Diwali and Om Shanti Om

Awwrite.... Enuf is enuf!!. I have decided to stop being the utterly hopelessly lazy bum that I am and start blogging again, and what with writing GRE essays for my friends back in India, my passion for writing is awakening again. I just hope to not let it die so fast, this time around -:P so watch this space people, new kid is back on the block.

So as you people must be guessing from the Title the post is linking about my Diwali experience albeit in a strange way. But that's that. !!!

Diwali has and always been a great fun filled occasion for me rite from my childhood days. The Pre-Days for the Diwali used to be the best/worst. Best, because of the amount of gifts I used to receive at my home were humongous and they always had sth interesting for me. Worst because I was given the task of giving gifts in my locality. Not that I didn't like it but it was a pain going into a new house every time and drinking the same cup of tea/Coke and yes you CAN'T say no were the orders from home.So....

Anyhow I always used to think that once I came to US I will lose my passion/charm for all these festivals because it would be impossible to celebrate them in the manner I used to do it back in India. But one year down the line I can for surely say that there have been festivals where I have enjoyed more than I did even in India. There have be festivals I have celebrated which I never did in India. That's what makes all this special.

This year's Diwali was no different than last year. More drama. More fun. More Masala. A complete fun filled event. But there were two things which made this year's Diwali more different.(hmmm Did I just say it was no different,blogging blues...) One, one of my building mates did Puja in her house with all lighting(CVS Pharmacy),kheer, halwa, diyas and a full fledged puja and all of it. It kinda links it all back to India for me. Second, I proudly consider myself a huge Bollywood Fan. More so after coming to US. The sad part is my city (Pittsburgh) doesn't play Bollywood movies often. But Well Well Well....following the way Bollywood was preparing for Diwali this year I expected something different and it happened. I got an Email Diwali morning that Pittsburgh is playing both Om Shanti OM(OSO) and Saanwariya(2 highly publicised movies) this week in a "Theatre near you". I forwarded the Email to my friends and in no time we had tickets in our hand. =>> OSO. Why OSO ...well....lets not go into that now.

So after our Diwali function we made beeline to the theatre. I didn't get time to change from my Sherwani which I was wearing to the function and that explained the glances in the theatre for all of us. But what the heck !!.

So here goes the OM SHANTI OM MOVIE REVIEW :

So first things first I don't think comparing this movie to KARZ (Subhash Ghai's reincarnation movie of 70's) does justice to any one of the movies. Sure Farah Khan took the story straight out of that. But comparisons are just out of question.

The movie's first half is an ode to 70's and is enjoyable to say the most. Om Prakash Makhija (Shahrukh Khan) is a junior artist in the film industry. He has two dreams one to be a superstar and second to marry the love of his dream-girl, reigning superstar, Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone).

 

Only 2 dreams ?What's there ?...

 

Not an easy task with his name, as his friend (Shreyas Talpade) puts it. However, his mother (Kiron Kher) is confident that her son will make it big some day.

 

However, Shanti is in a complicated relationship with her producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). His dream is to be the biggest producer of Bollywood.

 

However, the news that Shanti Priya is pregnant doesn’t gel with him as it jeopardizes his dream project, his biggest film, Om Shanti Om. To further aggravate the matters, Shanti wants to marry him.

 

Mukesh decides to kill Shanti. He burns the studio with Shanti inside. Om tries to save her and is badly hurt in the fire. To add to his misery, he is hit by the car of reigning superstar, Rajesh Kapoor (Javed Sheikh) and dies.

 

Thirty years later (second half)…

 

Om Kapoor (Shahrukh Khan) – Rajesh Kapoor’s son - is the new superstar, who is afraid of fire (Wow !!!).

 

Mukesh, who has since shifted to Hollywood where he is known as Mike, wants to make a big-budget film with Om.

 

However, on seeing Mukesh, Om recollects his past life. He recollects the manner in which he was killed together with Shanti. All he wants is justice for Shanti.

 

So he plans an expose with Sandy (Deepika Padukone)(Oh did I tell he found a girl looking like Shanti just like that !!!) where he tells Mukesh to revive Om Shanti Om. His plan is to scare Mukesh with the help of Sandy and to make him confess.

 

Things I like about the movie-:

1) The lyrics of Dard-E-Disco rhyming with San Francisco

2) The way Digital technology is used to put Deepika in 70' songs.

3) The whole Manoj Kumar episode and for that matter spoofs on different people in the industry. I just hope no one takes it in a offending manner -:P

4) Spoofs on Awards including Abhishek Bachchan was awesome. Dhoom 5-He is not there. Wow !!;)). Also Shabana Azmi talking about bringing back slums in Awards function left everyone in splits.

5) The whole Deewangi song but Aftab Shivdasani? Arbaaz Khan? Dino Morea?.Plzzzzzzz

6) Spoof on South Industry- Mind It !!!

 

There are other parts in first half which are thoroughly funny. The way they pay ode to old movies like Bed-side full of  medicines for Kiron Kher (Nirupa Roy?). Her saying that had she not been pregnant she would have been the Anarkali of Mughal-E-Azam,SRK dismissing her with "Takhliya".Awesome !!. Watch out for takhliya becoming a catch phrase with youngsters

 

The problem with the movie is the script and the END. I can write long paras about what I didn't like/understand about the end. No I understand the whole movie is a spoof so I need to leave my brains at home but yet the END. Unbelievable !!. The film was full of abrupt plot transitions. It is one of the most absurd climaxes ever

 

Both Shreyas Talpade's acting and Kiron Kher's over-acting were awesome and makes the movie fun to watch. She excels in the scene where she scares Arjun Rampal off.

 

Deepika Padukone looks awesome to say the least. Sexy, stunning, Drop Dead Gorgeous. I don't see the craze about SRK's six pack because they aren't there if you really ask me. Arjun Rampal is awesome as a Villain. I like his look in the second half.

 

For all the hype, Om Shanti Om doesn't live up to my Diwali expectations. Ahh what a follow up to a great movie like Chak De India. SRK- There's hope !!.

 

My 7 Top Bollywood movies -2007(in Random Order)

1) Guru..umm..Yes

2) Johnny Gaddar..Yes I liked it.

3) Chak De India....Should give SRK awards this year. What a movie !

4) Black Friday. I don't believe same director made No Smoking !!

5) Jab We Met

6) Life in a Metro

7)Yet to arrive. Saal abhi khatam nahi hua doston -:P

 

Special Mentions : Parzania, Dharm, Namesake, Loins of Punjab Presents, 1971

 

I hope someone makes Khiladi Returns with Akshay Kumar in it soon.

 

Alright !. Big Bollywood Update. Huh ?. Time to wrap up. Adios !!