#theisis

Sunday, November 27, 2016

This treatise has its root in the heart-felt experience that this film has given and this is more importantly a long time due reverential tribute to the thought-provoking opus that Tamasha is; which also celebrates its one year anniversary today and will be immortal from here to eternity.

Starcast (by Mukesh Chhabra csa) – Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukon, Piyush Mishra, Jawed Sheikh, Yash Sehgal and many more established actors.

Story Concept – Arif Ali                    

Costume Design – Aki Narula & Anaita Shroff Adajania

Choreography – Bosco-Caeser & Ashley Lobo

Lyrics – Irshad Kamil

Production Design – Acropolis

Edited by – Aarti Bajaj

Cinematography – S. Ravi Varman ISC

Music – A.R. Rahman

Produced by – Sajid Nadiadwala

Written & Directed by – Imtiaz Ali

“TAMASHA is a dramatically choreographed contemplative montage, that opens eyes to see their innate gold and makes one understand his/her role and chase the ultimate goal.”

 TAMASHA, written and directed by Imtiaz Ali, is a film that has not only touched my heart (and many other people who are on the same paper), but also has seen me through the curtains of societial suppression. Imtiaz Ali is an articulate creator of colorful world with vibrant, dynamic and ambiguous characters and that was quite evident in his previous films. The art of lusciously weaving the stories of such characters has exponentially elevated and has reached the pinacle in this masterpiece. Moreover, in my personal opinion, Imtiaz Ali is merely an imaginative creator of frames. The frames which speak the whole story he wants to tell. It won’t be shocking to me, if one day he comes out with a film made in power point presentation and has only few frames and tells a story through them and still earns a place in the audience’s heart. He ingeniously creates frames that elicit humongous emotion and have a potential to change the shape of a milieu.

TAMASHA is a film, that can be seen and ruminated time and again, and learn something new from it everytime. It’s a film that not only deserves to dig down into but also one desires to do so. It’s a film that again deals with the perpetual repression by presenting a differently told love story, but what all it has implied will remain a subject of deep research, just like a work of classic literature. In an attempt to decode and read between the lines, this essay has been written or let us say, it got written automatically. This pensive montage makes us ask – “Why the same story everytime?”; and persuades us to have an urge to change things.  

The film fades in with a scene in which the protagonist (Ranbir Kapoor who plays the character of Ved) and Tara (played by Deepika Padukon) are portraying the machine life of a man (that everyone can relate with), by playing a drama on the podium and then it all fades out to the precocious storyteller Ved’s childhood, intertwined with the mystically written song, Chali Kahaani (sung by high pitch singer Sukhvinder Singh, Haricharan and Haripriya) and Piyush Mishra’s wizardous story-telling and sinuous transition of scenes, which is brilliantly edited by Aarti Bajaj (whose editing in Rockstar had ambivalent reviews).

Take 1 – Eradicate Labels

There is a scene in which Piyush Mishra tells Ved that every story is same and runs everywhere parallel and he doesn’t have to think much but enjoy it, (a concept that Imtiaz Ali has directed eminently using anachronical frames), and in the very next scene he mis-pronounces Sanyukta as Sanjukta and Ved interupts to correct him but he responds, “How does it make a difference”; which made me remember Fight Club’s, “Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy”; which I personally put it as, “Naam wahi rehte hain, sirf chehre badal jaate hain.” (The labels remain the same, only the faces change).

Take 2 – Earn, Learn & Share

In a scene, Ved gives a foot massage to his fragile granny and in turn she gives him slender yet valuable sum of money which he uses to learn and listen to the new stories from Sufi storyteller Piyush Mishra, and then religiously tells those stories again to his granny, who fondly gives an ear to. This is a metaphoric food for thought that has developed a learning perspective in me. In the pursuit of prudence and financial safety, sometimes a man keeps saving the money he earns by doing his work or job (the money that are always hard-earned), but he often forgets to invest some money in learning new things and even if he does, he often forgets to share the knowledge. I take these frames as a life lesson and I modelled the child.  

