Tamasha is one of the most underrated movies of this decade. It is masterpiece in all its facets—screenplay, acting, music, cinematography. It has a very basic plot: boy (Ranbir Kapoor) meets girl (Deepika Padukone) in the idyllic setting of Corsica but decide not to reveal their real identities and eventually, fall in love. They meet in real life some years later, try handling a relationship, but when the girl doesn’t find him to be the same man she fell for earlier, she leaves him, triggering his descent into madness, and self-discovery. But it is the creative decisions and details added by director Imtiaz Ali that add to its layers and complexity, making it the cinematic gem that it is.
One of the most well-known scenes of this movie is the one that plays before the song ‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’, where Ved meets Tara for the first time after he broke down outside her apartment, his wedding proposal to her having been rejected. It is a crucial scene in the context of the movie and plot. It is one of the most layered scenes in an already layered movie and was mostly improvised by the actors, really reflecting their abilities and those of the director.
The scene is set in dim lighting, and Ved appears wearing a sweater—a common motif in the film used to symbolise the entrapment of his passion of storytelling in his monotonous routine and life (he is seen in a sleeveless sweater when acting alongside the auto driver, letting the storyteller creak out, and completely removed in the climax where he explains this to his father). He notices Tara looking for him through the window and pretends not to notice her inside, busying himself with his phone. Tara approaches him, a little worried, but Ved smiles at her, starting the conversation politely and casually. Tara almost treats Ved like a child; she chooses her words carefully, blaming her actions for his breakdown, and tries to apologize. She staggers when using the word “complex” to describe Ved’s reaction to her words, and that acts as a trigger to him—he blinks and takes her words as coming from a place of pity. During this conversation, shadows have been played with a lot, as Tara’s face is fully lighted, signalling her honesty, but Ved’s is half shadowed, reflecting the dual aspects of his character: the product manager of Delhi and ‘Don’ of Corsica. Ved yells, startling and nearly pushing her to tears, and accuses her of acting like his psychiatrist. He laughs when she talks of her concern and gets up to leave when asked for the ring back, the one Tara had rejected when he had asked for her hand in marriage.
He gets up to leave, but Tara holds on to his arm. He looks down, bending whilst standing; she looks up at him, sitting. This moment is a recreation of the one that happens when they promise not to share their identities in Corsica, except that Ved is still not being real with Tara. In Corsica, he assures her that he will not flirt, here he tells her not to be physical as she grabs on to him. It is in some ways, a reflection of their time in Corsica, where Ved is not willing to be open with her, but captive of her love for him, she cannot help but stay around him: “tumse door hi toh nahi reh sakti mein”, she tells him (I just can’t stay away from you).
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