The film tells the story of character Ved Vardhan Sahni (played by Kapoor) in three stages–as a 9-year-old child, a 19-year-old adolescent and a 30-year-old adult in a nonlinear narrative.

[5] At the 61st Filmfare Awards, Tamasha received 4 nominations, including Best Actor (Kapoor) and Best Music Director (Rahman), winning Best Lyricist (Kamil for "Agar Tum Saath Ho").

The film begins as an onstage skit as part of a spectacle by Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) and Tara (Deepika Padukone).

The film switches to a flashback, in Shimla, showing a child Ved being fascinated by the stories narrated by a roadside storyteller (Piyush Mishra) who keeps mixing up his characters.

After instantly connecting, they produce an amusing verbal pact to keep their real identities undisclosed, with hopes of not falling in love, as they explore the island together.

One of their frequent jovial activities includes pretending to be movie characters where Ved often poses as "Don" and Tara, as "Mona Darling".

As their bond grows stronger, Tara realizes she is falling in love with Ved and afterward, decides to leave Corsica.

The film moves back to another flashback where a young Ved is seen questioning the storyteller about the reason for happy times ending rapidly, after noticing a sad part in all of his stories.

His monotonous and tedious lifestyle on a daily basis, from morning to evening in a similar pattern, includes him waking up on time, completing the morning chores, wiping the car, ignoring the hijra on the way, helping an elderly woman at his office, giving a presentation for work, and, meeting Tara in the evening.

Ved leaves for his home and on the way, the driver (Ishteyak Khan) tells him about how his dreams of becoming a singer were crushed in earning his livelihood.

As Ved begs Tara to come back to his life, she indirectly informs him she is fixated on his cheerful personality from Corsica instead of his attitude of simply living by societal conventions.

After claiming his lively nature to be his true, undiscovered identity and politely asking him to genuinely figure himself out, Tara tearfully expresses her realization of unintentionally hurting him and apologizes.

The next day, he slightly changes his daily routine at the office, gives the ring to the hijra, and afterward gets evicted from his workplace for his continuous mindless actions.

Ved returns to Shimla and gets in a tussle with his father, Brijmohan Sahni (Javed Sheikh), after telling him he had lost his job and had been wandering around for six months.

Tara, after finishing a business meeting at Oracle in Tokyo, is surprised when Ved shows up back with his gleeful attitude and they both happily begin impersonating characters again.

In 2013, it was announced that director Imtiaz Ali will be making a film with Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in the lead titled, Window Seat.

[15] He called the film "severely intense and personal" story that questions the "systems we get trapped in and crushed childhood dreams".

[18] Ali stated that he wanted to create "different tone" for the film and thus made Kapoor look attractive in Corsica and ordinary in Delhi.

[51][52] The censor board claimed it as the most lengthy kissing scene ever on screen, longer than the one picturised between Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor in the film Raja Hindustani (1996).

"[60] For The Huffington Post, critic Supratik Chatterjee writes, "Tamasha is, in many ways, a culmination of the recurring themes in Ali's filmography.

"[63] In his review for NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee gave stars (2.5 out of 5) writes, "Tamasha is at best a one-time watch because of the sparkle the leads lend to it.

[65] Critic Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express reviewed in positive stating, "Deepika is luminous, and she is much more sure-footed in her part.

[66] Critic Subhash K. Jha for Firstpost stated, "This is a film that doesn't entirely succeed in its endeavor to decode the heart's enigmatic excursions.

[69] Rachit Gupta of Filmfare mentioned, " Ironically, it has a story that tries to ward off mediocrity in everyday life, and yet the film only manages to evoke mixed reactions.

"[72] In her review for Gulf News, Manjusha Radhakrishnan wrote, "The lead actors and Corsica look picture-perfect, but the movie isn't free of blemishes.

"[73] Sneha May Franics of Emirates 24/7 opined, "Imtiaz Ali's indulgent narrative isn't quintessential Bollywood, and that's not necessarily bad".

[74] In a review for The Guardian, Mike McCahill wrote, "Imtiaz Ali's film is a surprising meta-narrative of archetypal star-crossed lovers, but its cool trickiness leaves little room for surrendering to the story.

"[75] Deepa Gauri of Khaleej Times awarded the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Tamasha is un-Bollywood in its rhythm and pace, yet endears you with its essential simplicity.

"[77] In his review for The Express Tribune, Rafay Mahmood gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, stating: "Great music, exceptional performances and a different take on love don't prevent Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha from culminating in a disappointment.

"[78] Jay Seaver of Online Film Critics Society noted, "So it's a little bit bigger than a romantic comedy, although still enough of one that the story of a guy finding what he wants to be doesn't overwhelm it.