After Chali Kahaani, it all blacks out to the exotic locations of Corsica (from the Asterisk & Obelix Comics), where two people who had gone out on a limb on a solitary vacation to get a break from their mundane lives; the voracious storyteller Ved (Don) and Asterisk Fan Tara (Mona Darling), coincidentally meet and get wild and spend a fun time together as unlabelled and unnamed acquaintances and decide to stay pretentious (read real) during the sojourn. The sequences are  interwoven with funny puns, a homage to arguably the first superstar of Hindi Cinema, the debonair Dev Anand Saab (who starred in a 1952 film of the same name). The picturesque locations of Corsica and the mischieveously tickling Matargashti are a visual treat to watch.

It takes 40 minutes into the film to show a deeply grown character Ved’s first storytelling monologue (which is presented humorously and has a Helleresque touch). In the end, it all boils down to their mutual feelings, which follows with a regretful but an inevitable good-bye without an au revoir and then it all fades out to Kolkata, India where Tara (Heer) lands and becomes Meera unconditionally devoted in Ved’s love and daydreams about him. She later on, goes on an assignment to Delhi, which is elucidated in the song “Heer to Badi Sad Hai”, inimitably sung by Mika.

Take 3 – Catch-22

While strolling down a Delhi street, Tara stumbles across a snacks and books joint, SOCIAL, a place Ved patronizes and is a denizen of, and so she decides to wait for him there. In the process, she picks up a hilarious book named Catch-22 written by a pre-eminent author Joseph Heller (a book that Ved had with him when they met in Corsica). Now, what became so interesting about it is how Imtiaz Ali has used this book to manifest the situations of both the characters. Catch-22, a book that stands alone for a situation of, “to be or not be” and portrays it in a humorous way gives an edge to Ved’s character, as his is a character that has been bipolar in nature and has been hanged between his passionate urge to become a storyteller and the repression of his hidebound family. When Tara reads the book, (which is almost impossible for a comic lover to read without laughing); her face remains pale and her expressions remain tepid throughout the frames and she keeps fidgeting and moves restlessly and furtively glances around to expect Ved (her real life Santa Claus) any moment. The frames tells a story about how the director can use a thing like a book that hints the state of the character’s mind.

After a long wait of few days, she finds Ved whom she finds to be no more a Don but a regular mediocre who ekes out a living in the capital by working in a telecom company which included being a pretentious yes-man and a puppet to his boss, clients marionette and most importantly giving redundant presentations that everyone finds trivial and remians futile and henceforth nobody really pays an attention to and this happens in every corporate meeting and is very relatable. But he still gets a compensatory reward in being given the tag of “a nice guy” (in today times).  

Take 4 – Ved giving a regular presentation at his office.

After meeting each other, they fall in “Ishq Wala Love” but when Ved, who lives a humdrum life, proposes Tara to initiate a step further into their relationship; she realizes that he is not the same person she loved and confesses it on his face while also making him realize that he is a very special guy, but it backfires and hits his inner complex and strangely upsets him to the core and what follows is a non-linear yet intense sequences of intricate storytelling interwoven with Ved’s bipolar and introspective and retrospective soliloquies and monotonity of Ved’s life followed by a metaphoric trans “Wat Wat Wat” sung by Arijit Singh and Shashwat Singh and in the process, Ved’s finds himself back and starts telling stories like a medieval author and on the other hand starts obliterating the meaning of his professional presentation by indulging misfit irrelevant words between the lines (to show the irrelevance of the presentations). And ultimately embarks on a journey to find “Ander Ki Baat”.

Take 5 – Do what you like

There is this scene in which Ved is climbing the ladders, rather unenthusiastically to his engineering Alma Mater and it reminds audience of how he used to climb the ladders on his way to the storyteller, Piyush Mishra, which is a very small detail the director has shown and it only says that we can only be happy if we are doing something of our interest. Simple, suble and effective.

