The main characteristic feature of the coming of age genre in films is the protagonist’s emotional and spiritual growth. In most coming-of-age films, this growth is usually shown as the protagonist transitions from childhood to adulthood but Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha is about going back to childhood. Like all coming of age films, Tamasha too explores the internal conflicts faced by young adults. The film is a reflection of the Indian society where childhood dreams are not encouraged because the older generation had to struggle for the basic necessities. It is a social commentary on the frustrations of the youth who have had to give up on their childhood dreams and the loneliness it brings. In Tamasha, Imtiaz Ali makes a persuasive case for the need to break away from the pressures of adulthood and go back to those innocent childhood dreams that brings meaning to our life.
Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) has two versions to his personality, one of which is a lie. He switches between these versions depending on the world he is inhabiting. In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the Ved he actually is - the one who lives in the world of stories. As a child, he sees and understands the world through the mythological legends and stories he hears from a local storyteller (Piyush Mishra). As an adult, he talks like a character from a Bollywood film. When he is not talking like Don, he is imitating the legendary Dev Anand. He is not hiding behind these fictional people, he is them. In the second half of the film, we are introduced to the Ved he is pretending to be - the corporate robot. The one who is nervous during presentations, the one who is always scheduled, the one who always has wireless ear pods in his ears, the one who dines at quiet expensive restaurants, the one who doesn’t speak if not spoken to and whose replies are limited to a sentence or two. Even on dates, he chooses to dress in browns, maroons, navy blues and blacks instead of mustard yellows and olives that he was wearing in the first half.
Tara (Deepika Padukone) is able to see through this pretence and confronts him but he is denial and asserts that the real Ved is the one who works nine to five, likes to be prepared and is always proper. Her confrontation messes him up as he is no longer in control of which version of his personality he is playing. It also leads him to have emotional outbursts. After one such outburst, he is fired from his job. He goes back to his hometown and looks for the storyteller so that he can hear him tell the story of his life. Instead, the storyteller tells him that it is upon him to decide what the story of his life will be. It is this conversation with the storyteller that actually brings him realise who he actually is - the one who lives in the world of stories. This realisation is depicted through the song Safarnama. In the song sequence, we see him running across the streets carefree, opening up his arms and dancing along with children dressed in joker costumes and those of mythological characters.
Tamasha reminds me of my love for stories. It reminds me of my childhood - when I was obsessed with reading Panchatantra story books and listening to mythological stories during bed time, when I imagined myself in these stories and these characters in my real life. It reminds me of my teenage - when I binged watched television shows and movies, when I started mimicking these characters in real life situations, when I started making sense of the world through these stories. I believe in the philosophical idea underlying existential nihilism that life has no intrinsic meaning and that one create their own subjective meaning. Just like Ved, it is stories that bring meaning to my life.