{"id":3723,"date":"2016-05-10T12:01:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T06:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2016-05-10T12:01:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T06:31:06","slug":"imtiaz-ali-tamasha-ranbir-kapoor-dreams-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span><\/p><\/div>

brief shot in Imtiaz Ali\u2019s <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> shows <\/span>Ranbir Kapoor\u2019s <\/span><\/a>Ved ascending the steps towards his alma-mater, a beautiful engineering college in the hills. That is Jaypee University of Information Technology, in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. It was my college, but the steps aren\u2019t actually the main entrance. In fact, they\u2019re right next to the basketball court, leading up to a garden adjacent to the main academic block. It\u2019s a sprawling campus snuggled safely between two mountains. Shimla is merely a bus ride away. <\/span>\n\nBut we didn\u2019t need Shimla. <\/span>College <\/span><\/a>was our home, our oyster, a safe cocoon where our dreams simmered. And, boy, did we dream. <\/span>\n\nCut to four years later and none of our dreams had materialised. In my naivete, I\u2019d assumed that I\u2019d be a bestselling writer fresh out of college and paeans would be sung about me \u2013 or at least glowing reviews in prominent literary magazines. I\u2019d have enough money to buy an oceanside bungalow and live the rest of my life happily <\/span>writing <\/span><\/a>away. Maybe I\u2019d even buy a typewriter, just to prove how serious I was about my craft. This was, after all, how it unfolded in all those movies.<\/span>\n\nBut reality hit hard, like a dash of cold on a winter night. It dawned on me that I couldn\u2019t just keep taking sabbaticals and write <\/span>novel <\/span><\/a>after novel fervently hoping that it would all work out. And so, I trunked my novel, and like any urbane Bollywood hero, settled for the stability of a nine-to-five job. <\/span>\n\nI remember in 2011 when <\/span>Rockstar<\/span><\/i> released and a part of Jordan latched on to me. There was something about Janardan Jakhar\u2019s innocence that felt painfully familiar \u2013 even if his eventual descent into madness didn\u2019t. Sure, I wasn\u2019t wide-eyed enough to think that \u201cToote huye dil se hi sangeet nikalta hai\u201d but it still felt like <\/span>Imtiaz Ali <\/span><\/a>had somehow managed to capture that feeling of aspiration that hid deep inside every twentysomething graduate. <\/span>\n\n

While Ved\u2019s stories consumed him and followed him into his adulthood, mine were on the sidelines, always waiting to be picked up.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nFour years later, Ali took that truth and, layer by layer, peeled it back, and laid bare an ordinary youth\u2019s insecurities and regrets in <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\n\nTamasha<\/span><\/i> follows Ved as he leaves behind his dreams \u2013 and himself \u2013 to become someone who survives the daily grind of <\/span>corporate <\/span><\/a>rigour just to exist. The film is many things: a story about stories, a daring, a different take on our deepest desires and fears, but also a scathing critique on the perils of maintaining our own status quo. <\/span>\n\nIn 2015, an IT job was my status quo, even though all I was doing was looking for ways to fly away from the monotony of it all. It was the year <\/span>Pitchers<\/span><\/i> arrived on our laptop screens, <\/span>Silicon Valley<\/span><\/i> was in its second season, and I saw <\/span>Dead Poets Society<\/span><\/i> for the first time. Once again, pop culture was egging me on to do justice to the romanticised notion of chasing my dreams, but there I was, following night shifts with early morning shifts, <\/span>working <\/span><\/a>in a cubicle, and chasing faulty databases. While people around me \u2013 on screen and in real life \u2013 were breaking away from the moulds pre-decided for them and rebelling by changing their status quo, I had taken the shape of the mould itself. <\/span>\n\nTamasha<\/span><\/i>, however, flipped everything on its head. In a culture that now valorises the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my <\/span>dreams<\/span><\/a>. In an age that thrived only on inexplicable levels of success and fame, <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world. And more than anything, <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> gave a face to the repercussions of returning to monotony after a tantalising taste of one\u2019s dreams. <\/span>\n\nLike Ved, even the seeds of my ambition were sown early in my childhood. <\/span>When I was 11 and on my second read of Jeffrey Archer\u2019s <\/span>Kane and Abel<\/span><\/i>, I vividly remember my father snidely taunting me with a \u201cItni novels <\/span>padhte ho, novelist hi kyun nahi ban jate<\/span>?\u201d<\/span> Ved\u2019s childhood had him listening to stories and their different forms and being admonished by his elders and <\/span>teachers<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>But while Ved\u2019s stories consumed him and followed him into his adulthood, mine were on the sidelines, always waiting to be picked up. So when I grew up, I learned to distance myself from those stories, unlike Ved.<\/span>\n\nBut Ved\u2019s frustrations mirrored my own. The only difference between his predicament and mine was that I was actually good at my job. Somehow, my success at my IT <\/span>job <\/span><\/a>tricked me into momentarily forgetting my desires. I was deluded because I believed I could survive like that. <\/span>\n\n\u201cTu wahi hai jo subah uth ke office jata hai, boss ki daant khata hai, aur kisi ko nahi batata hai.\u201d This line comes very early on in <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> and is an apt summation of the life I once knew. In the film, Ved spouts gibberish while giving an important presentation at office and while I didn\u2019t have a similar meltdown, I came within a hair\u2019s breadth of one. And like Ved, I eventually broke free, but it did come with a cost, whose reparations are still going on. <\/span>\n\nNow, I write. And I love what I do. But I am also afraid. Dreams come with an expiry date, and if I am forced to go back to the same <\/span>monotony <\/span><\/a>now, I may not have the wherewithal to face that failure. Three years ago, <\/span>Tamasha<\/span><\/i> taught me to find that strength within myself. But I sure as hell hope that that strength is never tested.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":3724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[6990,4886,2145,4165,1158,6342,2442],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-corporate-culture","tag-dreams","tag-imtiaz-ali","tag-jobs","tag-ranbir-kapoor","tag-rockstar","tag-tamasha"],"yoast_head":"\nLife Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amal Singh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amal Singh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amal Singh\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea\"},\"headline\":\"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723\"},\"wordCount\":992,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1543315308.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"corporate culture\",\"dreams\",\"imtiaz ali\",\"jobs\",\"Ranbir Kapoor\",\"rockstar\",\"tamasha\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pop Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723\",\"name\":\"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1543315308.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea\"},\"description\":\"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1543315308.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1543315308.jpg\",\"width\":1520,\"height\":850},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=3723#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea\",\"name\":\"Amal Singh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Amal Singh\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=293\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure","description":"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure","og_description":"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1520,"height":850,"url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amal Singh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure","twitter_description":"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amal Singh","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723"},"author":{"name":"Amal Singh","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea"},"headline":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure","datePublished":"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723"},"wordCount":992,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","keywords":["corporate culture","dreams","imtiaz ali","jobs","Ranbir Kapoor","rockstar","tamasha"],"articleSection":["Pop Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723","name":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-10T06:31:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea"},"description":"Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha flipped the idea of doing what you love and following your heart, on its head. It showed me the terms and conditions attached to chasing my dreams \u2013 and laid bare the frustrations and failures that accompany trying to make your mark in the world.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3723#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life Toh Badi Sad Hai: How Imtiaz Ali\u2019s Tamasha Prepares You for Failure"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/aaaf71d1b21a55e00303014853d493ea","name":"Amal Singh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ac788d7df35f66fe215a0a02ed079607ce639997a2deaa37b2c518a18b35d85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Amal Singh"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=293"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1543315308.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}