Making the sense of movie 'Tamasha' !

 

Imtiaz Ali's movie Tamasha is very close to my heart for many reasons. The character of Ranbir Kapoor as boy is beautifully written and performed, our innate ability to connect through stories of people around us is magical. We, human beings, have this ability to seek ourselves by seeking others, this whole process of sharing collective stories is so profound that all our happiness, grief, glory and milestones are not actually about us, when we keep ourselves absent from stories we experience, then only we reach greatness. Humanity has survived a lot through sharing stories of pain and delight. 

If you're that childhood character of curious boy who is interested in stories, you will always be restless to seek truth, nothing but the truth. That boy can figure out the mind games of manipulation, lies and deceit and then there's this creative dilemma of pretending to live in the stories that you tell very often too long that it begins to appear as your reality. 

Nietzsche once said, 'We chose our pains and delights long ago before we experience them', that is true, deep down it is psychological phenomena of choosing your battles, your narratives and your stories and how you tell them. 

There's this one famous scene from the movie when the child who has always paid the saint for fictitious stories about everyone demand the stories and truth associated with himself (about the boy), and then the saint confronts him by asking him to live his own truth instead of following others. That was very emotional scene, we all must have courage to live and accept our truths and live life by our conditions. 

If you are observant a little, you will realize that this whole social system is a setup like a theatre, and as Shakespeare puts it, the world has entrance and exits...in these few years you have to do everything, seek honest and loyal friends, find the love of your life, seek divine connection and you should be able to have dignified adventure in your life that gives you thrill and sense of accomplishment, something that keeps you moving. When you really understand this trial, you become restless for the answers of greater questions, 'Who are you?', who truly are you, are you your profession, are you your name, are you your status and are you the memory people associate with you...after years of discomfort, if you are sensible person, you will realize that this 'disease of me' was all useless and futile endeavor from the begining, it is such a waste of life, you are no one, you are don't matter, all your anger, and all your urges and inclinations, don't really matter in the long run. You're part of something bigger, and the whole idea is to witness the profound experience of being human, live the moment, experience pain, delight and experience fatherhood, fall in love, have heart ache, dream big, follow them, and fail... go back to God and fix your heart, find some good friends, and create your name in these few decades, have selfless devotion and contribution to society to make things life, do justice, teach, embrace kindness and compassion, that is the real need for us to be human. 

As I write, after few years, the whole idea of being human and being humane will drastically change, our kids will never be able to feel the emotions which we once felt immensely and that is the tragedy of the modern day life, that is why we need stories, legacy and medium to keep this collective shared experience of being human as intact as we can, because we are majestic magical beings, and love is the thing of skies, so we must surrender our ego and love selflessly. 

Pay attention to the universe and people around you, all your ego will shatter. We are extremely invisible in the greater scheme of God, our opinions don't really matter. We must love, we must be humble, and we must be able to live mindfully without regrets, guilts or anger. 

And if I could learn this at the age of 35, my rest of life will be watching this life as theatre will be immensely gratifying experience. Our anger will be gone, the gift of grief will be celebrated and I hope I could invest myself in creative endeavor to make some difference.