Why I liked Tare Zameen Par

Yes, it's a tear-jerker, and yes, there are a few loose or slow areas that could be usefully cut, but "Tare Zameen Par" (Little stars on Earth) is a fun movie that makes you laugh and cry.
Westerners may not understand how difficult it is in India to pay attention to learning disabilities, and of how little awareness there is of this problem. The whole story, by Amole Gupte, will jar as unbelievable. But people who have lived in India know that it's very realistic, and the film shows how parents and teachers can tragically miss the signs.
This kind of "message" film can be very tricky to pull off without sounding preachy, earnest, and boring, but director Aamir Khan has managed it by holding the melodrama and not talking down to his audience. The Bollywood format of two-and-a-half hours is way too long for this slight story, and the first half is taken up entirely by the many humiliations heaped on a spirited 9 year old boy (Darsheel Safary) by his increasingly frustrated teachers and parents. But Boston Brahmin found that the film works perfectly if you skip the entire first half and just watch the portion after the intermission! (There is one spectacular animation scene about half an hour before the intermission, where the letters from the child's notebook float clean off the page in a jumble. Don't miss that.)
The little Brahmins enjoyed scenes of the boarding school in Panchgani and its cartoonish teachers. There was not a dry eye in the living room in the end, when the little boy gets a little help and finds his groove. Highly recommended!