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Om Shanti Om
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| Year: |
2007
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Director: |
Farah Khan
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| Stars: |
Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Kiron Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Deepika Padukone, Bindu, Javed Sheikh, Satish Shah, Nitish Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhry, Shawar Ali, Asawari Joshi, Nassar Abdullah, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rekha, Shilpa Shetty
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| Genre: |
Musical, Comedy, Thriller, Romance, Fantasy |
| Rating: |
  7 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Thirty years ago, Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Kahn) was an extra in Bollywood, but he had big dreams to one day be the headliner in his own movies. One thing his best friend Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) points out, though, is that you can't have a film star with a name like Makhija, because it will make people think of swatting a fly, but Om will not listen. His mother (Kiron Kher) frets over his lack of success, and they have yet another argument which leads him to visit his girlfriend for a heart to heart, which would be nice if his girlfriend wasn't a billboard poster...
So begins the Bollywood epic that wished to pay its respects to the history of the Indian industry, and as a result was a huge hit across the country, especially as it featured one of their megastars, Shah Rukh Khan, in the lead role. Here he sent himself up as well as the Bollywood of the seventies during the first half of the movie, yet director Farah Khan ensured that it was all done with great affection, which could lead one to see the whole production as hopelessly self-indulgent if it were not so capable of winning you over with its good nature and willing cast. As with many of these films, the tone veered wildly, but here it felt controlled and confident.
So one moment you have the laughs, the next you're plunged into the characters' tragedies, and after that there's the suspense, all of it infused with the fantastical after the intermission. The story has Om managing to bump into the girl on the billboard in real life when they meet on a movie set that he is working on in a lowly capacity (the thought of Khan playing an extra at this stage in his career must have tickled many Indian movie fans). She is Shanti (Deepika Padukone), a star of the wattage Om wishes to achieve, and more than that he wants to claim her for his bride. One problem: she doesn't know he exists, but he has aspirations that will help with that.
Then fate happens to land her in his lap when a fiery stunt goes wrong and Om leaps up to be the man of the moment and saves Shanti, sweeping her up in his arms and escorting her from the flames. She is thankful, but has a secret which will prevent his hopes for romance going any further, which we find out halfway through. Before that you can appreciate the colourful, some would say garish, recreation of nineteen-seventies Bollywood with Khan resplendent in a tartan suit at one point - the costume designers certainly enjoyed themselves in this one. However, there is the plot to be getting on with, and revenge raises its head once Om is unfortunately killed while trying to save Shanti for a second time.
Not that this stops the musical numbers from flowing, and indeed doesn't stop Khan from appearing in the film, as he is reincarnated as a star known by his initials, OK, who has become the biggest name around, thus fulfilling his previous life's dream and underlining the theme that if you think you've failed in life then your story is not over yet, a note of hope for the viewing masses there. But the musical aspect was what generated most of the film's publicity because at an award ceremony during the latter half, Farah Khan managed to recruit as many Bollywood stars as she could so that they could all sing and dance to the theme song: there's about thirty of the industry's finest, of all ages, appearing here. As for the rest of it, it is all wrapped up eventually as Om sets about his vengeance, with more than a nod to The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber version) in the grand finale. Enjoyable even for non-aficionados, Om Shanti Om was exuberant fun.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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