Om Shanti Om Review

I was fortunate enough to get a pass to a special screening of the movie and just finished watching it in a jam-packed hall early at 9 AM post Diwali.

A thing about Farah Khan's movies that strikes you in the face is the commitment, the intensity. She goes out to make an all out Masala Movie...and in Om Shanti Om (OSO), she succeeds beautifully...only just that she has tried a wee bit too hard in her masala genre...

The movie starts as a tribute to the early 70s..the gestures, the costumes, the mannerisms...she gets them perfect. Its like watching a movie within a movie with Om Prakash Maakhija (Shahrukh) and his family acting out their daily roles and tributes to the industry...Farah is subtle in bringing out all the nuances in a very unsubtle way...

When the Movie shifts to the current Karan Johar GenX, the audience is already living in a huge set...and the plot is lost somewhere...

A star-crazy Om Prakash is re-born as a star OK (Om Kumar - OK!!!) and goes out to get revenge against his murderers...

Karz was so lovable and memorable since it concentrated on the plot of revenge and Rishi's number in "om shanti om" was paisa wasool...in OSO, the paisa wasool scenes are many, so we have sharukh act as a "superman", and also as a limbless, deaf and dumb actor...other than the 32 stars song...there are the umpteen stars in the "Filmfare Awards", there's Sharukh's six pack abs number...and like mostly the case with such star power, no item number, no glitz stands out as memorable...

But this Farah khan venture needs to be seen to be believed and appreciated. Its a homage in all senses to Bollywood. No promo, no review is going to do it justice except big screen viewing...Those of you who will see it streaming online...its not worth it. If a movie has been made for 70mm this is it.

The one problem with a Shahrukh Movie is that its always Shahrukh everywhere...unless the script is strong. This script is not and so we see a LOOOOOT of Shahrukh. Well Deepika is there, but her awe of him is evident on the sets too...She is beautiful, graceful and acts as if she was born to it, to give her credit.

I loved Main Hoon Na, I loved Jaan-e-Mann (Shirish Kunder's) even more, this movie disappoints me a little bit as compared to the other two but not enough that I wont go back...it will go down in history as the movie in which Farah tried too hard!!! Because she is going to make history, this feisty lady.

ps - review originally written on 10/11/2007