Take 6 – Shanghai

There is a scene in which Ved forgets to wear a tie and when his boss asks him to wear one, to which he remarks, “Sir, tie bechne thodi jaa rahe hai”, rather derogatorily but then his domineering boss shanghais him to wear it (right now). In the frame, Imtiaz Ali has used a very good metaphor to depict the domination of corporate bosses [who are akin to historical kings, whose sword (in coeval times, corporate position), speaks for themselves].

Later on, in the aftermath of Ved’s and Tara’s dismal break-up, Tara remorsefully worries about Ved and he yearns to meet her and talk with her.

Take 7 – The Best Damn Thing

They meet and how their conversation switches from the spoken formal platitudes to naturally intimate unspoken feelings which dwells down to the dichotomy of love, a scene that is stitched with an emotional and heart-rending “Agar Tum Sath Ho” sung by evergreen Alka Yagnik and mellifleous Arijit Singh, which has a separate place in the audience’s heart. The actors are so well-directed, that the scene looks natural and the director looks far from the set. The director is just invisible. It almost looks like Deepika and Ranbir were naturally engrossed in the moment.

Take 8 – The Melodramatic Reality 

Ved’s frustration takes a bigger shape and his Don get’s an edge over the docile Ved and in a sequence he gets wildly offensive with his boss (read Ravana) in the office during a meeting and it becomes a key Mise-en-Scene that shows the transformation of Ved’s character.

As a repercussion, Ved gets fired (the eureka moment) with a ‘pleasant’ and much need promise that his career in the telecom industry would be destroyed – for good, which makes him find himself and how it has been portrayed in the philosophically rich “Tu Koi Aur Hai” sung by the man himself is opulent in a contemplative and introspective way and is an amalgamation of the character’s present turmoil and his past repression and then he inevitably goes back to his hometown to find all the answers.

Take 9 – To Find Krishna, Be an Arjuna

He goes to the good old storyteller Piyush Mishra, who Ved surmises as the Nostradamus (on a philosophical level) who can predict his story; but when he asks about his future, the Sufi declares Ved as a criminal and refuses to give him the answers and asks him to find them himself, as only Ved knows his story. In the scene, he finds the unanswered questions and embarks on a ‘Safarnama’(a song sung by my personal favourite Lucky Ali) to find his own “Teja ka Sona”. The scene is very rich at the philosophical level. Why Piyush Mishra calls him a criminal is a question to be asked to ourselves. In the peer pressure of a competitive society, we keep asking our stories to other people. What should we do? What is ‘supposed’ to be a good career? How should we live our lives? And we forget to ask ourselves the most important question, which is WHY? Why do we live our lives? We are all agents of him that are sent for a specific purpose, a purpose we should live for. And by asking someone else about the way we should lead our lives, we are doing a blasphemy in literal sense and it’s a sacrilegious juvenile, we should be jailed for and we cannot exonerate ourselves from such a crime. Ved never understood such subtle things that the character of Piyush Mishra had taught him and even Tara had tried to convey because he wasn’t ready, which brings to the conclusion that “Only when a student is ready, a teacher appears”. He had teachers in the old storyteller and Tara, but he wasn’t ready back then. But when he realizes his inner gold, he tells a metaphoric story to his father to uproot his father’s tenacious abhorrence and ignorance towards Ved’s dreams. Ved also pays an obeisance to Tara (Krishna who showed him the right path), for she only made him realize what he actually is. The frames are deeply maneuvered to evoke a long lasting emotion on the viewers.

Take 10 – The Moments of Emotional Upheaval and Claustrophobia in Retrospect

Imtiaz Ali creates an epic cornucopia of imaginary Mise-en-scenes of Ved’s past life, which dwells into everything that the character wanted to change in his past life which includes his schooling, college, jobs and many things that he never wanted to do and it is portrayed by replacing his helpless passive frustration of past to a hypothetical active frustration which becomes his eureka moments.

And finally “Don Returns” and goes to find Tara to finish a work that was long pending – Proposing Tara again, which she lovingly accepts this time and they both live happily ever after.

