Om Shanti Om - Bold & Beautiful!

Farah Khan does it again. She is a lady with a lot of brains and guts. For it was an intelligent, as well as a risky, move to make a movie with hardly any plot yet to keep everyone glued to their seats till the very end.

Om Shanti OM(OSO) is a witty parody (tribute ?) to hindi filmdom of last 30 years. It is a celebration of all that is part and parcel of hindi film-making - the tired cliches, the bizarre song sequences, the unnecessary item numbers, the wafer-thin plots, the shallow award functions, the idiosyncracies of the filmi folks; infact - the works! I'd like to add yet another attribute to Farah's brand of filmmaking - whole-hearted. Farah's wicked sense of humor and zany wit comes across through minute details such as the Filmfare awards function, the celebrities' comments on the red carpet, Shah Rukh's rendition of South Indian film heroes, Kirron Kher's rendition of the typical filmy ma, the Mohabbat Man, the banal punar janam and badla plot, the remake angle etc. Even Shreyas Talpade's comment to SRK that he needs to add a Kumar, Kapoor or Khanna to his name in order to be a superstar!

Hats off to the sporting spirit of Shabana Azmi ("This function is being hosted after removing a slum and I'm here to protest that!"), Karan Johar ("Heeron ki pehchaan to sirf johari ko hoti hai aur Hero ki pehchaan sirf Johar ko hai!"), Akshay Kumar (The scene where he reacts violently to losing out on the Best Actor Award to SRK), Abhishek Bachhan (Shown to be an arrogant actor who starts walking to collect the award even before the winner is announced) & Shah Rukh Khan (made a joke about one of his films - Phir bhi dil hai NRI)

And now for the performances. Deepika Padukone is indeed fortunate to get such a colorful platform for her debut. She does ample justice to it too. She looks good in all the costumes (the 70's as well as the latest), dances like a dream and looks breath-taking most of the time. Hers is indeed a face to launch a thousand ships. She has acted well for a first time effort and lends good support to the plot, however superstar material she is not. Arjun Rampal, as the suave villian, has proved yet again that he is an actor whose full potential is yet to be tapped. He is also very good-looking in the film! Shreyas Talpade as the protagonist's well-wishing friend and Kirron Kher as the mother have given able performances as usual. And lastly, what can I say about King Khan that hasn't been said already? He is brilliant in both the roles and what's more, he has a hot body to boot! He is perhaps the only actor today who could have carried off this role with such elan and conviction. The only thing lacking perhaps is the chemistry between him and Deepika. But then, when has that ever been a criteria for a Hindi film to succeed?!

A couple of things worth mentioning are the title track and Akshay Kumar's khiladi action. The latter is really naughty. Almost the entire film industry has been roped in for the title song. What's more, they all have different steps and equal footage throughout the song. Kudos to Farah for bringing this about - it must have been tough to manage all their dates and to plan their entry and steps for the song sequence. Must admit that Farah gives due credit and footage to all the technical and support staff alongwith the actors at the end of her films. This is something really unique and note-worthy of her 2 films till now.

All in all, a very bold attempt by Farah and Gauri Khan(producer). Worth a watch once and completely paisa-wasool. However, next time be sure to come up with something original, Farah, else people will get something to talk about!