Imitiaz Ali is undoubtedly one of the finest filmmakers of our time. His stories are complex, chaotic and keeps you wondering for a long long time. We are so conditioned to happy endings that Rockstar made me all twitchy and troubled inside. Thankfully, Tamasha had a happy ending and I had a sigh of relief. Tamasha has had pretty polarized views and I understand why. There are many layers to the movies and personally, I loved the movie because I live with those concepts on a daily basis. I watched the movie recently and I am still soaking in the beauty of the movie.
Social Construct - The protagonist in an Imitiaz Ali movie is usually a rebel against the societal norms. Meet Ved Vardhan Sahni, a regular guy with the heart of a storyteller. He intends to be a rebel from the bottom of his heart, but his social conditioning doesn't allow him to deviate from the norm. Ved atleast knew what his true calling was so he could act upon it. The social construct is for people who are clueless as to what is their true calling. We can all critique the formula based life, but if there wasn't a formula to fall back on, what would so many people without a true calling do in life ? All of us cannot just sit and watch the grass grow till we finally get enlightened. In my opinion, social construct is ok for those who voluntarily choose it.
Being in love with the idea of another person - Why is it that the unfulfilled love stories are the most haunting ones ? 'What could have been' is a question that can make a permanent dent in your heart. That's probably because that love story is untouched by monotony. Enter Tara Maheshwari, who falls for the image projection of Ved. Post the Corsica trip, for four consecutive years, her thoughts revolved around him. You cannot know a person in a couple of days, it was her idea of Ved, her perception, her projection that she fell in love with. This is the case with so many of us. We fall in love with the imagery of the person that we create in our minds and suffer major disappointment when the person doesn't live up to our idea of him/her.
"I fall in and out of love everyday".
"With people ?"
"Mostly ideas of them. People only reveal themselves in pieces. Naturally, we fill in the gaps, the unknown, with what we want them to be. That's why love can be deceiving."
- Amanda Torroni
Life is a race - The monotony of Ved puts every salaried guy to shame. We see that this is actually what we do on a day to day life. It's so much of a routine that we seldom try and break the monotony of our fragile existence. Just like Ved, there have been days when I want to climb on top of the office table and break into a song and dance routine ! We have been raised to believe that life is a race. 90%, engineering, onsite, MBA, package, appraisal, spouse hunting, the list is endless. The good part is that Ved finally steps out of it and excels in his bizzare storytelling talent. It was a "taare Zameen par' moment for me !
Saccha Pyaar - Imitiaz ends up giving us our fair share of love dose with Tara and Ved in Corsica. Ved finds someone who shares his passion for weirdness and is equally mental. Back in India, Tara is hit by the monotony of Ved's life. Something that she wasn't expecting. yet she comes to terms with it and is all accepting of him. Her warmth will melt your heart and make you pine for love. The part where she hugs him and tries to hold onto him with the 'agar tum saath ho' song in the background is an epic Imitaz Ali moment. The romance in his movies is surreal. But then, saccha pyaar is an urban legend or the real deal is a different story altogether.
Maths padho, Engineering karo - This maths mayhem has a traumatizing childhood experience for zillions. And if you're ok with science and maths, it's like it's your destiny to pursue engineering. In case you aren't doing well in those subjects, you were born to pursue arts or maybe law. At the age of 18, we aren't equipped enough to make life altering decisions. A lucky few like Ved atleast have the clarity of thought but most of us aren't grown up enough to care. That's how you get a country bustling with engineers, most of which are unemployable.
Role Playing - I have got life lessons from close quarters which revolved around role playing. I was told that in order to succeed, you have to play a character. You cannot be yourself. You fake it till you make it. But you are not the role you're playing. With Ved, the role he's playing in his daily life becomes all consuming and he becomes the role he plays. In our lives, the role of a dutiful child, diligent employee, loving spouse, doting parent, kandha for friends etc. surpasses our individual self whereas the real deal is to discover ourselves in the chaos of role playing and shine on like Ved did in Corsica.
