Nov 15, 2007 12:56 PM
1006 Views
Six days after its release, the Om Shanti Om hype has mellowed down but has not died yet. I saw on a news channel yesterday that its on its way to become the biggest grosser in Hindi cinema if the momentum continues.
Go back thirty years to the 70s. Om Prakash Makhija(SRK) is a junior artist. Shanti Priya(Deepika Padukone) is a budding starlet that he is crazy about. Mukesh Mehra(Arjun Rampal) is a wicked producer who is secretly married to Shanti. As a result, Om's love for her stays unrealized. He witnesses her being burnt by Mukesh and dies in his attempt to save her. Return to today. Om is reincarnated as a superstar. Circumstances take him back to places from his past life. Now he must avenge Shanti's death.
I enjoyed the first half of the film very much. It is funny. The spoof on the 70s work(though SRK and Farah Khan claim that they are not spoofing anybody in their film). Events and characters are very intelligently placed. From the very start on the sets of'Meri umar ke nau jawanon' to SRK as the south superstar, everything clicks. Govinda as a struggler, Sooraj Barjatya picking up his Maine Pyar Kiya catch line, all these are very smart bits. The drama that followed left the film well poised for an entertaining second half. But that, unfortunately, disappoints.
SRK is unconvincing as a dude in the second half. He was a dude in DDLJ, not anymore. He does not look a dude and his antics look fake. His past life coming back to him over a period of hardly 1-2 days is an insult to audience intelligence. Reincarnation as a concept is OK but don't tell me somebody can so easily accept that his past life is haunting him the way SRK does. Go and see Rishi Kapoor's turmoil in'Karz' to see how to build such a character and situation. It only downhill going further.
Let me use some space to write on the'masala' genre. It is a gift to world cinema from India. A masala film has all elements of cinematic entertainment you can think of. It is an assorted fun ride. Contrary to what many believe, it does not insult audience intelligence. In fact, no genre rests more on audience intelligence. Every thing you see in a masala film "can" happen, only the probability is very low. The moment some film maker believes he or she can pass on illogical stuff as masala film, it is a mistake.'Amar Akbar Anthony' is a masala classic because it is a realistic plausibility all the while(yes, even Amitabh dressed as a priest fooling the goons - think!).
Om Shanti Om becomes illogical in the second half. How come Sandy(Deepika Padukone) is not freaked out(even once!) on learning someone looking exactly like her existed. Why are so many people helping SRK, do all of them believe in his reincarnation story? There are many more instances. All this is gross negligence which cannot be sold as masala.
Take home from the film - a stunning, stunning Deepika, the star-studded song'Om Shanti Om', Shilpa Shetty for the few seconds she is on screen(mirror, mirror on the wall; who's the hottest of them all?) and the 70s in the first half.
