Tamasha |part1|

 

A recent post by Imtiyaz Ali on his account @imtiazali_the_storyteller inspired me to watch the movie Tamasha once again today. And it gave me goosebumps, once again. It also happens to be one of my favourite movies. I wanted to write a layer by layer review always. Here is the first part.

| PART 1 |

Whenever I had watched it, I could so relate to the childhood Ved portrayed in the movie. As a child I was so much like him, participating in school events and having my own imaginations of History and Hindi and English lessons going on in my head like a reel. I love the way the director amalgamated those imaginations in child Ved. For instance, how the choir singing 'Joy to the world' (one of my favourite Christmas carols) transforms into the scene of Samyukta's swayamwara inside the child's head.

And then in his next encounter with the old bearded storyteller, the child corrects the latter's 'Sanjukta' with 'Samyukta' as he had heard it by his history teacher. 

Storyteller - "हाथ में वरमाला लिए यूंही चलते चलते संजुक्ता महल के बाहर आ जाती है"

Child Ved- (interrupts and corrects him) समयुक्ता !

The storyteller looks at the child disapprovingly and says -

Storyteller - "यमुना है या जमुना?

 जोसेफ़ है या युसुफ़?

 जीसस है या ईसा?

 मूसा है या मोसेस?

 बताओ...?"

And then the old storyteller goes on to say with his wisdom filled eyes to the stirred and wondering kid -

Storyteller - "ब्रह्मा है या अब्राहम? या इब्राहिम?

 हिंदु नदी है या इंदस ?

 हिंद है या इंडिया?"

The child interrupts, and exclaims with a smile... 

"संजुक्ता"

Just like so many other powerful moments of the movie, this one stayed with me. And I keep coming back to it whenever I am lost. 

It is not just about how the storyteller tells us his story, it is also about how we hear it and how it stays with us. All the folktales and all knowledge coming to us from our great great ancestors converges here.

"कहानी तो एक ही है।

हमेशा से।

तुम उसे मुझसे कैसे कहोगे, कैसे मुझे दिखाओगे,

ये सिर्फ 

तुम्हारा ही 

स्वत्व नहीं है

मैं उसे कैसे सुनूँगी, कैसे पढूंगी

कैसे उसे देखूंगी

स्वत्व

ये मेरा भी है।"

- ग़ज़ल