Daily Archives: November 12, 2007

Let me confess, after Farah Khan’s “Main Hoon Na” I was really looking forward to “Om Shanti Om”. For me Farah is the epitome of the much maligned Bollywood style of filmmaking. Sure, it might be kitsch, but the way Manmohan Desai’s and Prakash Mehra’s movies tapped into the Indian psyche in the 70s, no other films have been able to do, with due apologies to the Barjatyas and Johars.

But more than anything, OSO is a tribute to the Rishi Kapoor Tina Munim Simi Grewal movie “Karz”. The film starts with Rishi Kapoor singing “Om Shanti Om” from the same film and junior artiste Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) clapping along in the crowd along with another junior artist (Farah Khan).

The movie then introduces to his mother, played with hamming endearment by Kirron Kher (as SRK says in the film “Overacting? Woh to hamari khandani bimari hai”) and his friend Shreyas Talpade both of whom believe that Om will be a hero one day, live in a big house and sleep in a round bed “straight out of a Yash Chopra film”

Om is besotted with superstar actress Shantipriya (Deepika Padukone, making her debut) whom he saves from a fire on the sets (and in doing so, Farah doffs her hat at the Sunil Dutt-Nargis award) and then to impress her claims to be a South based superstar. Watch out for the hysterically funny take offs on MGR and Rajnikanth.

He’s devastated later when he discovers that Shantipriya is actually secretly married to producer Mukesh (played by Arjun Rampal, who tries to act for the first time ever who wants to get married to another lady to get funds to produce the mother of all hits, called (surprise!) Om Shanti Om.

Tragedy strikes, Om and Shanti get killed in the arson that Mukesh causes to get his wife out of the way. And Om is reborn as superstar Rajesh Kapoor’s son, Om Kapoor who himself becomes an actor and finally remembers his past life to get justice for Shantipriya.

Stand out moments in the film are the 70s Om and his total belief in the life at the movies, believing all ends well. His tongue tied act when Shantipriya talks to him. Then there are the tongue in cheek jokes – an evesdropping Suraj Barjatya takes down Om’s dialogue – Shantipriya starring in films with Sunil Dutt, Jeetendra and Rajesh Khanna thanks to digital effects – and playing badminton in a song (a tribute to the Jeetendra – Leena Chandravarkar song- and maybe to her famous dad also )

In the second half the film becomes more grave, though Dard-e-Disco with Om Kapoor the millenial superhero is amazing. Watch for the Filmfare awards sequence – its hilarious. Again a tribute to Karz – when Subhash Ghai and Rishi Kapoor are the people who hand over the award to Om Kapoor.

The final climax is again a tribute to Karz with an unexpected twist.

The music is a highlight of the film, with Vishal Shekhar doing an awesome job. My favourite is “ajab si”.