Not many filmmakers take the pain to bring out the complexities of human mind and the modern-day relationships to screen but, thankfully, some do. One of them is the noted filmmaker Imtiaz Ali who has helmed films like Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar, Highway and Tamasha among others.
Each of his films has characters and stories that real people identify with – confused, battling their inner demons, intertwined in modern-day relationships or searching for one’s soul. While a viewer may find it easy to spot his genre, the filmmaker finds it difficult to identify his style of filmmaking.
“I feel it is very difficult to detect my own style of filmmaking. I can’t detect it. Somebody who has seen my work from outside will have a better opinion about it”, he told News18.com.
Because the audience is used to watching Imtiaz’s take on present-day love affairs, a lot of them found Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil strikingly similar to the former director’s past works. When asked if he feels the same way, Imtiaz laughs it off and says, “I don’t see that. Probably, because it was Ranbir Kapoor in both films – so people were likely to comment that. It’s an unfair disadvantage for him (Karan)”.
In Socha Na Tha, the groom gets cold feet on his wedding day despite being irrevocably in love with his bride-to-be; in Jab We Met, the couple find their way into each other by unknowingly helping each other in bettering themselves; in Love Aaj Kal – the two of them mutually break-up and move on with their lives but realise their feelings and find their way back into love soon after, the protagonist’s anguish amid his complex love-life shakes him from the core; in Rockstar, a girl finally finds a companion and the strength to voice her long-kept dark secret; Highway and Tamasha polarised the viewers with his etching of the pain and angst his characters Ved and Taara feel.
For a filmmaker to paint his picture with such bold layers of emotions, one would expect him to have a very robust perspective on modern-day relationships. But Imtiaz, in a revelation of its kind, says, “I don’t really have a take on modern-day relationships – I feel it cannot be categorised specifically.”
Ali, who has mentored the short film of Satish Raj Kasireddi titled Mia I’m which is one of the films in an anthology of 7 films Shor Se Shuruaat around the central theme of noise, says he had no mentors when he entered the industry. “I had no mentors – only producers, friends and people who were sympathetic.”
Mia I’m is about how youngsters need to be more responsible on social media – not only for themselves but towards others too. Ali feels that something which is meant to connect people can actually disconnect them too.
In an era where everyone is constantly updating their social media accounts – even for film promotions – it comes as a surprise that Ali is hardly seen in the virtual world to which he says, “Everyone needs a regular amount of interaction and I think I get mine from real people. I don’t feel the need to be on social media and honestly I don’t think I can handle it”.
Shor se Shuruaat is an omnibus feature of seven mentored short films including filmmakers like Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Zoya Akhtar, Nagesh Kukunoor, Homi Adajania and Sriram Raghavan besides Imtiaz Ali.
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