Film Review: Om Shanti Om

This evening I watched a wonderful film starring the world's most famous actor, Shahrukh Khan, and found myself laughing, crying and dancing in my seat for nearly 3 hours straight. That film is 'Om Shanti Om' and it is the single most successful Hindi film to ever be released, it has grossed over $37.9 million worldwide since its release and has made millions more off of its dvd and television rights. It is a blockbuster film with a stellar cast and I would say it is probably the Hindi equivalent of a summer box office action movie except a thousand times more entertaining.

I should say right now that I know little about the Bollywood/Hindi film industry and have only watched a handful of the thousands upon thousands of films that have been made in India. However LibraryGirl is mad for them and introduced me to them through an epic called 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham' which also starred Sharukh Khan.

I really enjoyed this film from start to end which I found surprising as it was 2 hours and 40 minutes long. I have had trouble before watching films that long and keeping engaged but with 'Om Shanti Om' the story was so good my focus was only on the film. The performances in the film were excellent, Khan played the hero in the first half of the film with a comedic flair but his clownish behaviour didn't stand in the way of his powerful performance as the protagonist of the piece. The debuting Deepika Padukone was beautiful, sweet and in every way what you would expect of a heroine in a film. As the evil producer, Arjun Rampal was excellent with his mannerisms and delivery of lines appearing cold and sleazy. The supporting cast to these three were also phenomenal, like Hollywood, Bollywood tends to be star driven but the actual films seem more like ensemble pieces. There is no doubting that Khan was the main character because of his top billing but every other actor fills a spot in the film that is justified and is given the space and opportunity to make their role mean something. I should mention that there are over 30 cameos from the top stars of Bollywood in this movie due to it being a film set in the industry and I think my favourite cameo has to be Abhishek Bachchan in the Movie Awards Show scene, he plays it so beautifully and with such timing that even though he only gets a couple of minutes of screen time you really get to see how good an actor he is.

The films story is a fantastical adventure spanning 30 years and is in many ways a spoof of and homage to Bollywood of the past and the present but on a more global scale it spoofs film from all over the world. There are references to Citizen Kane and Khan reciting 'Gone with the Wind' and numerous other gems hidden away in this glorious film. I won't go into the plot as I think everyone should see this film and I run the risk of spoiling too much. It all looks wonderful and colourful, it is amazing how bright the colours are but they are never garish they always seem warm. My favourite thing about this film though has to be the musical numbers. Bollywood is known for its great musical sequences and this film has many amazing ones. Whilst the penultimate showdown is a song which is dramatic and wonderful in its composition and the song 'Dard-E-Disco' is funny in both lyrics and sequence. My favourite has to be the title song 'Om Shanti Om' in the post awards show party scene which has many Bollywood legends singing and dancing. It looks like a party and it feels like they all had great fun putting the scene together. You can check out that video below.

Overall I would give 'Om Shanti Om' a 4.5 out of 5. I rarely give reviews that high but this film deserved it. The story... thrilling! The acting... superb! The sets and costumes were phenomenal and the musical segments were fabulous. A real treat for the eyes and ears, I hope to pick this up on blu-ray in the not too distant future as we watched it on lovefilm and whilst it did stream well I have a feeling we did not get the best sound and picture experience... plus I really want to watch it again!