Om Shanti Om
For most movie connoisseurs the one discourse, which is invariably a never-ending one, is whether the movies in the past were the best or the new movies are better than them. Obviously, like all debatable topics, only 2 propositions can’t suffice all point of views, but just for the sake of writing a review, let me set a ballpark. Om Shanti Om, a recent blockbuster, and a movie that supposedly celebrates cinema, not only acts as a dialect about this issue but also provides an answer, absolutely out and loud.
Choreographer turned director Farah Khan’s second movie that features the current King of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, whom I prefer to call the King of all obtuse dumb-ass actors in the industry, have synergized to embrace the idea that movies now are technically, aesthetically, artistically and, not to mention acting and direction wise, sound as compared to the movies in 70’s. Before I accentuate on the nuances between the two eras, I have to mention that 70’s was the most vibrant, embellished and happening era of the Indian cinema; when the sets had more colors than number of muslim children born every day; when the songs were more out-of-the-place than Manmohan singh on the news; when the fight sequences were shot so unrealistically defying all physical laws that would make Newton slash his wrists; when the horror scenes were shot using things as sleazy as mud as make-up on actors; when people like Jeetendra, who is not only an jack-ass but also the proud father of Ekta and Tushar Kapoor, were casted as heroes; when every single movie had a blind, over-worked, under-paid, widow mother and a Hero, whose upbringing might have been in poorest of all slums, could outshine people from Corporate world to Bureaucrats with his style, charisma, adroitness in playing musical instruments or using a shot-gun, ability to pick-up girls from any bar, sing in ways taking people into trance, something that would make Illusionists feel inferior, and dance with undulating moves, that would make MJ quit showbiz and restrict his notoriety by simply molesting kids.
The first part of movie is set on the 70’s where the junior artist, played by SRK, strives to become an actor and win the heart of the Dreamy girl Deepkia. Now, if you want to analyze the paradigm shift caused in societal dynamics inflicted due to the media, think of Deepkia. A girl, who’s no more ravishing and hotter than your girl next door, has been the talk-of-the-tinsel town and projected as the next big thing by media. Tv shows, Interviews and all gay-people-get-together talk of Deepkia as the new Marilyn Monroe, and as an epitome of modern bollywood beauty, surpassing the likes of Madhubala and other hotties of different eras. And to everyone’s wonder, as she appears on the silver-screen with her outrageously hokey and vile smile, you go like-Fuck, is she the one, thinking of whom half of the country has been jerking off. As a last woman standing amongst over 2000 girls auditioned for the movie, Deepika seems the perfect fit for the cheesy one-liner-‘Millions of sperms and you won the race ! ‘.
Getting back to the first part of the movie, the director wanted it to be like a spoof depicting the all the nonsensical attributes of the movies in the 70’s. So, she emulated the colors, design of the sets, clichéd dialogs, over-aged heroes and over-acting, all of which was pretty much neatly done. It’s so neatly done that fine actors like Kiron Kher and Shreyas Talpade also have managed to act in an incredibly horrible fashion in the movie. For SRK, it’s actually impossible to determine if it is his natural self or he’s deliberately over-acting. The scene where he delivers the dialog, which turns out to be the most redundant dialog of the movie, there he’s drunk and he mimics Deepika. While doing that he appears not a wee bit different from what he was in Devdas, a major blockbuster. You can always excuse SRK, in this regard, because the last, and probably the one time, he acted well was when he admitted that he doesn’t sleep with Karan Johar.
