Om Shanti Om

Back in office after the long weekend for Deepavali, I felt left out not having watched Om Shanti Om[OSO].. "Terrific! terrible!! okay-dokey.. six-pack ! " blah blah... office was buzzing with OSO talks. Not wanting to be left out from the 'in' crowd and to also to discuss important issues like Six pack abs during office meetings, I decided to punish myself, and watch this philum.

THE STORY

Om Prakash Makhija[Sick Khan] is a junior artiste with dreams of becoming a big star some day. Om is in love with top actress Shanti Priya [Deepika Padukone], who is trapped in a bad affair with a film producer [Arjun Rampal]. Om dies in a tragic fire accident, is reborn (??) as Om Kapoor, becomes a big star and takes revenge on Arjun Rampal for having killed his sweet heart Shanti Priya. Wow! vaat a super story I say!

SCREENPLAY

When you have a story from Karz which itself was remade from some Angrezi film, you obviously can't steal all the scenes from the original. So what do you do? You supplement with the same kind of kaamedy scenes again and again ... and again.. Taking digs at actors, the filmy awards, yesteryear films is fun.But if it is repetitive, it gets boring. These spoofs form 40% of the film and don't contribute to the storyline much.. On second thoughts, there is no story.. So why bother? Like all Tamil-telugu-kannada-mallu people, my blood boils on the very mention of Mehmood-aree vaat jeee kinda so-called kaamedy in Bollywood films. But what to do? You can't help but laugh at that stupid 'Quick Gun Murugan' stuff by Saaruk Kaan and Co.

CAST

Shahrukh is Shahrukh Kkkhan.. with his usual stretching his hands termed as dance, trying to do some kaaamedy stuff... well he does a Shahrukh yet again.But I have to admit one thing. He scores well in the senti-scenes however cliched` they are. Deepika Padukone is beautiful. It has been ages since we saw such a beautiful debut on screen and her acting is pretty decent. Shreyas Talpade is under utilized. Wish this talented guy hadn't been wasted in a dud like OSO. Kirrrrrrrrrrron Kher.. gawd! Will somebody throw the likes of Kiron Kher, Jaya Bacchan into the Arabian sea please? [they stay very close to the sea.. so shouldn't be a problem carrying them]. This lady has been doing the same stuff for many many many years.. Agreed, she plays a melodramatic over-the-top filmy mummy of Shahrukh. But everytime you see her with that bonda-bajji mouth uttering some nonsensical dialogues, you just want to scream "Shut up!!!" Arjun Rampal was good since he had very few scenes and very few dialogues. Cinematographer Manikandan, art director Sabu Cyril, assistant director Joyeeta Chatterjee, Music director Vishal, screenplay writer Mushtaq Sheikh, director Farah Khan and almost everybody and anybody associated behind the camera in the film, make an appearance in some scene or the other.

TECHNICAL, COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP

Yo, Soueeeth Indian peoples! For all the digs these chappati movies take at us, they use Soueeeth Indian technicians to make their dud films look decent. V Manikandan - the cinematographer and Sabu Cyril - the art director.. Honestly I was disappointed with both. Ideally I would have loved a sepia tone or a grainy effect for the first half since it was a 70s look. The film did not take me back to that era. Ditto for art direction. Hoardings of films released in 70s, Ovaltine and other products were the only ones in the backdrop that suggested the old look. None of the others. But I guess it was a collective disaster.

The costume directors have put in hours of work to dress up only the lead actors. The junior artistes of the 70s still look 2007, dressed up in prints of 2007.. Forget them.. Shreyas talpade's make up for 2007 was amateurish, what with that fake paunch, artificial beard etc. I am not going to talk about Kirron Kher's make up and waste my time further. If one goes back to watch films of Sharmila Tagore, Hema malini, Zeenat Amaan in the 1970s, there is a distinct look attached.. big hair-do, side curls, heavy-makeup. Deepika Padukone's look had this big hair-do and costumes by Manish Malhotra.. that's it.. The make up was from 2007. Shahrukh too had just the costumes by Karan Johar to suggest that era. Nothing else.

The only place where special effects[Red Chillies, VFX]stood out was the song where Deepika is seen dancing with Jeetendra & Sunil Dutt. Fire sequences, the main SFX area of the film was badly executed and looked very artificial.

MUSIC

Vishal&Shekar score in 3 out of 6 odd songs in the film. Wonder why the much publicized 'Aankhon mein teri-Ajab si' song by KK was not picturized fully. The best of the lot was 'Main Agar' a beautiful melody sung by Sonu Nigam...nice picturization. Ofcourse there is this 'Deewangi Deewangi' with 30 odd actors including vettis like Aftab Shivdasani and maha vettis like Dino Morea, Arbaaz Khan and others..And ofcourse ofcourse the much publicized terrible Six-pack song called 'Dard-e-disco'. A brilliant example of how a very ordinary song can be termed a hit thanks to high volume publicity on television channels, 24*7 play-outs on the radio..You want to asusual slap the Khan when he removes his shirt to show his six packs..Pukesh big time! The Sunil Dutt-Jeetendra-Deepika song disappoints. It would have been great if it has sounded the 70s. The theme music orchestrated by Pyarelal [of Lakshmikant-Pyarelal fame] grows on you. Sandeep Chowta's background score adds to the reincarnation drama.

AHAA!

The best part of the film were the end credits. The production boys, assistant directors, camera crew, choreographers - everyone walked the red carpet. One got to see a whole lot of people who work behind the scenes before it hits the screen.

Deepika Padukone's dubbing is flawless. The Shankars, Selvaraghavans and the other biggies from Kollywood should learn this one thing from bollywood as to how to dub a heroine's voice without the keech keech. I waited till the last frame to know the name* behind the voice coz last I heard Mona Ghosh had dubbed for Padukone. But sadly, the end credits did not mention any name. Bulb struck later! Farah Khan has been telling the world that Deepika dubbed for herself because had she mentioned that Deepika had been dubbed by another voice, it would have meant negative publicity. "Areeey, heroinee Soueeeth Indian hai.. she can't speak Hindi" is what the media and trade pundit would have concluded even before the release. Smart move Farah! Will do some CID work and update the name* on this blog by next week

Kajol - On the 'Deewangi Deewangi' song, you love that moment when Saaruk and Kajol come together on screen.

FINAL VERDICT

I love masala films - Hindi, Tamizh, Telugu, Bhojpuri... Give me a well-filmed all-in-all action-comedy-romance packed paisaa vasool film every weekend and I'd love it. But OSO disappoints not because it a rehash of Karz.. not because of the yucky sick-pack abs... but because of the bad execution of a no-story film.

For die-hard tamizh film fans like me, OSO is forced humour... Laugh because everyone laughs types. It is fun in parts... but that's it.. there is nothing more to it.

TAIL PIECE

Now that the film is termed a hit, even actors like Ameesha Patel, Diya Mirza, Dino Morea and 500 others who haven't done a film, forget a hit film in 10 years can now claim that they have had a hit thanks to their 5 second role in OSO!

OSO = No Show!