a freeze frame shot of Nikumbh tossing Ishaan into the air .
One day of the competition, Ishaan woke up and left early that the competition has already started when he arrived at the amphitheater. The contestant had so much fun. At the end of the competition there was a tie between Ishaan and Mr. Nikumbh. However, the final decision made the Ishaan painting of a boy at the pond the winner. Ishaan's painting became the front cover of the school's yearbook while Mr. Nikumbh's painting of Ishaan was the back cover of the yearbook. Ishaan's family was so very proud of him espicially when his teacher told him how smart and talented he was, all thank to Mr. Nikumbh who paid attention to a boy who once didn't know how to read and write.
The movie tells us that we all have a dream. It was also said that all people have talents/skills but we, sometimes, do not have knowledge that we ha ve it in us. For us to discover this talents/skills or to achieve the dream we want, we need someone who can love and care for us while guiding us to the path we chose. Since in this world we live in is full of cruel, racist, and judgmental people who will, in the future, step on our courage, pride, and esteem, we need people who can pull us up when we face the world. It was shown in the movie how words can affect someone’s perspective in life, even so, with the help of the people who love us and of course yourself we can make a strong wall against those hurtful words you will here.
The film emphasized that children should not be forced into the rat race. Adults should not demand that their kids top all their subjects so that they can live out the unfulfilled ambitions of their parents. Each child is special in the sense that they have their own calling, which may or may not be in line with what their families want. I highly regard this movie for advocating the “disability perspective”: that there are a lot of special children who have given up trying to meet age-appropriate demands because of disabilities. They then resort to inappropriate behaviors because of exasperation and not because they are out to defy authority.
