It would be easy to describe Jab We Met as a charming, candy-floss romance between a girl and a boy. Both suffer from infidelity and heartbreak and are united by destiny and Bollywood cliches. But Imtiaz Ali's cinema beyond the cult of this romance was more than just about romance. Rockstar and Tamasha, in particular, were centered around a man who's actually yet to become a man.

Just like how Ayushmann Khurrana has nearly owned the genre of socially-driven subjects that others would gaze at with disdain, Akshay Kumar has championed the cause of patriotism, in a similar way, Ranbir Kapoor is the best actor to channel the emotions of a man-child refusing to grow up. In both Wake Up Sid and Rockstar, we may have wanted him to transform, but in Tamasha, he was better suited to be a child.