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Om Spoof Om

Start with the story of Karz, mix Do Anjaane's revenge plot into it and create a collage of Bollywood spoofs starting from a fake filmfare ceremony to a star-studded birthday party - that's what is Om Shanti Om for you.

OSO is not a movie for the serious critics out there - it is as frivolous as the fake 'star party' and the array of nominations in the filmfare awards function. While so many people were upset at the portrayal of Abhishek Bacchan and Akshay Kumar as loosers, we must acknowledge, SRK made fun of himself and Karan Johar in Om Kapoor's nominations ('Rahul - नाम तो सुना होगा' - repeated twice for two different movies).

The opening scene of the movie where SRK and Farah are in the audience of the song 'Om Shanti Om' is innovative, so is the linkage of the scenes involving Sooraj Barjatya and Govinda (when SRK and Shreyas Talpade advise him to drop the 'Ahuja' from his name), and of course the songs where Deepika dances around Sunil Dutt and Jeetendra is neatly done. All these 'pseudo links' to the 70's and 80's of bollywood, reminded me of how the storyline of Forrest Gump conflated with the times.


Among the performances, Deepika is as talented as sweet she is - perfectly portraying Shanti of the 70s and Sandy of the 21st century. Arjun Rampal has done a very convincing negative role, but Kirron Kher is too animated; Shreyas Talpade is amazingly original in both incarnations, and Nitish Pandey comes so naturally as a secy that people have even forgotten his name from the cast.

As for SRK - there is a definite touch of overacting when he says "ओह माँ, मेरी फिल्मी माँ" but I found his overacting quite appealing for the 'Picture अभी बाक़ी है दोस्त!!' speech - he was indeed speaking from his heart :-).

I do have compliants - the 70s look in the first part of the movie isn't convincing (except for the songs) - technically a much better job could have been done. The songs too sounded more like the 80s than 70s. The 'thenks' of SRK doesn't sound rustic enough - he is probably too suave to get that right. And I AM BORED of SEEING THE POWAI LAKE in the backdrop from THE RENNAISANCE HOTEL in movies - why can't these guys start shooting in JW Marriott or even better in Bangalore??

At the end, overall Farah and SRK have left no chance to make fun of their industry and even given their co-stars lots of chances to do so (remember how Rishi Kapoor and Subhash Ghai fight on the filmfare stage, Abhishek is shown to be out of Dhoom 5, Hritik says 'ts gottobe me', and Rekha dances to seduce younger stars). If you go without your brains, you are sure to enjoy the spoof of all spoofs.

However, as frivolous as it is, OSO is also a tribute to the bygone era of Indian cinema. When Arjun Rampal says "एक मनमोहन देसाई angle लगाओ - वही काम आयेगा!", he pays as much a tribute to Amitabh Bacchan era of movies, as he does to Manmohan Desai himself.

And finally, Om Shanti Om is a banging tribute to (and I know the SRK haters will hate me as much for this!) - SRK's dominion over Bollywood as stands today!

Comments

  1. Couldn't have said it better - can only enjoy the movie if one looks at it as a no-brainer and a satire on the indian cinema - old and new!
    I thoroughly enjoyed the movie btw...

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