First Day of New Hindu Year. The SRK film. Liverpool Grater Union cinema no 11, half empty!! It can only happen in Australia!
This is second Sharukh Khan, Faraha Khan film. Lots of Hype, Marketing, Official Web Site, and may be loads of Reviews.
Has this film has lived all those expectations?
Will it be another SRK HIT phillim?
Time will tell, but here is my personal observations both as a fan/advocate of Bollywood and self claimed critic ( Beware)
Om Shanti Om ( OSO) is all in one, totally commercial cinema with all tricks and styles of a typical Bollywood film.
1977 to 2007 two different era, two different times, people, music, culture this is the main theme around which story of reincarnation has been weaved.
Reminds me of Big hit of those days KARZ ( my favorite Subhash Ghai Film)
However smart and catchy production and characters from film industry makes it more interesting.
A superstar and a junior artist and a crush. There is a bad guy. Very thin story line but still first half holds the common viewer. My guess is its magic of 70's time period. Even you can see in actor's body language.
Farah has done good job as director in keeping pace of film at least in first half. Lots of ups and downs in story line, funny sequences, intentionally melodramatic dialogs, all these plus Sharukh Khan and off course the stunning Deepika Padukone. The film picks up from third scene the graph goes up and up and suddenly starts dropping down, when Om finds out about her dream girl's deeply buried secret. From that point it becomes the typical SRK film. Bloody wounded face and that desire to save his love at any cost. Bingo, watch the film and note this down, you will know what i mean!
Second half is the problem area. Selling reincarnation to audience is bit tough job in 2007. What started as a magical journey turns in to same old GHISIPITI story. Farah Khan could have done a lot better but as i mentioned it is very thin plot. Thin plot requires lots of other packaging, in here it comes in form of Darde Disco, oh Fish line, OK ( Om Kapoor) , all star song etc.
SRK looks tired and constantly trying to look young in second half. Deepika doesn't have much to do. Shreyash talpade with bavarachi costumes, you start thinking that what's going on? Arjun Rampal as Mike not very convincing. I mean somebody from Hollywood wouldn't look this stupid and fall for catch just like that. I hated the scene when Music director Vishal acted as a director. Is this some sort of time pass job?
Second act starts getting boring and film start looking monotonous with same old revenge seeking saga. Loose scripting, sluggish story line...god help OSO. Though it picks up again in climax, for a while but i guess its too late the as viewer has already lost interest. it's just another film.
SRK very good in first half. Deepika talented. Shreyash wasted in second half. Kiron Kher another good attempt. Arjun Rampal stone faced most of the time. All others OK
music is the savior of the film. Darde Disco and aankho main teri...
Editing is cool, so is the expansive SFX and cinematography.
Farah good effort, may be you need to work more on stories, as films cant be a TV show ( where brother Sajid khan makes fun of everybody), where you have thin story line, one concept and then add all other ingredients to shine it up. film has to have very strong story, and it's also true for SRK film
That's it
Om Shanti OM