Now, the second half the movie is set on 2007. Before you gather your senses back, you get the see SRK in half-naked form flaunting his six-packs that have made more news than the cyclone on Bangladesh. And, what’s more: Not long before you recover from the trauma, there comes another song, the title song actually, where hundreds of forgotten heroes of the past make an appearance with their very own and widely ridiculed dance moves to compliment SRK, someone who is old enough to be considered their contemporary but someone who craftily managed to coax producers by sucking their cocks (and pussies) and survive longer. There’s a sequence, basically a B-Grade rip off RDB, where SRK and his pathetic team of losers audition girls for the movie. SRK talks about how passionate he wants the actress to be and here, he is not a tad bit different from what he was in Dil to Pagal hai where he talks about Maya, the epitome of passion and pristine grace. This redundancy of limited emotions SRK plays in all of his roles is actually mocked in OSO, in the filmfare award ceremony where 2 of his films are nominated for the Best Actor category and the clip shows SRK playing the exact same role in two different movies and yet wins a nomination and an award, very much like he does every single year outside his reel life. Another clip played for the movie ‘The return of the Khiladi’ mocks the idea of Akshaya Kumar playing the same Khiladi role over and over again. It’s kind of funny that Farah Khan, who’s apparently good at making mockeries doesn’t have the Grey cells to add some sense to her movie somewhat less ridiculous.
The movie also features Arjun Rampal, who for some reason always speaks in a whining and moaning tone, in a negative role. Being a US return producer, he also speaks in a funky US accent, at times, when you feel like exfoliating your own brains out. The last part of the movie is dedicated to SRK’s vengeance for Arjun rampal in which he uses tricks, that a 9 year old would discard considering retarded and ineffectual, to bamboozle him for being demented and seeing a long-dead actress trying to spook him. Like all artless movies, OSO ends with the And-they-lived-happily-ever-after style.
Being an Indian, I was asked why I wrote this review with a feeling of loath and scorn for Bollywood giants, whom quite a few people admire. I just told them – How can I be proud to belong to India, the country ;where Manmohan singh, who claims to be in politics by mistake, is the PM,; Sachin Tendulker, who’s lost his form long before he lost his virginity, is considered God ; SRK, a pathetic impotent moron, is the king of Bollywood; and the movie ‘Aap ka suroor’, featuring Himesh reshamiya, known to have made the world dance to his nasal cacophony, is a chart-topper. So, the answer to the recurring question, I mentioned earlier is-Till the day people like SRK and Farah Khan will be associated with movies, I suggest you better sleep it off for 2 and half hours rather than being excruciated, just for having a penchant for motion-picture.
For most movie connoisseurs the one discourse, which is invariably a never-ending one, is whether the movies in the past were the best or the new movies are better than them. Obviously, like all debatable topics, only 2 propositions can’t suffice all point of views, but just for the sake of writing a review, let me set a ballpark. Om Shanti Om, a recent blockbuster, and a movie that supposedly celebrates cinema, not only acts as a dialect about this issue but also provides an answer, absolutely out and loud.
Choreographer turned director Farah Khan’s second movie that features the current King of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, whom I prefer to call the King of all obtuse dumb-ass actors in the industry, have synergized to embrace the idea that movies now are technically, aesthetically, artistically and, not to mention acting and direction wise, sound as compared to the movies in 70’s. Before I accentuate on the nuances between the two eras, I have to mention that 70’s was the most vibrant, embellished and happening era of the Indian cinema; when the sets had more colors than number of muslim children born every day; when the songs were more out-of-the-place than Manmohan singh on the news; when the fight sequences were shot so unrealistically defying all physical laws that would make Newton slash his wrists; when the horror scenes were shot using things as sleazy as mud as make-up on actors; when people like Jeetendra, who is not only an jack-ass but also the proud father of Ekta and Tushar Kapoor, were casted as heroes; when every single movie had a blind, over-worked, under-paid, widow mother and a Hero, whose upbringing might have been in poorest of all slums, could outshine people from Corporate world to Bureaucrats with his style, charisma, adroitness in playing musical instruments or using a shot-gun, ability to pick-up girls from any bar, sing in ways taking people into trance, something that would make Illusionists feel inferior, and dance with undulating moves, that would make MJ quit showbiz and restrict his notoriety by simply molesting kids.
