Weeks before the build-up for Imtiaz Ali's new release 'Tamasha' (starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone), I was curious to know whether Imtiaz might have pulled in a few threads from his 2011 film 'Rockstar' and sewed them into the story of Tamasha. And it turns out that there are quite a few similarities in both the films (apart from Ranbir, of course).
As in the case of 'Rockstar', most critics have been quick to tear apart 'Tamasha' too for its story, structure, pace and premise. But today, 'Rockstar', despite having been panned by critics, has acquired a near cult status for portraying a story of an angst-ridden singer who finds his life's redemption through the woman he loves and yet loses in the end.
Same is going to be the fate of 'Tamasha', although this film has done reasonably well at the box office thanks to the pull factor of its lead stars/actors. From what I gathered from some of the reviews, 'Tamasha', despite its imperfections and shortcomings, has the makings of a classic that will stand the test of time in the years and decades to come.
As Baradwaj Rangan (The Hindu's critic) pointed out in his review ('Tamasha'...For Imtiaz Ali fans, another rich, messy, imperfect love story)
"...Rockstar and Tamasha are incredibly similar, and yet they are vastly different. The one line story may be the same. But again, with Imtiaz Ali, it isn’t the story that matters, but the character. Ved needs Tara as a cocoon for his suppressed alter-ego. In both films, there’s no explanation for why the woman has such unfathomable effects on the man, and this lack of explanation is explicitly stated in each film. Heer and Tara aren’t merely women; they are concepts. They are the cure for whatever illness afflicts the minds of Jordan and Ved respectively. The films differ in the way these concepts affect the protagonists. As the oft-repeated saying goes, it isn’t about the destination, but about the journey. And every journey is different...."
"...Ali creates an intense, immersive experience, a lot of which is surely autobiographical....
...Ali writes for men the kind of stories Barbara Cartland wrote for women, except that his stories have a steel core of angst – they’re Snarlequin Romances. If you’re logical-minded, you’ll probably look at his heroes and say, 'Oh, grow up!' But you need to be a romantic like Ali – or like Jordan (Rockstar), or like Veer Singh from Love Aaj Kal – to really enter his world...."
But the piece that pickled my mind was the one titled 'Why Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar and Tamasha Might Just be the Same Film'. In drawing several interesting similarities and comparisons of both films, its authort Pradeep Menon writes:
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