Problem with Imtiaz's movies?!

I always feel Imtiaz as a director has a lot to say, and is a great thinker. Where he falters is the execution though. His positives: he always tries something new, avoids the banal, and shows an impeccable display of craft. His negatives: he tries to juggle too many things, and ends up falling flat on his face. Most of his films don't coalesce into holistic products which have consistent virtue, it's like golden moments strewn throughout but no tight screenplay to bring together these golden moments into a well-integrated film (for e.g. Tamasha).

His projects are ambitious, are gorgeously assembled, have heart, but lack smoothness and the tonality is uneven. Also, they lack pace and momentum, and are not consistent.Sometimes, you feel like he has so much to convey but is not able to find the cinematic language to make us on the same page as him.

Also, Love Aaj Kal 2 was his biggest disaster not because the film had nothing to say, but too much to say and the acting was the weakest link. Sara and Kartik just could not display the complexity of their characters with the same elan as Ranbir was able to do in Rockstar and Tamasha, and Alia was partially able in Highway. So the film ended up in a dark space where people just could not make head or tail of the plot, and the weak acting only contributed to the half-baked feel.

I loved his seminal Jab We Met and his first film Socha Na Tha the most. Both these films were pitched perfectly, had terrific chemistry between the leads and unlike his other films, the continuity from scene to scene didn't collapse intermittently.

Personally, I love Rockstar, Tamasha and Highway as well, but these movies didn't work the same magic as Jab We met and Socha Na the because of the reason I highlighted above -- the lag between intent and execution. Where intent is as powerful and all-consuming as Imtiaz's, the execution needs to keep abreast, and when there is a serious discrepancy between intent and execution, the film will end up in no-man's land. That's what I believe happens with his latest films, barring When Harry Met Sejal, which was just bad cinema, and a major blot on his filmography.

Thoughts???

I also feel he lacks the resources to make a cohesive film. Maybe he just needs good editors.🤓

Great concepts and ideas- almost spiritual and enlightened in the way he has envisioned love- as something that helps us connect with ourselves- an almost revolutionary thought in Hindi films, which have traditionally shown love as obsession, stalking, badly behaved men fighting over toys or just something superficial.

But bad execution- the writing fails him usually in the second half and makes it all seem uber pretentious.

Also horrid dialogues- which attempt to make the speaker/character seem cool and "with it" but fall flat

His screenplay is disjointed

With the exception of his first 2 films socha na tha and jab we met , he has this habit of jumping from one scene to another with no lead or connection...after a point u just give up due to the lack of flow

His dialogues can sometimes feel exhausting to keep up with...sometimes it feels like in an attempt to make it quirky he goes so long winded and ur like “are bhai kya kehna chahte ho”

Those monologues from tamasha, conversations between deepika and ranbir in corsica, ranbir and nargis in rockstar, srk and anushka in jhms and Sara/ kart him in lak2...even deepika and saif in lak...

Feel So random and pointless 🙄

That said he has atleast one gr8 scene in most of his movies ...except his last two which were just uggh 🤐

Originally posted by: pathaka

His screenplay is disjointed

With the exception of his first 2 films socha na tha and jab we met , he has this habit of jumping from one scene to another with no lead or connection...after a point u just give up due to the lack of flow

His dialogues can sometimes feel exhausting to keep up with...sometimes it feels like in an attempt to make it quirky he goes so long winded and ur like “are bhai kya kehna chahte ho”

Those monologues from tamasha, conversations between deepika and ranbir in corsica, ranbir and nargis in rockstar, srk and anushka in jhms and Sara/ kart him in lak2...even deepika and saif in lak...

Feel So random and pointless 🙄

That said he has atleast one gr8 scene in most of his movies ...except his last two which were just uggh 🤐

I completely agree. The scenes in all his movies after Jab We Met are so jagged and rough. The transition from scene to scene lacks the smoothness and continuity. And worst of all, it seems he is unable to find the adequate cinematic language to coherently describe his thought process. Three big negatives. It's like his brain and his heart are at odds with each other. And he hasn't been able to find an equilibrium between the two.

Originally posted by: Sashay01

Great concepts and ideas- almost spiritual and enlightened in the way he has envisioned love- as something that helps us connect with ourselves- an almost revolutionary thought in Hindi films, which have traditionally shown love as obsession, stalking, badly behaved men fighting over toys or just something superficial.

But bad execution- the writing fails him usually in the second half and makes it all seem uber pretentious.

Also horrid dialogues- which attempt to make the speaker/character seem cool and "with it" but fall flat

Beautifully said. Yes, for him love is indeed spiritual, a life-transforming event, and the details he packs into showing the trajectory of the love lives is exquisite. In order to underplay this and in keeping with the times, he tries to make it seem "cool" and "with it" and fails miserably. Love can either be mundane or sublime - not both. He has a hard time keeping this balance.

he has been trying to hard to be intellectual/sufi after jab we met. needs better screenplay and editor too

even in lak2 there is a scene when veer is leaving and wants to see Zoe, and Zoe says to dekh lo, it is beautiful and you feel their sadness, and both Sara and Kartik were so good in that scene, but he was just lazy with the film.

in jab Harry Met Sejal, srk is so cringe, and in all his career I have never had any director take away srk's natural charm on screen like Imtiaz did with that movie.

he made rk in tamasha and even in rockstar (I don't like the movie), srk and kartik all so uncomfortable to watch in his movies.

only saving grace of tamasha was Deepika

Originally posted by: nonam

he has been trying to hard to be intellectual/sufi after jab we met. needs better screenplay and editor too

even in lak2 there is a scene when veer is leaving and wants to see Zoe, and Zoe says to dekh lo, it is beautiful and you feel their sadness, and both Sara and Kartik were so good in that scene, but he was just lazy with the film.

in jab Harry Met Sejal, srk is so cringe, and in all his career I have never had any director take away srk's natural charm on screen like Imtiaz did with that movie.

he made rk in tamasha and even in rockstar (I don't like the movie), srk and kartik all so uncomfortable to watch in his movies.

only saving grace of tamasha was Deepika

I completely concur👍🏼

Yes, his last 2 works were major disasters. When Harry Met Sejal lacked his quintessential touch, and was a bad movie from start to finish. LAK 2 was also bad cinema, not for lack of intent, but again the execution was faulty to the T.

Imtiaz is all about inner conflicts. In earlier movies like socha na tha, Jab we met his characters somewhat behaved like normal people to me and had struggles the way you and I might have internal struggles. After that he found Ranbir and decided to take this inner conflict to a whole new level where I felt his characters were no longer realistic. I know rockstar did well, Highway did well, but when I watched most of these movies, along with Tamasha, Jab harry met Sejal, Love aaj kal 2 I had the same thoughts running through my head in all of them..."who behaves like this? I don't know anyone who behaves like this." Sometimes the story was nice enough so it worked, other times it didn't.

I also find his characters extremely unlikable. I like flawed people so it is not that. I just dislike almost all of his recent characters. They are boring as well.

He has a decent story, which is the same in all his movies, and interesting characters, against pretty similar, but he doesn't know what to do with them.

His characters do random things throughout the movie... like HARRY MET SALLY with no meaning.

SOCHA NA THA and JAB WE MEG were different as they were neatrly structured with REASONS.