The first part of movie is set on the 70’s where the junior artist, played by SRK, strives to become an actor and win the heart of the Dreamy girl Deepkia. Now, if you want to analyze the paradigm shift caused in societal dynamics inflicted due to the media, think of Deepkia. A girl, who’s no more ravishing and hotter than your girl next door, has been the talk-of-the-tinsel town and projected as the next big thing by media. Tv shows, Interviews and all gay-people-get-together talk of Deepkia as the new Marilyn Monroe, and as an epitome of modern bollywood beauty, surpassing the likes of Madhubala and other hotties of different eras. And to everyone’s wonder, as she appears on the silver-screen with her outrageously hokey and vile smile, you go like-Fuck, is she the one, thinking of whom half of the country has been jerking off. As a last woman standing amongst over 2000 girls auditioned for the movie, Deepika seems the perfect fit for the cheesy one-liner-‘Millions of sperms and you won the race ! ‘.
Getting back to the first part of the movie, the director wanted it to be like a spoof depicting the all the nonsensical attributes of the movies in the 70’s. So, she emulated the colors, design of the sets, clichéd dialogs, over-aged heroes and over-acting, all of which was pretty much neatly done. It’s so neatly done that fine actors like Kiron Kher and Shreyas Talpade also have managed to act in an incredibly horrible fashion in the movie. For SRK, it’s actually impossible to determine if it is his natural self or he’s deliberately over-acting. The scene where he delivers the dialog, which turns out to be the most redundant dialog of the movie, there he’s drunk and he mimics Deepika. While doing that he appears not a wee bit different from what he was in Devdas, a major blockbuster. You can always excuse SRK, in this regard, because the last, and probably the one time, he acted well was when he admitted that he doesn’t sleep with Karan Johar.
Now, the second half the movie is set on 2007. Before you gather your senses back, you get the see SRK in half-naked form flaunting his six-packs that have made more news than the cyclone on Bangladesh. And, what’s more: Not long before you recover from the trauma, there comes another song, the title song actually, where hundreds of forgotten heroes of the past make an appearance with their very own and widely ridiculed dance moves to compliment SRK, someone who is old enough to be considered their contemporary but someone who craftily managed to coax producers by sucking their cocks (and pussies) and survive longer. There’s a sequence, basically a B-Grade rip off RDB, where SRK and his pathetic team of losers audition girls for the movie. SRK talks about how passionate he wants the actress to be and here, he is not a tad bit different from what he was in Dil to Pagal hai where he talks about Maya, the epitome of passion and pristine grace. This redundancy of limited emotions SRK plays in all of his roles is actually mocked in OSO, in the filmfare award ceremony where 2 of his films are nominated for the Best Actor category and the clip shows SRK playing the exact same role in two different movies and yet wins a nomination and an award, very much like he does every single year outside his reel life. Another clip played for the movie ‘The return of the Khiladi’ mocks the idea of Akshaya Kumar playing the same Khiladi role over and over again. It’s kind of funny that Farah Khan, who’s apparently good at making mockeries doesn’t have the Grey cells to add some sense to her movie somewhat less ridiculous.
The movie also features Arjun Rampal, who for some reason always speaks in a whining and moaning tone, in a negative role. Being a US return producer, he also speaks in a funky US accent, at times, when you feel like exfoliating your own brains out. The last part of the movie is dedicated to SRK’s vengeance for Arjun rampal in which he uses tricks, that a 9 year old would discard considering retarded and ineffectual, to bamboozle him for being demented and seeing a long-dead actress trying to spook him. Like all artless movies, OSO ends with the And-they-lived-happily-ever-after style.
Being an Indian, I was asked why I wrote this review with a feeling of loath and scorn for Bollywood giants, whom quite a few people admire. I just told them – How can I be proud to belong to India, the country ;where Manmohan singh, who claims to be in politics by mistake, is the PM,; Sachin Tendulker, who’s lost his form long before he lost his virginity, is considered God ; SRK, a pathetic impotent moron, is the king of Bollywood; and the movie ‘Aap ka suroor’, featuring Himesh reshamiya, known to have made the world dance to his nasal cacophony, is a chart-topper. So, the answer to the recurring question, I mentioned earlier is-Till the day people like SRK and Farah Khan will be associated with movies, I suggest you better sleep it off for 2 and half hours rather than being excruciated, just for having a penchant for motion-picture.
posted by Aditya at 1:45 AM
4 comments
