Om Shanti Om

Mark Wiebers

Om Shanti Om

Om Shanti Om (2007) was one of the years smash hits with a successful soundtrack. Traveling in India during it’s release it was impossible to miss. The songs were being played in what seemed like every galli, ricksha, dukan and radio. The bright movie posters with Deepika and India’s beloved Shah Rukh Khan were plastered everywhere. The magnetite of the movie produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gouri Khan was impossible to miss. Knowing little Hindi, I went and saw the film but did not understand what all the fuss was about. The aesthetics and music were outstanding but I did not get something. Three years later I watched Om Shanti Om again after increasing my knowledge of Hindi and Bollywood, but this time I saw the light. The film is packed full of numerous absurdities, jokes and insights into the industry past and present. This review is about discussing some of those inside (almost all Indian viewers) attributes and parts I liked about the movie.

Shah Rukh Khan has a double role in the film. First he is a poor junior artist named Om Prakash Makhija trying to make in the film industry. He inspires to make it big and says that if you want something enough then the universe will provide it. He then is hit by a car and dies, only to be reborn into a well to do Bollywood industrialist family. Shah Rukh Khan in his later incarnation is named Om Kapoor. This is ironic three levels. First, the Kapoor family in reality is actual one of the Bollywood industrialists and pass on the acting tradition to their children. In Om Shanti Om through reincarnation Shah Rukh Khan goes from rags to riches through two lifetimes. The second irony is that Shah Rukh Khan in real life is one of the only actors to make it big in Bollywood, who is not from a established family. Third, in reality it only took Shah Rukh Khan one lifetime to reach the top of stardom.

In Om Shanti Om there were many cameos that was pretty much the who’s who in Bollywood. During the dance sequence to the films title track, the group of Bollywood stardom seem to have a wonderful time. There is actors, producers and directors alike that all join and dance during the number. This scene especially is an example of the feel good flavor of most of the film.

Comic relief in this feel is seen throughout the film. My favorite comedic scene when Om Prakash is shooting his movies as a junior artist. These scenes make fun of two elements in Bollywood. First, Shah Rukh Khan’s acting is above and beyond the normal exaggeration seen in Bollywood film. The effects of him flying through the air were also what some my refer to as “cheesy” as flys through the air. This whole time a hippi is saying wow what acting, wow what flying and so on. The hippi repeated this for almost every overemphasis move Om Prakash made. Second, it pokes fun at the smaller film industry such as the B industry and other Indian languages cinema. This is done by the showing the ridicules nature and topics of the film. The next topic is irony in randomness in Bollywood film.

When Om Kapoor goes into the studio for the first time he is late and lax. Then to make the movie he is acting more exciting and appealing, he says we need a disco number. The director does not understand but magically a modern disco number is pulled off. The dance sequence to Dard De Disco is a smash hit, but in Om Shanti Om and the movie being filmed in Om Shanti Om, there is no relevance. Yet this is another irony that Om Shanti Om pokes fun of Bollywood. Thus, the film craft fully makes fun of itself.

As mentioned above there are so many inside references in this movie to mention in this review. But the thing that makes Om Shanti Om so brilliant is that it has the ability to make fun of the some of the ironies in the industry. The film produced by Gouri Khan (Shah Ruhk’s) wife was truly a film made by an insider made for the insider with knowledge about Bollywood.