Lessons from Imtiaz Ali

Note: Imtiaz Ali is a famous hindi writer/director for films-  jab we met, socha na tha,love aaj kal, rockstar, highway, tamasha.

With the excitement similar to a child during Diwali at heart, I prepare for Imtiaz's films with a dedication of a tenth class student by learning lyrics of all the songs of his upcoming movie before hand so that I don't miss any micro part of the "experience". Be it how he writes interesting characters and fresh dialogues or how music becomes inseparable part of his movies, my list of reasons to love the"Sufi director" (as he is referred to sometimes) runs long. There are certain commonalities I ve observed in his style of storytelling and since my prime years of understanding myself and my environment has gone hand in hand with his movies, sometimes I ve also realized a thing or two.

Being yourself is awesome :
    Our unforgettable "main apni favourite hu" Geet (in jab we met) is one of the most loved characters ever played on silverscreen till date. She makes us want to be the best versions of ourselves and celebrate being one. Her chirpy innocent uninhibited energy is infectious as much as jab we met itself is! She taught me to love myself a little more 😇

Women are more emotionally intelligent : 😉
   Have you observed most of his male protagonists tend to be oblivious to their deep feelings for pretty long , be it in love aajkal, socha na tha or rockstar ? It is their women who kind of have the grace and strength to realise and pursue the relationship. They are the ones who make it happen!  Well it's true..we agree or not.. but we always know. 😜

Travelling can open unknown boundaries in our mind :
    When we travel ,it is not only outer journey to another place but also an inner journey of self exploration and liberation which unwinds many mental knots making us closer to ourselves in the process. Veera (in highway ) who discovers her hidden inner demons  and unleashes them liberating herself or Ved (in tamasha) who sets himself free in Corsica from the suffocation of expectations engulfing him in reality ; both find liberation in lands away from their own eventually celebrating their inner self. For me, just watching Veera or Ved has been liberating! So,l am sure travelling must be really capable of all these wonders!

Honest friendship can be really enriching :
  The break up party in love ajkal after which the ex-es decide to give their honest impressions about each other becoming closer buddies or the "gand machadenge"  rockstar couple who are their most honest self to each other ; they make us crave for that one person with whom you can be your uninhibited self ! Highway goes one step ahead to show a relationship of affection security and longingness which need not even end on a romantic note.

Love is not love if it alters when it finds alteration : 
  Our generation strongly believes that "out of sight is out of mind " and long distance relationship is a myth. On the contrary Imtiaz has time and again told us the opposite. Remember Jai in love aajkal working alone for his dream but with an unknown void or Tara searching Ved for years in tamasha ? He always points it out that the vacuum your love leaves behind cannot be filled no matter how many other choices you have or how busy in life you are. Time does have a wonderful way of showing us what really matters!

Love is the same, then now and forever :
  If you observe ,we don't ve many real deep love stories written in 2000s. Even those few tend to be superficial or skin deep with chiselled bodies making love than two people finding solace in each other.Thanks to Imtiaz Ali we have atleast few gems to show love of our times. As shown in his love aajkal ,though we are supposed to be "love at first sight and break up at first fight" ( in the words of Mahesh Bhat ) generation, all of us thrive on good relationships and suffer from the same side effects of being in love ! 😂

Most times I cannot differentiate if this man makes me discover myself or makes new additions to what I am. Nevertheless few of these are my observations and few what I took away from his stories..😃 Do share if you have any..

Art of criticism

I wonder if this is a societal defect but I find most of us being very sensitive to criticism ; be it in any context- individual ,community ,state or nation. Even if accidentally or indirectly someone points our flaws or something they don't approve of, we defend in a second without assessing even tad bit if it may or may not be right in any way. But why is it such a big deal. What if we have flaws? What if someone doesn't approve of our opinions /actions ? We could ponder and correct ourselves if needed and move on. Why this erratic need to defend ourselves all the time? Not just that, even if it is a government we support politically or a particular Khan in Bollywood we love ,we tend to blindly support and jump on every other person who gets critical. 

Although I do agree it's not always about whom criticism is targeted at and how it is accepted, it's also about how someone criticizes. Most times it reduces to an argument winning competition which in turn results in words which don't serve the purpose. Also if the person criticising thinks too much of himself , then no one is going to care for his/her criticism. On the other hand if it is someone who has accepted their flaws and is comfortable in their own skin, they don't even let u feel they were being critical. Now that is exactly the reason why I feel that the act of being critical or criticized is an important art for any kind of intellectual brainstorming.

For something like a community or religion we should realize and accept that if there is no one to point us when we are wrong ,then we will stagnate and anything which is stagnant becomes obsolete with time. Change is inevitable and natural evolution of a society is what is going to keep it healthy.That too in a society like ours where there are too many forces pulling us in different directions, pluralism should be celebrated. It is very important to have a conducive environment so that our democracy flourishes. I earnestly wish that we would all learn to respectfully agree to disagree and realize that the whole beauty of democracy is to have the right to dissent and still peacefully co exist.