Imtiaz Ali is one of the topmost rated directors in the country, not just in the art of storytelling but also etching out characters that has depth. In many of his films, you would notice the protagonist fighting within themselves and yet live a normal everyday life. That is one of the key aspects of his characters showcasing the slavery to materialism; Shahid Kapoor’s character in Jab We Met and Saif Ali Khan’s character in Love Aaj Kal are prime examples.
In his latest movie Tamasha, Imtiaz Ali again explores that very same idea but in more depth. The movie starts in Corsica, a French town where Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) is on vacation, he notices and helps a young beautiful girl Tara (Deepika Padukone) which led to a sparkling conversation resulting in a fling where both promises each other not to reveal their true identity. The whole Corsica vacation is larger than life Bollywood portrayal of love where Tara falls for Ved. On returning back to India, Tara after holding her back for quite a long time accidentally follows up on Ved. As Tara was already in love, they both started dating soon to find out that Ved is totally a boring engineer contrary to the fun-loving, creative person Tara met at Corsica. The whole movie revolves around that how a creative fun loving a passionate person is forced to take up engineering right from childhood to working as a herd of cattle in this materialistic world.
The character of Ved has got a multilayer which is shown through the memories of his childhood where he was so much mesmerised by stories of a street storyteller and passionate to be one, hence the name Tamasha. How Ved is living a false identity where he works a normal 9 to 5 job although he has got a creative beast dormant inside that is waiting to explore new boundaries. Imtiaz Ali beautifully depicts the monotony of his everyday life. On the other hand, Tara’s character has more of a supporting role to the more centric character of Ved. However, she plays an influential role in Ved’s life by triggering the self-realisation in Ved that he is not made for the life he is living but for something greater. Tara’s character has rock-solid willpower and strength on which the creative side of Ved is polished and nurtured. Ved realises this and in the end quit his job to take up the theatre. There is a scene where he narrates a story about himself to his family in a robotic voice depicting the robot he has been his entire life and that now he wants to follow up on his passion.
|