Imtiaz Ali may not have his abode here in
Goa, but this is a place that holds a special place in his life. Perhaps,
because it is here that he shot his first film, ‘Socha Na Tha’ and kickstarted
his Bollywood stint. Although the film may not have a lasting impression at the
box office, Ali did! For, the blockbusters that followed in the form of ‘Jab We
Met’, ‘Rockstar’ and ‘Tamasha’, to name a few, set Ali on this career path that
has been nothing short of a smooth ‘highway’. At the ongoing NFDC Film Bazaar,
Ali spoke at length about redefining romance on Hindi celluloid – a subject
that he so vividly exploited in his films.
It doesn’t take a deep study of Ali’s films
to know that most of the female characters in his films are very strong. But it
does take a conversation with him to discover the reason behind this trend. Ali
explains, “My mother was very intelligent. I could never outsmart her. She’d
always catch me in my mischief. It was a curse, because as a kid I could never
get past her. Fortunately or unfortunately, almost all the women in my life
have been like that. So, I have been secretly admiring and loving them, and
superficially always hating them.”
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Ali acknowledges the fact that social media
has impacted relationships and according to him the changes are both positive
and negative. Ali says, “The man and woman in a relationship know each other
much better now and the secret is out sooner. People come straight to the point
of discussion or whatever it is that you want to do with each other. But also,
somewhere, the mystery in romance is lost. My daughter is growing up now and I
wish that, in her life, she gets to experience the mystery in romance that was
there in the times of my youth. It’s a loss. The focus on one person has changed
to focus on many people and many things.”
Commenting on the positives of the trend,
Ali cites an example of how boys, in olden days used to grow up to be like
their fathers because that was the only reference that they had. Ali says, “As
media, television and cinema took centre stage, the number of reference points
grew. With social media becoming so popular, now the youth has many idols,
which is actually better for the development of their own unique
personalities.”
Commenting on the overall change that
‘romance’ has undergone over the years, Ali, instead of concluding whether the
change is good or bad, feels that “it is different”. It may also be interesting
to note that Ali has toyed around with the idea of floating relationships with
an element of uncertainty in the relationships, quite extensively in his films.
When asked the source of this affinity to the said subject, Ali says, “The
things that I show in my films, do not necessarily come from inside myself but
also around myself. I see this happening with people around me – that there is
no external pressure for them to not be together. Sometimes they wish there was
an external problem which they could solve together and united. Things are very
internalised now and there are too many choices. But I strongly feel that
people who have too many choices and options, can be lonelier than before.”
