Aamir Khan’s directorial debut ‘Taare Zameen Par’ is a winner all the way; with a lot of plus points, with the biggest being Darsheel Safary. The ten-year-old actor has performed like a veteran in the film. He has made us laugh, has made us weep buckets of tears and has captivated us with a range of expressions that leave us yearning for more. This is no child’s play to give such an impactful performance. Don’t you think Darsheel Safary should’ve won the Best Actor Filmfare Awards 2008? Although he won the nomination for the Best Male Actor, which is also for the first time in the history of Filmfare Awards that a 10-year-old child artist has been selected for such a prestigious award, he deserves more than that.

And why shouldn’t he? The boy’s performance was simply the best and giving him simply a critics award or a child actor award (as Screen had given Darsheel the Best Child Actor Award and that too he didn’t accept it) is like compartmentalizing performances into age slots.

We all remember the nine-year-old Haley Joel Osment getting an Oscar Nomination in the year 1999 for his performance in ‘Sixth Sense’. 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal bagged the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1973 for her debut in ‘Paper Moon’. She was the youngest ever winner to win an Academy Award.

Oscars are selected after a tough procedure and respects merit tremendously. Most noticeably, unlike India, there are no such categories as Best Actor in a Comic Role or Best Actor in a Negative Role in Oscars. An actor is an actor, and he or she can’t be differentiated in terms of playing a mainstay or a supporting role. How can you label Sanjay Dutt's Munnabhai act as befitting Best Comic Actor statuette for he is the main lead and so what if he is humorous in the film? You just can't discount the wide range of emotions he effortlessly displays.

Taking the similar parameter into account, Darsheel Safary's heartwarming performance as a dyslexic child in 'Taare Zameen Par' deserves the best actor tag. For when you see his performance, you don't think he is a prankster-kid break-dancing his way into your heart. Here's a gifted actor who delicately navigates the first half of the movie on his frail shoulders tugging at heartstrings and making you laugh at his laidback puddle-hopping antics.

When he tells his exasperated teacher in a matter of fact manner, “alphabets naach rahe hain” it makes everyone laugh but the lonely bewilderment on his face is hard to miss. The world outside the window of confinement appears magical and it seems he is truly gripped by the bird feeding her young ones or the continual cycles crossing a stationary water puddle.

After being beaten-n-abused for being a duffer-idiot at the boarding school, the stunned silence finds an expression as distressed Ishaan (Darsheel’s reel name in Taare Zameen Par) opens the banging door and runs feverishly on the basketball court. Even his mother is unable to prevent him then for he is a boy possessed by an overwhelming sense of being misunderstood.

Darsheel Safary has superbly portrayed the gradual journey from the sense of being a 'Nobody' to an 'Achiever' under the umbrella of care-n-attention. His finger-brush-strokes reflect an artiste within, the tears of discovering himself and the magical run towards the mentor to express gratitude carry gem-moments that stay with you long after the film ends.

In real life, Darsheel is a student of Greenlawns High School and an apple of every girl’s eye who are simply flipping over his cute rabbit toothed smile. It is not every day that you can be cuter than Shah Rukh Khan and more effective than Aamir Khan, at the same time.

We strongly feel that Darsheel ought to be acknowledged for such a great performance in Taare Zameen Par, and we do hope that in future too filmmakers would dare to think different and make something for children.