Why is an educated middle class family in India unaware that it has a dyslexic child, wonders a critic reviewing Aamir Khan's "Taare Zameen Par".

Showering praise on Khan for "putting his money" in tackling a difficult subject, K.N. Vijayan wrote in The New Straits Times that it is always difficult to get a child to act but the actor-director had got the best out of Darsheel Safary.

While appreciating the "wonderful acting all around", he said Vipin Sharma, who played the child's father, was outstanding.

"Aamir Khan put up his money to make this movie, to highlight the talents dyslexic children have, and to emphasise the need to provide them with special help with their studies.

"This is not a documentary but a touching story of how one such special person, Ishaan (Darsheel Safary) is discovered to suffer from dyslexia and how his talents are nurtured because of an understanding teacher Ram (Aamir Khan)," the reviewer said.

"It is hard to believe this is the first film he directed," Vijayan said of the debutant director.

"I liked the way Aamir handles the inability of many Indian fathers to touch or hug their children (dads feel they won't be able to discipline their children if they get too close to them)," he observed.

The critic found only a small crowd at a cineplex in Kuala Lumpur watching the film "probably because many are not even aware it is playing there".