Ten years after its release, Tamasha still remains relevant.

It seems Imtiaz Ali cautioned us against losing ourselves to the grind, a decade before industry leaders started openly pushing for a 9-9-6 routine — 9am to 9pm shift, six days a week.

Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) is the reason the film hits home even after ten years. Ranbir plays him with a softness that hides a storm. As a child, Ved was full of stories and noise and wonder. As an adult, he is the kind of man the world approves of. Polished. Efficient. Predictable. He shows up on time. He follows instructions. He never pushes back. And slowly, without noticing, he becomes a stranger to himself.

Ved follows the script everyone admires, and in the process, forgets the boy who loved stories, chaos and colour. The world rewards the cleaner version of him. But the cost is steep: he loses the ability to recognise himself.

As India debates harsher work cycles and celebrates extreme hustle, Ved’s journey feels painfully familiar. Long hours. Constant pressure. A life measured by output, not joy. Many people live this pattern daily. They keep at it because everyone around them calls it ambition. They burn quietly, the same way Ved does.

Deepika Padukone’s Tara sees this before Ved does. She remembers the carefree man she met in Corsica and can’t reconcile him with the stiff version she meets later. Her confusion becomes his turning point. But the work of rebuilding the man — of peeling back layers and facing the truth — is entirely his. And she becomes the catalyst for this transformation.

That truth cracks open in the film’s most important moment: Agar Tum Saath Ho. Irshad Kamil’s words and A.R. Rahman’s music slow everything down. They force Ved to ask the question he has avoided for years: Who am I trying to please? And at what cost?

Rahman’s soundtrack amplifies this journey. Tu Koi Aur Hai aches with the pain of living the wrong life. Matargashti bursts with the joy he once had. Each song nudges him toward the person he buried under routine.

When Ved finally returns to storytelling, it is cathartic. That is what makes his arc so powerful even today. The fix for burnout isn’t running away. It’s choosing a life that matches who you are. It’s dropping the act. It’s going back to the spark you left behind.

A decade later, Tamasha reminds us that productivity without purpose hollows you out. And it insists that real work begins only when you stop performing and start listening to yourself.