Unfulfilled dreams, facades over facades, and then someone bursts the balloon and you spiral in the air in every possible direction and then fall to the ground -- exhausted, empty, and with a scar.
You all know the story of "Tamasha". Boy grows up listening stories, then realizes that stories are not reality. So, he succumbs to mediocre and blends perfectly as an average working class man. What he does in this pursuit is suffocate his childhood, his dreams, his own voice. For whom? For the one man he wanted to make proud - his father.
Enter the girl who sees the boy in his wildest true self, and promises never to meet again -- after making out. So, years and years later, the girl meets the boy but finds a Product Manager in him instead. Girl rejects Boy's proposal, and that was the needle which burst the boy's balloon. How he picks himself up forms the climax.
Imtiaz Ali has done -- as usual -- a stupendous job out of it, so much so that people went to watch the movie because they saw his name under the "Directed by" tag. Deepika Paadukone (as Tara) is gracious, and Ranbir Kapoor (as Ved) is carrying forward the acting legacy of his ancestors.
Now, myth clearing. Some say Deepika's role is understated. No, it's not. The beauty of her role is that she is omnipresent. Even when not sharing screenspace, she is clearly visible in the angst and frustration of Ved. And yes, Imtiaz devoted enough reel to show how Tara tried to overcome her urge to track down Ved in this wide wide world.
Another myth is that Ved had multiple personality disorder. I thought the same way when I saw the movie, but on closer introspection felt otherwise. How many talk to themselves in the mirror? How many go hysteric sometimes? It's not multiple personality disorder, but the suffocated self trying to vent its agony. Have you never had a day when you were thoroughly angry, yet had to gulp it all and present a pleasant countenance when meeting a guest, and only venting out your accumulated anger on a hapless folk who did something silly - like drop a glass of water.
Ved, in many ways, is like us. We run so blindly chasing dreams, and we don't know what we'll do once we catch one because the dream is not ours but someone else's. It's just that Ved is still in touch with his inner true self, and is trying to make peace with it. But, the inner self doesn't want a compromise. It wants its place back -- which is outside, free, at sync with the world.
The theme of Imtiaz Ali's movies is consistent -- be it Jab We Met, Highway, Rockstar, or Tamasha. Imtiaz aspires the protagonist to discover oneself, love oneself, prove oneself and rise above one's ashes. And A.R. Rehman lends full support to capture the theme and tantalize the listener.
The movie is an eulogy to those who brutally killed their dreams and conformed to the society. Such people are dead the minute their true self dies, they are only buried when they stop breathing.
This movie is also a tribute who braved all odds, even fought themselves to be who they wanted to be. Not everyone can be a zillionaire, but if you are content for even a minute, then that life deserves you.
This movie showed me a brutal mirror. Here's a movie which preaches what I preach and I don't follow the preaching myself. No, I'm not waiting for my Tara to burst my balloon. I'm searching for a needle to do it myself.
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