Tamasha doesn’t underestimate audience

By Ankita Sarkar

Present scene. Cut to flashback. Cut to Future. Cut to Present.

This was ‘Tamasha’ for certain people. People who didn’t like it. But what they didn’t get was that one needs to understand the movie to like it. And not many people can understand it. It is a movie which is ahead of its time. It’s a movie which makes you think. It’s a movie which makes you question. It is a movie which stays with you long after you have left the theatre.

It was not merely a movie for me. It was my whole life compiled in couple of hours. As it was for many people. The ones who could relate to it loved the analogies it drew. The nitty-gritty’s it paid attention to. And the sequence of action.

The non linear form of story-telling which drew most of the criticism was also the one to bring in the optimum amount of praise. Imtiaz Ali is not only a director, he is a story teller. Probably one of the best story tellers the industry could ever have. And for once, he is not someone who spoon feeds the audience. He doesn’t underestimate them. He makes a film which allows the audience to think and reciprocate. Tamasha is everybody’s story. It’s a story of sacrifice, compromise, realisations and intersections. It’s a story love and loss. Of success and failure. Of possibilities and impossibilities.

But it’s no ‘Jab We Met’ or ‘Love Aaj Kal’. One needs to have the perspective to absorb the scenes .It’s simple yet intricate. And its simplicity is its biggest distinguisher. It stands out not because of its plot, but because of the brilliant execution. Although Deepika does a marvelous job it is actually Ranbir who leaves a mark. Starting from the split-personality scenes to the last scene, it is his show. And as his grandfather would say, the show must go on.

Tamasha is a visual and intellectual treat. The last scene will leave you broken in places that you didn’t know existed. You will cry and smile and leave the theatre with a happy sad feeling. And when anybody asks you to tell them your take on the movie, you will be at a loss of words. You will probably smile to yourself and tell them to watch it and take a call themselves. Only you will know how you felt and more importantly, why you felt that way. It’ll touch you somewhere deep down and leave a permanent mark in a dusty old corner of your heart which you had almost forgotten about. It’ll make you feel alive again. It’s not just a movie; it is an experience in itself.

(The writer is a student of mass communication in Bengaluru. In spare time she writes a lot on her blog. Presently it’s Haiku that she is in love with)

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