tamasha notes 2

Tamasha is about having your priorities straight. This is about getting real. The need for having real relationships. Tara is willing to make a compromise and get married with Ved. But Ved is far gone. He will not let a relationship built on compromise. He knows this, who he has become is not really him. He will have to go through hell to get rid of the robot he has become. To be a real human being he will have to peel his layers away. Then he can become the man who deserves tara's love.

here's how the story os not willing to conform to the gender roles. Ved makes fun of Tara's decision to become a martyr. She blames herself when she apologises to him for what she said, for rejecting him. Ved says her apology is not doing anyone any good. This has been the traditional female role. The one who does wrong and who must make the compromise in order for the "Story" (Hence the relevance of the theme of "Same old story") to have the appropriate "they lived happily ever after" conclusion. Why? Why the same old story over and over again? the story of the boy doing so many things to convince the girl? Tamasha is the story of a boy correcting himself in order to be the best he can be. thus the love story.

Sairat (2016) Notes 1

सांगवं ना बोलवं ना मनं झुरतया दुरून
पळतया टळतया वळतयं मागं फिरून.......
सजलं रं धजलं रं लाज काजला सारलं
येंधळ हे गोंधळलं लाङ लाङ गेलं हरुन.......
भाळलं असं ऊरातं पालवाया लागलं 
हे ओढं लागली मनातं चाळवायां लागलं
याडं लागलं गं याडं लागलं गं

Listening to this I am reminded of the fact that Sairat is such a classic tragedy. In these lines the young hero of the film says that his heart has lost its way. The heart has lost all the sanity. It is like a child that gets too cute with itself. English language is insufficient to express the emotion of the line - "laad laad gela harun" What i can say closest to its effect is that, the heart of the boy is now gone silly, and is getting too cute with itself.
This shade of falling in love for the first time in life, I think is the heart of this tragedy. Listening to it now the sadness feels more raw. They were so true to themselves to have fallen so hard in love, yet at the same time so foolhardy and naive. That exact naivete cost them their lives. The love at that age for these two seems to me was such that did not care for much else apart from each other. I mean to say it was selfish love. The boy, Parshya, did not mush care to what happened to his family after he left the village.

I think only this young can we be so shamelessly honest and also stupid enough to go against the norms of the society. When you are old, you can call us cynical or wise, depends on the perspective. But i know i will lose of i set myself a challenge like the one in sairat. :)


the song

Tamasha (2015) Notes part 1 Subversion and the Eunuch

Subversion and the Eunuch

The role of the eunuch in the film Tamasha (2015) is, apart from being funny is also symbolic. And it is a very important symbol. Ved gives her the ring. She is engaged to him so to speak. This is a stretch I understand for many. But more important than the stretch of imagination is the subversion.

I am in love with this subversion. I am inspired by this subversion. It is the subversion of the the role of the traditional heterosexual Indian male. It is this doubt that creeps up in the psyche of the Indian male, the sign of weakness that overpowers his spirit if and when he does not conform to his traditional role. If he does not do the job defined by the society, he is not man enough. If he strays away from the challenges as defined by the order (Patriarchal order) he is not man enough. The path to self discovery runs contradictory to the roles assigned to every gender by the society.

Marriage in this context could also be seen as another construct imposed upon the individual. He might as well give the ring to a eunuch rather than to the woman he is attracted to. Eunuchs face ostracism in India, the same way Dev will be ostracized for following his heart. The ring too in the film is an item of social construct, an inevitable next step in the scheme of things dictated by the norms. Dev has been "robotic" (as seen in the opening in the film) in the way he progressed in his relationship with Tara until the point she rejected his ring.

As Ved sits among many other applicants for an interview we can see he is sinking in self doubt. Who is he? Will he be himself if he betrays what he wants? Is he a "napunsak" for insulting his capacities? or for conforming to the society?

And then in the next shot you see the eunuch send him a flying kiss, and parys to god for his well being  as she stands in front of his car.

The playback song meanwhile says

you are someone else.
you know that.
in front of this world,
there is a mask,
(and) you are someone else, someone else.
why aren’t you what you are?

'I do not want to stay in a house with all its windows and doors
shut. I want a house with all its windows and doors open where
the cultural breezes of all lands and nations blow through my
house. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.'

-Mahatma Gandhi

i want i want i want. yeah.
easier said than done, mohandas.