I am lucky to have witnessed a live interview of Imitiaz Ali. He came to Bombay to become a writer. Someone from the audience asked him why he doesn't write books instead. He replied that books are very literal. Movies give him a landscape where things can be left for interpretation. I am glad he does that in all his movies : leaves room for imagination.
Mere Ramblings, No Apologies.
Good read! My thoughts are likewise. And I completely relate to this movie. People fail to understand and that's why they criticize.
Great going Nishita. Keep it up!
:)
Very truly said..indeed agree with u..
wah wah.
I am so in love with you Nishita
I haven't watched the movie yet; but, I now have a fair idea of what it would be about after reading your write up. Anyways, here's my take on the few things you mentioned,
Social Construct - I think it's a necessary evil. Necessary because it acts as a formula for those of us who are just content living a mediocre life. There are too many of us who are kind of stuck in a rut but are, in fact, happy to be that way. I believe there would be too much chaos had there been no social construct of any kind. Remember, we have a thriving middle class in India only because we have a social construct to fall back on. Now, the reason it's evil is it kind of becomes an indelible part of your psyche once you allow it to and once you've grown to be too comfortable with it. That's why people who have outgrown the societal norms start feeling a bit suffocated due to it. In a nutshell, it's not the social construct that's making you cringe, it’s just that you have grown a lot as a person and, hence, have developed the intellect to see through it.
Being in love with the idea of another person - I think most of us have had our fair share of heart breaks because of this trait; and I think it's inevitable, considering the world we live in right now. With social media and networking, where people have unfair control on the way they want to project their image, even if that image has got nothing to do with reality, it's only natural that things as such become a commonplace. We complain about people being manipulative, but when we take a ton of selfies and only the best ones end up on Facebook, aren't we projecting a false image? Isn’t that a subtle form of manipulation? To me it surely is.
Life is a race - Indeed it is! But we need to understand that there has never been anyone else in that race expect yourself right from the word Go. You are the only one running mate; and you're running for yourself. Remember, your primary purpose in life should be to stay happy. Think of happiness as your end goal, and of anything that you think will get you there as a means goal. Your end goal is non-negotiable whereas be prepared to play around with your means goal. You’ll hopefully find your purpose during one of those plays. Once you start accepting the fact that life has never been about one-upping your peers, it becomes a surreal experience in itself. You start doing things that you truly want, giving yourself a better opportunity to find your true calling. That's why people who're a bit individualistic, self-involved almost to the point of being self-obsessed, and truly passionate are the happiest. Consider Hollywood method actors such as Daniel Day Lewis, Christian Bale, or Jared Leto as examples.
Saccha Pyaar - Nishita, I beg to differ with you when you said True Love is an urban legend, or may be its just the hopeless romantic in me. I sincerely hope that you've experienced it, if you haven't then all I can say is you need to open yourself up to more opportunities. It absolutely tears me apart when I see two people who believe in same things in life, and have same expectations out of life never meet each other, and that fairy tale romance never kicks off. Sometimes it’s the distance, sometimes it’s the timing, and in other cases it’s just a poorly made list of priorities. We just need to give people more opportunities to open themselves to us, be it a stranger or be it a friend. One important thing, never let the society tell you who is supposed make the first move. It absolutely doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things when 5 years down the line you would be having a ball with your soul mate somewhere in Corsica. And yes, I did comment about soul mates and twin flames a couple of years back, when you posted a write up on “PRE-MID LIFE CRISIS”. I am the same guy :-)
Role Playing - I believe role playing is critical to surviving in the world we live in today; but, whats even more critical is to make sure that we don't loose ourselves in the roles we play. And you've put that across in a good way. At the end, it's all about integrity. If you're not happy playing a role in life, be that of a diligent employee, loving spouse, or a friend, have the self-esteem to walk away. And more importantly, never play a role in life that'll make you question your integrity when you face yourself in the mirror after you're done, no matter how tempted you are or how promising the prospects appear.
So that's it from my side. I would love to connect with you and talk about life, but don’t know what would be a good way to do so. So, in case you consider getting in touch, shoot me an email at chandandas087@gmail.com.