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at 06:58:35 pm on November 21, 2007
A belated happy Diwali to all my readers. I might be late, but still I sincerely wish you all a very happy, prosperous and safe new year, to you and your dear ones.
Well after years, I was in Mumbai for Diwali. It rocked!! The city glows, and if anything glows brighter than those lights on every street and balcony, it is the spirit of that city. Diwali was all about lights, prayers, partying, more partying and ofcourse cinema. Two BIG films releasing on that day!! The night before their release, there were sms messages doing the rounds ‘ Saawariya is a let down’ and ‘OSO is just OK’. Damn what a bummer I thought, but then looking at the cinema halls you knew that we still love our cinema, and more importantly what I saw was that ‘we will queue for hours, we shall pay more, just so that we can see what the man brings to us now. The man….Mr. Shahrukh Khan’ or infact ‘King Khan’ – you like it or not, that is what he is.
Now, before I proceed with my ‘reel life, real life’ styled review of Om Shanti Om, let me tell you one thing. You can run, you can hide, but you can not get out of watching this film. Is it a great film? No, it isn’t. Is it a good film? Eh… debatable. Is it ‘time-pass’ and absolute ‘money-worth’? Absolutely yes. It’s a fun film, atleast the first half is. The second half could have been a lot better.
Bottom line – the film is a showcase of the power, the superstardom measure of Shahrukh, and trust me, this dude is huge. Real big.
Remember the era when Manmohan Desai made all those films with Mr. Bachchan? Well that was a certain era. Mr. Manmohan made films that fitted into that era, that mould of cinema. Today we have a similar pattern, wherein we have the likes of Farah Khan who will make films with the King Khan and that is her only saving grace.
Reel Life – ‘A fabulous take on the 70s Bollywood. A struggling actor dreams of making it big as he is an extra within the Bollywood film industry’. He then falls in love with the greatest superstar of that time. Well this is ‘bollywood’ and ofcourse he gets to meet her, save her life and even sing and dance with her. She however is in love with one of the biggest producers, and life takes a turn and the lady dies in a fire mishap. Or was it a mishap? The young struggling actor, in his bid to rescue her dies too. 30 years later, the young man is reborn (yeap kick-arse reincarnation plot here) as the son of a yesteryears superstar. Based purely on that fact, he becomes a spoilt brat superstar of today’s times. However, in typical Bollywood’s reincarnation story, he gets flashes of his previous life, meets a look-a-like of the superstar he fell in love with in his previous life, and then sets out to bring to justice those who were responsible of killing his previous love. The first half is nostalgic, sprinkled with innocence of that era. The second half is yuppy, bratish and showcases Shahrukh’s respect within the industry.
Real Life – The things we humans do for greed. The evil we commit in the name of love. There are struggles that we face and survive to fulfill a dream, and then someone comes along and brutally kicks it all away. I loved the spirit of SRK in the first half, where he just dreams, emotes his desire to make it. The friendship he shares with his buddy, you actually feel their passion. I wish there was more friendship like that in the world, wherein people felt happy for their friend’s dreams.
Cinematically – The special effects are really good. It’s one thing to have good effects and another to make those effects convincing within your film. OSO manages to do both of these really well. The music grows on you, and the item song with 31 stars makes you tap your feet, but more importantly makes you sit there and wow at not all, but most of the stars who appear in that song. Though there are some in there who should be locked away for merely appearing on our screens. Ok that was a bit harsh, but I won’t delete that line. Farah Khan!! Nothing great as a director. Really. A great concept for a film, kudos to you for that, but seriously speaking, in the film, I saw the great concept and intention, but not a great film. Deepika!! Hhmmm, people say she’s going to go places, I am not 100% convinced, I need to see her next film before I feel that. Arjun was good and convincing. Shahrukh, as an actor somehow failed here, he was slightly convincing as a 70s extra, but not very convincing as spoilt brat super star of today. He over acted and seriously, after Chak De, where he proved he can act, he unfortunately went back to being just an average actor. Mr. Shahrukh Khan, you are ‘the king’, please choose your films carefully from now and avoid certain films. You are a superstar, you have gained it all – like no other person in that industry, so now it’s time for you to come out and be the great actor that I think you are. I remember Govinda did an amazing impression of many actors in a song in ‘Hero No.1’, SRK had the chance to do the same here but completely failed. I wish he had concentrated more on his acting here than producing it.
Finally – The film is not much without Shahrukh, so I give it a 2.5 out of 5 rating. The film could have been so much better, so much more livelier. I do not have a problem with the story, I have a problem with the way it was told. However I must really salute Farah for what she does at the end of every film – the entire cast and crew get a screen presence. That to me shows a lot of respect from the director towards her team. Well done.
Go, go watch this film. It’s really time pass, and money worth. Go to feel the nostalgia of the 70s, and more importantly go for Shahrukh Khan. He the man. Oh, incidentally, you will see a lot of other stars in the film, enjoy them all and do forgive Abhishek Bachchan…yet again!!!
Tagore is an IT professional, who lives in Dubai. He also is a script-writer and a short film maker. He runs a humanitarian group too. Read more about him at www.tagorealmeida.com
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt A belated happy Diwali to all my readers. I might be late, but still I sincerely wish you all a very happy, prosperous and safe new year, to you and your dear ones. Well after years, I was in Mumbai for Diwali. It rocked!! The city glows, and if anything glows brighter than those lights on every street and balcony, it is the spirit of that city. Diwali was all about lights, prayers, partying, more partying and ofcourse cinema. Two BIG films releasing on that day!! The night before their rele [...]
I’m not a critic but and viewer. i can firlmly say OSO is the best movie of the year after Chak DE India!
Shahrukhnwas superb in acting see CDI and then See OSO you’ll find the versatilness pf KING KHAN as an actor. SRK rocks and will rock!
OSO-rocked.Pure commercial Bollywood at its best since Manmohan Desai and Main Hoon Na.And box office wolrd wide proves it-SRK and Farah deserve credit-had the music been better this film would have been in another league altogether.
Sawariya-despite the passion (completely evident) SLB’s self indulgence and arrogance is his downfall.And box office worldwide proves it- the paying public is the best judge/critic and they are rarely wrong with their verdict.
This film also proves,studios and money-muscle power is meaningless-content is KING,packaged correctly is a bonus.
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt A belated happy Diwali to all my readers. I might be late, but still I sincerely wish you all a very happy, prosperous and safe new year, to you and your dear ones. Well after years, I was in Mumbai for Diwali. It rocked!! The city glows, and if anything glows brighter than those lights on every street and balcony, it is the spirit of that city. Diwali was all about lights, prayers, partying, more partying and ofcourse cinema. Two BIG films releasing on that day!! The night before their rele [...]
I’m not a critic but and viewer. i can firlmly say OSO is the best movie of the year after Chak DE India!
Shahrukhnwas superb in acting see CDI and then See OSO you’ll find the versatilness pf KING KHAN as an actor. SRK rocks and will rock!
OSO-rocked.Pure commercial Bollywood at its best since Manmohan Desai and Main Hoon Na.And box office wolrd wide proves it-SRK and Farah deserve credit-had the music been better this film would have been in another league altogether.
Sawariya-despite the passion (completely evident) SLB’s self indulgence and arrogance is his downfall.And box office worldwide proves it- the paying public is the best judge/critic and they are rarely wrong with their verdict.
This film also proves,studios and money-muscle power is meaningless-content is KING,packaged correctly is a bonus.
OSO is the best film of the year.SK rocks