5 Years Of Tamasha: Sorry But In Real Life Mental Health Issues Don’t Get Resolved By Visiting A Story Teller. There Are Therapists For That!
Five years ago, Imtiaz Ali gave us Tamasha starring Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. After their last movie together, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, I was expecting this one to become a classic too. You know the kind you can watch any number of times without feeling bored. So excitedly, my best friend and I went to watch it and were struggling to find moments that can make us like the film. We tried, really hard. But the Corsica bit which was supposed to be witty and all, had me yawning. Really, their Don and Mona Darling banter was far from being hilarious; it was rather lame. But that’s really not the part that went awfully wrong for us.
To understand what’s exactly wrong with this movie, let’s go back to its storyline. The film is about Ved and Tara, who happen to meet in Corsica (thereby increasing the number of Indians turning up there with theplas). They find freedom in unfamiliarity, solace in a stranger and joy in spontaneity. Ved and Tara end up interlacing a romantic connection that makes them indulge in a steamy intimate session before Tara leaves for home. She realises she is in love with him, but doesn’t know his name because smarty pants decided to keep their identity a secret. Yes’ it’s douche-y and stupid but we are made to think that this might be “cool” and a millennial thing. After a lot of effort, she finds him and they reconnect.
Like most your Tinder dates, her first date with Ved at a Japanese restaurant is a disappointment because she realises that he is not how he was in Corsica. Now, he is a guy stuck in corporate rut with business on his mind and whose feet are trapped in the chains of routine. Imagine her disappointment when he refuses to enjoy some sexy time so his routine doesn’t get disturbed. Tara obviously confronts him that he is not the Ved she fell in love with. Now that triggers Ved’s mental health issues and he goes in a self-destructive loop.
From being aggressive with Tara (while she begs him to stay understanding that she fucked up his mental health) to acting hysterical with his boss and acquaintances, he begins to go on a downward spiral. Tamasha shows flashbacks of his life – how he was a child fascinated with stories, how he grew up with the kind of pressure most Indian families put on their children. So he grew up, trying to be someone else, and lost his true self in all that. Tara rejecting him triggered all that was bottled to pop!
Ved was very evidently dealing with a mental breakdown and several other mental health issues. And all of this could have made a better point if he actually went to a therapist. Instead, he goes to a storyteller from his childhood, asking him to tell the story of Ved’s life. Frustrated, the storyteller tells him that he needs to finish his own story. Now that ends up solving all of his mental health issues and gives him enlightenment! I mean, seriously?
I am glad that Tamasha spoke about mental health but it would be have been so much better if they wouldn’t have trivialised it by making it all go away in one single moment. Really, the movie was very slow-paced and the funny bits were not even funny and all this for a point that wasn’t made? Nope.
Five years down, we think Tamasha was the kind of movie that everyone claims to understand because you are made to think that you’re not woke enough if you can’t understand how layered it was. Let’s cut it out, it was lazy writing and one that we didn’t buy then and are not buying now.
