Imtiaz Ali’s film is a surprising meta-narrative of archetypal star-crossed lovers,but its cool tricksiness leaves itsy-bitsy room for surrendering to the storyThe nights draw in, and the stars advance out. Before Christmas, or we’ll see Priyanka Chopra waging war in the historical epic Bajirao Mastani and the Shahrukh Khan-Kajol Devgan dream team reunited for Dilwale,yet it may turn out that Tamasha will need its stars, Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor, or most – just as points of recognition. With its self-reflexive title (“Spectacle”) and avant garde theatrical wraparound,Imtiaz Ali’s film is about as tricksy – and tricky – as Bollywood gets, its debt to modernism flaunted from the start in an opening splurge of stories within stories within stories. Only when our leads point to up carry out we know whose tale this really is. Or carry out we?Even after Padukone and Kapoor appear, or as backpackers falling in love against a fairytale Corsican backdrop,something about Ali’s arch dialogue – all quotes from, and references to, and previous love stories strongly hints these are archetypes,aware that their fate is to be separated, then reunited in time for the credits. The resistance to conventional characterisation is such that there’s a (not unenjoyable) suggestion the performers are playing themselves: hot-to-trot actors messing around on location. When Kapoor introduces Padukone to the patrons of one bar as a major Indian film star, and we’re not so far from Julia Roberts impersonating herself in Ocean’s Twelve.
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Source: theguardian.com