Om "Shanti?" Om

{Warning: This is a particularly long post and if you don‘t have enough time then I suggest you not read it at all rather than giving up halfway through, muttering curses at me}

The fact that I find (and have always found) Deepika Padukone absolutely delectable has no bearing whatsoever on what I am going to write about Om Shanti Om(OSO for future reference) in this post of mine. Yes, I’ve finally seen what most critics and serious film buffs would call nothing more than a gaudy monstrosity. I realize that I’m going to draw some serious flak if I say that I beg to differ but I’m going to say it anyway.
I’ve never particularly liked SRK movies. No, that’s not entirely true. What more neatly covers it is that I’ve always hated SRK movies barring the odd exception Swades. Off-screen though the story’s quite different. I’ve always found SRK interviews quite entertaining and his answers particularly witty. One might almost call me an SRK fan…off screen mind it. I’ve always had the feeling that what he does on screen is because of how well he knows what the Indian audience expects/wants from a movie.
In fact I don’t think anyone could have summed this curious state of Indian cinema better that Mallika Sherawat when she said “Only two things sell when it comes to Indian Cinema…sex and Shahrukh Khan”. What strikes me as particularly interesting is that SRK seems to know it only too well. Ahem, well, so does Mallika, for that matter. Anyway, I for one, found too many digs at the Indian film industry’s…no the Indian film audience’s, current state in OSO for it to be a mere coincidence.
From re-births to skimpily clad Hinglish speaking confused female side actors to over-anxious mothers with their typical age old line“Aja beta khana kha le” OSO has all that I can't quite digest in Indian cinema. But it also has a lot more…at least in my humble opinion. Let me elaborate…
The reborn SRK, OK in the movie is supposed to act in a movie in which he is a spurned lover witnessing his beloved’s wedding. He however is not going to be in any state to voice opinions or even make hand gestures for that matter since he’s deaf, mute, blind and has all four limbs amputated. OK before shooting for the movie claims that this movie would go on to win enormous critical acclaim but wouldn’t be a crowd puller. So what does the movie need to rake in the moolah? It needs an item number with a bevy of hot chicks and a bare bodied OK with painted abs doing the Dard-e-disco. A sloppy film banking on celebrity item numbers is nothing new. Bollywood has used it time and again and more often than not to great monetary effect.
OK's line to his father right after the filmfare awards ceremony proclaiming that he had won awards and laurels simply because of his father's financial backing was more that a subtle below-the-belt blow at some of our budding star-kids.
The filmfare award portion of the movie was also of particular interest to me. The shots at the Dhoom series (quite sporty of Jr. Bachhan to take up the role and arguably the best work he‘s done and will ever do), and the Khiladi series of movies were both particularly enjoyable. Equally enjoyable were the preset lines from the actresses proclaiming to be "just friends" with OK. Even more enjoyable were SRK’s digs at his own ridiculous mushy movies from the Yashraj and Karan Johar factories-a clear indication that he himself realises how crappy those movies are.
However, he does them nevertheless because he knows that what will sell among the Indian audience fattened on K serials, is mushy balderdash like Kuch Kuch hota hai, Kal ho na ho and Kabhi Alvida na Kehna while movies like Johnny Gaddar, Hazaaron Khwaishe Aisi and Bheja Fry move quietly into oblivion.
And this is what has been glorified in OSO-which in my opinion is more of a spoof than a film. It is a critique, if I may be audacious enough to call it so, of the sorrowful taste in movies of the Indian audience. It is proof, that a film need no longer have a script and good acting to be a hit. What it needs now is some ample dose of mush, a hackneyed plot, a couple of item numbers and as some icing on this cake a generous dose of megastars. The mere fact that OSO has done marvelously at the box office is ample proof of this because the SRK/Farah Khan team has put in OSO exactly what it stands to criticise. My hats of to SRK for poking us in the eye with this unfortunate truth and my apologies to Farah Khan if I haven’t given here due credit for coming up with this film, or rather a product, that should serve as a rude awakening to the Indian movie goers.