I can already see you smirking and sneering, dear reader. And if I am wrong, believe me, I will be very happy. Yes I do sincerely believe that the above-mentioned film is a modern classic, a milestone in Hindi cinema. I would have said Indian, but then I am not so well acquainted with the cinema of all regions of our country. I believe that I have already tapped a key too many around the bush and should cut to the chase, keeping in mind… the smirks… the sneers.
Om Shanti Om, brash, colorful, over-the-top, is everything I believe the makers intended it to be and in my opinion, one of the most intelligently written films of the recent times as well as in the past. The producers took a great risk by making a film whose enjoyment was to a large extent based on an extensive knowledge and reverence for the thoroughly kitschy and the so called B-grade cinema of the 70s and the 80s. Think about it, how many people in the prime target group of 15-25 years would have got all the in-jokes, the performances and the presentation of the story? Just think about its sources, Subhash Ghai’s Karz for the overall story, the Bimal Roy/ Ritwik Ghatak classic Madhumati and the genius Chetan Anand’s uncrowned classic Kudrat for the climax. And I have just mentioned some potential sources for the story line, the classics, to which this classic pays homage to. Then there are all those numerous set-pieces, from the king of all items songs, the howlarious and to some, irritating, Anna Rascala- Mind It!, the take-offs on the Sooraj Barjatya and the Rajshri classic ‘Maine Pyar Liya’, the archetypal sidekick pappu master and the feisty Indian mother, Govinda, Manoj Kumar among others. As if that was not enough we have cinema greats and even well known bloated egos like Subhash Ghai making fun of their tender spots (Mr. Ghai’s famous fascination with speaking the language of our former colonists, and his crippling inability to do so). It is refreshing to see such people actually making fun of really delicate issues concerning themselves. Arch rivals Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan hit their own weak spots with great gusto, an ability which I have found rare, especially among us Indians. The only spoilsport being a certain Mr. Manoj Kumar, who had his desperate fill of 15 minutes of fame, and revealed later that he would like to have Shah Rukh Khan in one of his films. LOL.
The only other film-maker who has been able to take his love for B-movies and turn it into highly satisfying and charged up pieces of art is Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and The Grindhouse. The international film community worships Taratino for his work, in the sense that he has really achieved something substantial. Sadly, I have largely found that a classic worthy of any respect in India is usually a movie which makes grand statements about the pathetic condition of humanity and similar themes. Believe me, it is a much more difficult task to write a movie with the inspirations of Om Shanti Om than farcical “Oh my lord! I am an intellectual” trash like ‘Black’. Farah Khan & Shah Rukh Khan are true artists because Om Shanti Om can only be made by true lovers of cinema. Unlike the likes of some high brow filmmakers whose movies almost carry the watermarks of their own mugs in every frame.
I think ‘Om Shanti Om’ deserves a label better than ‘commercial success’, which sounds so condescending. Several people say to me, Shah Rukh Khan knows what crap the public wants and he gives it to them. They forget how daringly different films he has gifted to Hindi cinema as a producer, from the far-ahead-of-its-time “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” to the wildly experimental and irreverent Asoka, to the misguided but again daringly different “Paheli” to the pre-cursor of “Om Shanti Om”- “Main Hoon Na”. Except for “Main Hoon Na,” which was critically panned, the rest have been big commercials failures… and why not, none of them were ‘safe films’ unlike say Mr. Perfectionist’s “Lagaan” and “Taare Zameen Par” which were designed for success and were comfortably predictable in an experimental garb.
If “Om Shanti Om” would have been a disaster, knives would have come out and people would have said “What did they think they were doing?” and much worse stuff. Look what happened to “Tashan” which attempted something similar - a take-off on the action cinema of the 70s and the 80s, an admirable effort/ intent but they came out of it horribly bruised, because paying homage to over the top movies is just no child’s play. “Om Shanti Om” delivered and it delivered big time. And it is much more than just a huge commercial success… and I hope it’s recognized that way.
I rest my case.
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