Human psychology is both intriguing and extremely illogical. To support this hypothesis, I present to you two of my observations:

•Firstly, Man (or Woman, sexism not intended) has a carnal need to express or experience extreme emotions. Though I fail to understand any logical reasoning whatsoever behind this need, I go ahead and name it the E/EEE (Express or Experience Extreme Emotions) phenomena.

•Secondly, humans display reactional, or what I call, "reciprocal" feelings, wherein Subject A begins to experience emotions that Subject B is currently undergoing.

Combine these two weird phenomena and you will have in your hands, one of the most powerful formulae in the world: the Formula of Cinema (or, the Forci). Aamir Khan is the latest among those who have used the Formula to perfection, and as a result mint/win money/acclaim. One might ask,  “all Bollywood movies use the Formula, but why are only movies like TZP so special?” Well, my answer is that though all directors know about the formula, only those who are able to convey the emotions onscreen with enough authenticity to imbibe Reciprocal Feelings in the audience can make these 'special' movies. 

Watching Taare Zameen Par, or TZP (for you impatient folk), I couldn't avoid but notice that Mr. Khan has used this formula as the basis for every shot in the movie. The beginning of the movie is "Forci-free", starting rather slow for a commercial flick and having a little off-beat humor, but as the film progresses, we can clearly see the director put the Forci formula to maximum use. Every 5 minutes we see an actor on screen weep his or her eyes out, and as a result of the Reciprocal Feelings phenomena, the audience follow suit and weep their eyes out too. Now E/EEE comes into play and the audience having their "need" satisfied, come out and give the movie impeccable reviews and feedback. Voila! We have a critically acclaimed blockbuster in our hands. Even people who, at the end of the movie, still didn't understand what the whole dyslexia thing was about come back thoroughly satisfied and 'moved' (no idea why!). All thanks to the Forci formula.

Then again, I in no manner say that the movie is bad, or that it does not deserve the acclaim it has been receiving. As I have said before, in order to get the Forci formula to work authenticity of the emotions displayed is of utmost importance. And to achieve this we need extraordinary actors, and an even better director. The kid who played Eshan acted superbly, like most kids in cinema do, the supporting actors were excellent and Aamir Khan too was his usual self (i.e., awesome). Moreover, the movie not only has a good message but also a message that has never been tread on by Bollywood. Most importantly, it was a message that was eye-opening to many (that is, among those who actually got it). Come to think of it, it only after I saw the movie, that I realized that I too may have suffered an extremely mild form of dyslexia as a child. I had trouble recognizing the alphabets 'b' and 'd' till I was about 8 years old and had to often refer to some kind of printed material to confirm. This itself was extremely annoying to me, and I now understand what a truly dyslexic child may be undergoing.

Therefore, I completely believe that TZP is a great cinematic achievement, just for the fact that it has been able to 'influence' people, even if it is for only 2 1/2 hours and may be an extra 30 residual minutes. However, I also believe that the Forci formula had a bigger hand in the success of the movie than the actual message. Come on, Swades tried to tackle and convey a much more powerful message that is affecting our country right now, but it failed to 'influence' the people like TZP has done. Only one reason comes to my mind - it lacked Forci (was it because of the actors?). 

In the end, all I wish to say is that the Forci formula kinda’ rules a huge chunk of our daily life, be it Advertising, Marketing, Cinema, Television, Politics or even general leadership. The world of Cinema has much to teach us and this is one primary lesson we’ve definitely got to learn, so much so that it should be named Influence People 101. The first take-away from this lesson:

May the Forci be with you.