5 Years Of Tamasha: The Battle Between Ranbir (Ved) And Ranbir (Don)

Tamasha Picture Courtesy: YouTube

It would be easy to describe Jab We Met as a charming, candy-floss romance between a girl and a boy. Both suffer from infidelity and heartbreak and are united by destiny and Bollywood cliches. But Imtiaz Ali's cinema beyond the cult of this romance was more than just about romance. Rockstar and Tamasha, in particular, were centered around a man who's actually yet to become a man.

Just like how Ayushmann Khurrana has nearly owned the genre of socially-driven subjects that others would gaze at with disdain, Akshay Kumar has championed the cause of patriotism, in a similar way, Ranbir Kapoor is the best actor to channel the emotions of a man-child refusing to grow up. In both Wake Up Sid and Rockstar, we may have wanted him to transform, but in Tamasha, he was better suited to be a child.

When we first meet him (Ved), he's on a holiday in Corsica, a very unique and unlike place to travel, especially in a Hindi film obsessed with London, Paris, and New York. He meets and befriends Tara (Deepika Padukone) and both agree to spend their days without revealing anything about each other. It's very unusual for a Bollywood film to follow this template. Kapoor calls himself Don and Padukone Mona.

Also Read: These Photos Of Ranbir Kapoor And Deepika Padukone From 'Tamasha' Will Make You Nostalgic

When Don and Mona come back to India, Tara is still Mona whereas Don has gone back to becoming Ved. This is the conflict of the story, where a reality check dawns upon our hero like a bolt of lightning. This is where we sense the first step towards his transformation, with metaphors stepping into the narrative and his outbursts dominating his otherwise dour demeanour. How dare anyone say to him he's not what he pretends to be!

Tamasha followed the similar theme as Rajkumar Hirani's 3 idiots, about following your dreams and desires. But that blockbuster was injected with boisterous gags and breakneck scenes between the three friends. Ali's film was filmed the way only Ali could have filmed. His films are incomplete without pain and longing, without gorgeous canvases and haunting melodies. Comparisons with Rockstar would be futile, both in performances and music, despite the same names, even though Ved's violent unpredictability echoed the sentiments of Jordan from that musical.

In both the films, the man cannot stop thinking about the girl who has walked away from his life, one for his success and the other for his rediscovery. Ali enjoys transformations of his characters with the help of heartbreaks. You know that in the end, Ved will eventually go back to becoming Don, you just wait how the process would culminate. A film that is tilted Tamasha, there couldn't have been a better finale than Kapoor enjoying the applause of the crowd and the curtains coming down. This is the Don that can never be captured as sky is the limit for him. In many ways, Tamasha was Don 3.

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Also Read: Imtiaz Ali Calls Ranbir Kapoor The Biggest Disaster!

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