Take 11 – The Final Take of 22 Karat

In the last scene, Ved tells Tara (who played a dynamic role of a soul-mate, teacher and a metaphor for the proverbial ‘right’ person), “Muje lagta hai Teja Ka Sona tere paas hai, DAR-ASAL!”, which is an ambivalent combination of words but I infer “Teja ka Sona”, which I call as “Asli Heera”, is Ved’s heart of pure gold and as he falls madly in love with her, he notifies it by speaking this dialogue, for she had stolen his heart. After that, it all blacks out to credentials while Ved and Tara keep rejoicing the beauty of life and enjoying simple pleasures.

Special Mention – Music, Lyrics, Acting and Storyboards

Music –

A.R. Rahman’s music has been mythical, soothing, heart wrenching and he raises the crescendo as and when required and the lyrics written by Irshad Kamil are one his best works - thoughtful and meditative and describes a lot of sensations and human sentiments. All the songs are class apart in their own way and it is an album to be looped on for years to come.

Acting – Ranbir and Deepika’s work is commendable and they completely lived the characters for which they deserve a bountiful of praise. Ranbir has also adapted the habits of the character of the young Ved played by Yash Sehgal and to me; it has been the best work of Deepika till date and has changed my point of view about her acting forte.

Storyboards – In an interview, Imtiaz Ali had admitted that he doesn’t storyboard his whole film but he makes four to five storyboards himself (of the kind that are generally used in the classic literature books), that reflects the changing events of his films and in TAMASHA, he has used four such artistically sketched storyboards (in Teja ka Sona, Ishq Wala Love, Ander Ki Baat and Don Returns) which I surmise, are made by him but it is still a fact to be confirmed right from the horse’s mouth. Sir, did you make them?

All in all, TAMASHA is a film that has gained immortality in my heart and has moved me in a way that I have started to sing my own song on my own stage rather than being someone else, who was striving hard to succeed on a stage that he never belonged to.

I congratulate and doff off my hat to the stalwart Imtiaz Ali Sir and his hard-working team for making this subtle, scrupulous, hideously philosophical and psychologically challenging (to understand) saga which will surely inspire many, because

“It’s a film that makes one to do what he is good at, what he has come on this earth for, chase his inner peace and more importantly contribute something to the world rather than watching the “Tamasha” while sitting on a “Corner Seat”.”

Photos courtesy – Google Images

Collages – Made using Turbo Collage Maker

Edit 1 - One Last Mention or Maybe Not The Last 

Tree As Tale - 🌳📝🖋📖

Consciously or unconsciously, Imtiaz Ali has an affinity to use elements of nature as symbols, or Naturomorphism (if I may call it so).

The time has arrived again that I am back to my favorite film (or my closure) only to get impressed with another aspect of Imtiaz's artistic triumph.

It's already fascinating to watch Piyush Mishra as an eccentric Sufi telling stories on an hourly paid income. While his stories are interesting but what I find more intriguing is the way the tree is used as a symbol of stories and a victim of urbanization.

Most of the stories are suppressed under the juggernaut of our urban yet hidebound society. If we relate this to a tree then its lifespan is compromised by urbanization or say, to fulfill basic needs of society.

Going by that notion, we can analogically interpret the tree as nothing but a tale - A tale that will inevitably see a poignant cutoff by the societal scissors.

And then, later on in the story, we see Ved sitting under a tree, all chiseled by a knife called society during the song "Watt Watt"!

my major final project for IED milano

this my final major project 

I have to write my masters and its hard when im obsessed with a tv show… If only I could master in fandom. Wait… I CAN and I will!

Ive decided to change my theisis subject a bit from ICT didactics with children to ICT didactics with teenagers. What do fandom activities teach the young? Alot of creative skills for one. Im a creative teacher so its my field.

Oh its gonna be so much fun and I hope I figure out how to contact teenagers in fandom without looking like a pervert… Ill figure it out.