Tamasha (2015)

Not gonna lie, I was left quite confused after finishing Tamasha, which I have observed to be one of the most polarising movies made in the past couple of years. At first I thought it was a decent enough movie and couldn't understand either extreme of the emotions it produced in people, but the more I thought about it and discussed with my movie partners, the more I lowkey sided with the section of the people who seem to hate it with a passion. Emphasis on the "lowkey" please- I do think it has some interesting parts which were well done, but on the whole, it just is not what it pretends to be. Which reminds me of the one word that can sum up this movie and the way it's made- "pretentious". I guess I could end this "review" with that word but of course I have opinions and must continue. 

Let me start off this analysis on a positive note and talk about the things I liked the most. First of all, this movie finally pushed me into becoming a full-time crazen (if you don't know who a crazen is, kindly consider yourself very lucky to not have been exposed to the murky waters of stan twitter) aka a Deepika Padukone stan, because she is something else in this movie. Her role was so shoddily written (more on this later), and yet, I'm going to be thinking about Tara Maheshwari for a long time, and only because of the grace and depth that Deepu brings to this practically one-dimensional character. Plus, she looks gorgeous, pulling off outfits that would look like gunny sacks on mere mortals, so there's that. Secondly, A.R. Rahman never disappoints. I'm sure that half of the people who claim to like this movie have been convinced by the soundtrack that they like it. "Agar Tum Saath Ho" is THE emo jam, and so is "Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai"- Rahman sir literally said buy 1 get 1 free scheme and you know what, I love him more for that.

Thirdly, I related a lot to the scenes with Ranbir and his father. That pretty much sums up my relationship with my parents (both of them, not just my father), and my heart sank when I realised what was going on, because it was too real. That's honestly the only storyline in the movie that I have any respect for, and I wish that they had paid way more attention to it than the other sub-plots, because it could have been a masterpiece then. And also if they had written the female members of his family in a realistic way. Imtiaz Ali interact with more women challenge!!

Now let's get to why I dislike this movie and do not understand all the praise it gets from "cinephiles". To start off with Deepika again- I absolutely detest how her character ended up being nothing but a prop to Ved's (Ranbir Kapoor) growth and actualisation of potential. I was left fuming at how Tara was wasted, and how she deserved a better movie of her own. Also, a big fat "huh?" at how we were led to believe that she would have a substantial arc, considering how detailed and good the "Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai" music video was. Such a shame. 

Another thing that I did not vibe with at all was how conveniently all the conflicts in the movie seemed to be resolved. Ved's conflicts, of course, because we never even knew what kind of conflicts Tara or his family members might be going through. But anyway, did the founder of Ibtidah, the theatre society of Hindu College, DU, actually believe that becoming an active part of the theatre world would magically ease things up for Ved, who was clearly in some severe psychological distress, and needed professional intervention? I don't even want to get into the whole "woman saves man from his own trauma because this movie is written by a man" trope because whatever needed to be said has been said a thousand times already and if people still don't get it, then I doubt that my 2 cents will help them get out of the Imtiaz Ali-induced daze. There was zero subtlety anyway, about why Tara was there in the movie, so not going to waste my braincells on yet another explanation. 

Finally, let us come to the ending- we know that Ved has been healed and he's thriving as a storyteller (again, pretentious max) but what is Tara doing, apart from beaming fondly as Ved's show comes to an end and he acknowledges her as his muse? Is she still into her business? Does she have a life outside of that man-child or is she still being a therapist-substitute? Can't believe Imtiaz introduced her in such a fascinating way only to completely discard her trajectory in favour of Ved's. That just makes me hate the movie more, thinking about how good it could have been, had it only given equal attention to Tara. But no, how else will we give weird life goals to all "nice responsible guys :)" everywhere? Or glorify depending on a partner for all your self-actualisation goals? FFS, men extinction when???

In conclusion, if you're one of those people who still haven't watched Tamasha and if you're wondering whether you should watch it after all, let me give you free advice- don't. Go (re/)watch Piku instead.