OM CREAM

Om shanti Om is the latest churn from the Bollywood factory, and I got to see it - not in theatre but on DVD (no, not a pirated copy, but a copy meant for the US audience, the DVD librarian in my area assured me).

So after dinner, I settled down to watch it. Mind you, I havent seen a full-length Hindi movie after DDLJ - and that was over 12 years back. I just dont have the patience to watch crap even if it is dear old Shahrukh Khan. I almost went for Chak de with Jaynti but she got to watch a pirated print on DVD before that. (Well, I need to watch that next at home - I am sure it will have a lil more stuff in it).

Well, the movie struck me as two-dimensional with no depth in characters or the story. Cameos by half the Bollywood family as a token of gratitude to choreographer and director Farah Khan. As for producer-actor Shahrukh his face cannot hide his age and the movie doesnt bring out his best inspite of all the hype surrounding it. The movie struck as a hastily cobbled one on the theme of reincarnation, an old theme in Bollywood. It is silly, unrealistic and not well conceived but I am sure the seasoned Hindi movie buff will lap it up.

Deepika Padukone (former badminton champion Prakash Padukone's daughter) has given a satisfactory performance as the heroine. She particularly excels in her role as Shantipriya, a 1970s superstar (is one allowed to call actresses superstars or is it a male prerogative?) and her period attire and hairdo are excellent - save for the very deep necklines. The incurable Puritan that I am, I was shocked by the amount of skin exposed - it rivals Hollywood heroines and cleavages. Maybe I am out of touch with Hindi films, but I must say I was shocked - is that the norm now?

Tailpiece: I just didnt have the patience to go through the entire length of the movie and stopped at where the reincarnated Shahrukh, a superstar's superstar son, plots revenge for two deaths that happened 30 years ago. The reincarnation bit reminded me a bit of that Tagore short story - about a servant Ram Saran who lost the master's kid in the waters and the kid being born as the servant's own child a year later... but without the finesse of the Tagore plot.