Take #23: Tamasha

After 'Love Aaj Kal', 'Jab We Met' and, most recently, 'Highway', we have come to expect two things from Imtiaz Ali: offbeat love stories, and a leisurely exploration of angst and the inner demons. And with this film, once again, he does not disappoint on either count.

Corsica, France. Rich girl meets hamster boy, stuck in a treadmill of his father's choosing. Much melodious music later, they part company, only to meet again four years on. But the hamster is still on the treadmill - and he actually bites! What happens thereafter comprises the absorbing second half of the story.

A gorgeous Deepika Padukone blends into the French Mediterranean as if she were born there. Ranbir puts in a compelling performance as the mediocre engineer leading a double life - one inside him, and the other on the outside. A R Rahman's music wasn't to the standard we've come to expect from him, though it was adequate enough.

This is a narrative narrated by storytellers, with numerous flashbacks and visual metaphors, and is not a script that everyone is going to like. I found it very different, and very refreshing, although Imtiaz Ali came perilously close to losing the plot once or twice.

I have a feeling this movie is going to run. There is nothing else in the way at the moment, and there are enough crowd-pleasers in the film to mollify the hedonistic