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Ahead of Tamasha, a film that asks if love can really change you, Imtiaz Ali spends an afternoon picking affection’ over ‘love’, and refusing to judge taboos
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; October 18, 2015)
We are with writer-director Imtiaz Ali, lunching at a crowded Andheri deli, and we are talking taboo relationships. The sort that you know you shouldn’t be in, but can’t help being in. “You think you want control, but you really don’t. And it’s fine [to be in them]. It’s a part of evolving. You want to fit into slots that you find respectable, or what the world sees as respectable. You are disturbed when that doesn’t happen,” he says, biting into a crunchy citrus salad.
“You know, it’s all about that feeling that says, ‘I want to do this. I don’t care. I just do’.” Seemingly random conversations about life and its trappings are easy to indulge in with Ali. His movies — last year’s hit, Highway, and before that, Jab We Met, Rockstar and Love Aaj Kal — have been about doing things we want to, but most of the times, don’t.
His latest, Tamasha is no different. Ranbir Kapoor plays a man who transforms into an outgoing, charming guy on vacation to Corsica, when he meets Deepika Padukone’s character and falls in love. When they return, he jumps back into his normal skin, which he tells her, is actually quite “ boring”, but the real him. “We all have one vicarious side, and a boring one, and we keep trying to merge the two. Perhaps that’s not possible at all,” says the 44-year-old. “As a kid, I’d carry this image in my head of being in a train, looking out. I wanted to be outside, not inside the train, because inside, I had to behave.”
When we move to discussing love, though, he says the word is taboo for him. We think that's startling, especially since he has earned his fame making ‘love’ stories. “I avoid it like the plague. It’s the most confusing thing to me. It means different things to different people, and acquires different meanings through the day. I don’t like miscommunication, so I use more specific terms like affection.” When instructing his actors, he will say, “You are feeling like you want to hold her” or “You want to kiss her right now.” That’s more easy to understand, he argues. “I don’t even use the word love with my kids! We are not cheesy."
Clik here to view.
Ahead of Tamasha, a film that asks if love can really change you, Imtiaz Ali spends an afternoon picking affection’ over ‘love’, and refusing to judge taboos
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; October 18, 2015)
We are with writer-director Imtiaz Ali, lunching at a crowded Andheri deli, and we are talking taboo relationships. The sort that you know you shouldn’t be in, but can’t help being in. “You think you want control, but you really don’t. And it’s fine [to be in them]. It’s a part of evolving. You want to fit into slots that you find respectable, or what the world sees as respectable. You are disturbed when that doesn’t happen,” he says, biting into a crunchy citrus salad.
“You know, it’s all about that feeling that says, ‘I want to do this. I don’t care. I just do’.” Seemingly random conversations about life and its trappings are easy to indulge in with Ali. His movies — last year’s hit, Highway, and before that, Jab We Met, Rockstar and Love Aaj Kal — have been about doing things we want to, but most of the times, don’t.
His latest, Tamasha is no different. Ranbir Kapoor plays a man who transforms into an outgoing, charming guy on vacation to Corsica, when he meets Deepika Padukone’s character and falls in love. When they return, he jumps back into his normal skin, which he tells her, is actually quite “ boring”, but the real him. “We all have one vicarious side, and a boring one, and we keep trying to merge the two. Perhaps that’s not possible at all,” says the 44-year-old. “As a kid, I’d carry this image in my head of being in a train, looking out. I wanted to be outside, not inside the train, because inside, I had to behave.”
When we move to discussing love, though, he says the word is taboo for him. We think that's startling, especially since he has earned his fame making ‘love’ stories. “I avoid it like the plague. It’s the most confusing thing to me. It means different things to different people, and acquires different meanings through the day. I don’t like miscommunication, so I use more specific terms like affection.” When instructing his actors, he will say, “You are feeling like you want to hold her” or “You want to kiss her right now.” That’s more easy to understand, he argues. “I don’t even use the word love with my kids! We are not cheesy."
