Monday, November 26, 2007

Om Shanti Om

I would make a very honest statement: I really liked Om Shanti Om. And I mean it. Reasons are numerous: please get rid of your self-notion imagination that it is because the King Khan is there. Of course I am a big fan of him; but I believe there are reasons beyond this liking that makes this movie a nice watch (without any sort of cursing) to me.

If you would hunt for logic behind the happening of the movie, I am sorry: you make a bad pick. Probably a movie like "The Pursuit of Happyness" would suit you more. Well, let me clarify: I am not comparing the two movies at all. Just pointing out a contrast in movie taste: the former a true fiction, the latter bringing you face to face to the hard reality.

It is the story of an aspiring actor who falls for a big star. And how his failure in that birth leads to his reincarnation to fulfil his dreams, one and all. I personally don't believe in rebirth and the genre. But I really liked the movie. Reasons:

1. The movie is a complete fiction: a drive away from reality. It is not just reincarnation, but also things like a commonplace guy coming into the notice of a superstar, and the girl coming out to spend an evening with the guy. These things are far away from reality. But what makes this movie beautiful is the intricacy with which these fictional events have been rendered.

2. The actors do their jobs. SRK gives 'life' to the character so much so that you yourself feel that something should happen even if out of the blue to fulfil his dreams! And that's what happens: when it comes, it is no surprise to you!

3. Deepika is not just another new comer with a great deal of item numbers and skin show. Her acting skills, if not the great ones, are appreciable with her experience in the acting arena. Shreyas and Kiron Kher are good as ever.

I strongly feel why this fiction succeeds and why others (like No Smoking) fails. Om Shanti Om does not attempt to make a connection with the reality. For those three and a half hours you are transported to a surreal world. And the credit probably goes to the director Farah and of course the producer SRK.

Bollywood really needs to understand that a movie success doesn't necessary happen because of:
1. focusing on just classy and expensive sets (e.g. Saawariya).
2. characters have a great role to play. They need to be true to themselves in rendering their job. Kudos, OSO does it very nicely!

Consider any fiction movie in Hollywood: from "being John Malcovich" to "Matrix" to "Jurassic Park", all were fictions. But they came out a great movies. The reason being: they did their best jobs 'inside' their realm of the fiction!

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