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Prem Ratan Dhan Payo<\/em> and Tamasha<\/em> are two movies that would not get along if they met at a party.\u00a0 One is a sentimental old fashioned type, the other is intensely modern and ridden with angst.\u00a0 And yet, they have a surprising number of elements in common.\u00a0 Both films revolve around stage performances, both films involve a double role for the hero, both films ask whether the heroine will be able to tell the difference when the man she loves is secretly replaced, both films involve an attempt of a son to live up to their father\u2019s expectations, both films end by encouraging a character to follow their heart to their destiny.\u00a0 But one of these films has a much stronger social message than the other.\u00a0 Surprise, it\u2019s the one made by Sooraj Barjatya!<\/p>\n Ved and Tara in Tamasha<\/p><\/div>\n Tamasha <\/em>starts as a love story, a man and woman meet on vacation, agree to learn nothing about each other and to keep it as a vacation friendship, and then part.\u00a0 The woman (Tara) cannot forget the man and his wonderful crazy spirit.\u00a0 Years later, she runs into him again and finds that he is very different.\u00a0 The man, Ved, is a middle manager with a quiet life of work and routine and none of the spirit she loved on vacation.\u00a0 They date, and eventually he proposes, and she turns him down because he is no longer the man she fell in love with.\u00a0 This sets off a massive reaction within him as finally all the dreams and desires he has hidden his whole life come bursting out.<\/p>\n Tamasha<\/em>\u2019s message, if it has one, is to allow children to follow their own dreams and destiny, to encourage them to be creative and quest for happiness rather than success.\u00a0 This is a wonderful message, of course, but in a post-3 Idiots<\/em> world, this is no longer a vital message.\u00a0 At least, it is not vital as it is presented in this film.\u00a0 Our hero, Ved, is from a well off and loving family.\u00a0 He has been given a good education and a certain amount of freedom and space (he lives on his own in Delhi rather than in his father\u2019s house).\u00a0 His only problem is a certain timidity and sensitivity which made him unable to make his case to his father for what he really wanted out of life, which lead him to go down the wrong path years ago which eventually leads to a massive nervous breakdown in the present.\u00a0 I have sympathy for this character, I am concerned about him, and I want him to be happy, but I am not sure that he deserves to have an entire film devoted to giving him happiness.<\/p>\n The brilliance of 3 Idiots<\/em> was that it had 3 characters, each with their own challenges, balancing each other.\u00a0 While each individually may not have deserved an entire film devoted to their journey, the 3 combined certainly did.\u00a0 Other films, like Udaan<\/em> or 2 States<\/em> or Taare Zameen Par<\/em> justify their tight focus by showing main characters with more unusual challenges, not just an unsympathetic father but an actively abusive one, not just a disinterest in school but an actual learning disability, not just an unsympathetic father but an unsympathetic father who has become a family secret that is preventing his marriage.\u00a0 Tamasha<\/em>, instead, has only one main character whose difficulties are (unfortunately) common, and, even more unfortunately, are nothing in comparison with the struggles of many other youth of India.\u00a0 This is not to say that that the struggle of an artist to achieve his destiny is unimportant, just that it must be given its proper importance in comparison with the other ills of the world, rather than being positioned as the only cause for an entire narrative.<\/p>\n The importance of our artist hero\u2019s journey can only be justified by the brilliance of his eventual creations. And what we are shown at the end just doesn\u2019t live up to expectations.\u00a0 This is somewhat unfair, as a film can never fully capture the magic of a live stage performance.\u00a0 Which is perhaps why films in the past have not attempted to accurately convey a stage performance, instead choosing to present them as fantastical, and filmic, montages.\u00a0 The song \u201cMalang<\/em>\u201d from Dhoom 3<\/em> condenses a massive live performance with multiple sets, costumes, and a defined plot arch into one 5 minute song.\u00a0 Aaja Nachle<\/em> devotes over 15 minutes to a full performance of \u201cLaila Majnu\u201d, but that is still not long enough to realistically encompass a performance with multiple songs, sets, etc.\u00a0 In these films, by presenting a stage performance as a film performance, the narrative purpose was better served.\u00a0 The audience for the film was convinced that the artwork justified the struggle to create it.\u00a0 In Tamasha<\/em>, the final stage play, brilliant though it could conceivably be when witnessed live, just does not convey on film the proper level of importance needed for the audience to remain sympathetic with the struggles of our hero in creating it.\u00a0 And this sympathy is necessary, because all of his struggle is internal, is self-centered.\u00a0 The whole point of the film is what is happening to him, what others are doing to him, how he is suffering for the brilliance inside of himself.<\/p>\n Trailer of Tamasha<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nTamasha<\/h1>\n
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