Review 'Tamasha': One for the heart

IF YOU ARE mired in compulsive mediocrity in work and life, if you are in love or have fallen out of love, it is likely that you will find something inspiring in Tamasha.
But the ability to inspire, to make you want to 'go follow your dreams,' is not what makes Tamasha an accomplished work by Imtiaz Ali, one of the most promising directors of our time.
Tamasha is so un-Bollywood in its rhythm and pace so if you are looking for mindless entertainment over some three-odd hours, you might find yourself twisting and turning in your seat.
You might feel, 'can't the guy just go and follow his dreams?' or you will hear yourself saying, 'does Imtiaz have anything new to say?'
You are right on both counts. In re-telling a coming of age drama, where the man finds his 'purpose,' there is really nothing new. Imtiaz has been telling the same story in different guises in all his earlier films.
And, as is the stamp of Imtiaz films, the perspective is very male, it is very 'Imtiaz,' if you may, where his heroes, unconventional and dreamy, are mired in melancholy, caught between obligation and unfulfilled dreams.
Imtiaz does not therefore recourse to swift story-telling in Tamasha either; he takes his sweet time in establishing the mundane life of his hero Ved (Ranbir Kapoor), and repeats it - almost exasperating you.
But with the support of some spectacular, mood-based cinematography by Ravi Varman, a classy sound design (you can hear the silence, indeed) and powerful original score by AR Rahman, Imtiaz builds a believable world that many might be able to relate to.
Tamasha is multi-textured; it celebrates the stamp of individuality that many in the new generation aspires to achieve, and what many in the older generations gave up to fulfil whatever obligations they felt were right.
The conflict in Tamasha is internal and Imtiaz sets it out brilliantly in the first ten minutes, employing everything from theatre to story-telling for effect. The 'setting the scene' of Tamasha is perhaps one of the finest to come in Bollywood of late.
Imtiaz also presents that egalitarian view on story-telling and the similarities in the epics to bring a universal idiom to Tamasha. He then goes out and makes it very Indian in due course, sadly, but the heart of the film is tightly in place.
As Ved, a boy who lives in his stories, and is forced to toe the family diktat of 'math, engineering and a decent job,' Ranbir is an absolute natural. His body language could not have been more right.
So when he lets go and plays out the role of film characters during his get-away in Corsica, the film already tells us what we know will come.
Bringing out the 'Don' in Ved, and giving him the resolve to chase is dreams is Tara (Deepika Padukone). As Ved says, 'the love that comes between story and life.'
The film drives on the sizzling screen chemistry of Ranbir and Deepika. They outdo each other - and it is a delight to watch them sparring. It isn't about who does a better job; it is about how they complement each other so well.
Tamasha is the 'Chicken Soup' for those who drown in compulsive mediocrity; as they say about self-help books, you got to read and re-read them. Tamasha, likewise, might have Imtiaz repeating himself -but he simply gets better each time he chases his dreams.