To the best of my memory, Om Shanti Om was the first film I watched or rather remember watching. Realistically, I’m sure I watched many films before that, considering the fact that my mother is a bigger movie buff than I’ll ever be. At 7, Shyam Benegal’s films flew over my head; my mother’s consistent re-watches of James Bond did nothing for me (but it was the price I paid for three years of constant Dora the Explorer that she endured).
But, Om Shanti Om changed the way I felt about films.
The film, written and directed by Farah Khan and starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone (in her debut), completed 15 years since its release on 9 November.
Om Shanti Om has everything – the underdog, the hero vs villain, a Gumrah-esque betrayal, the elusive true love, cameos for the ages, iconic music, and (of course) cinema’s favourite punar janam (reincarnation).
Introducing... 'Om Shanti Om' (& Deepika Padukone)
If, for some reason, you haven’t watched the film, here’s some context. Shah Rukh is Om Makhija, a junior artiste, who is enamored by an actor Shanti Kashyap (Deepika). Her husband, Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal), who insists on hiding their marriage for the sake of his career, eventually kills her once he finds out she’s pregnant and Om witnesses this and perishes while trying to save her.
If that’s not enough, Om is reincarnated as superstar Om Kapoor and sets out on a path for justice and revenge with the aid of his mother, friend, and Shanti’s lookalike Sandy Bansal.
If that sounds like too much, that’s because it is. For all its flaws, Om Shanti Om is an instance of how too much can be just enough because something about the film speaks to everyone. There is no dearth of iconic moments in the film, even if you completely remove the celebrity cameos.
'Om Shanti Om' Was an Instant Pop Culture Hit
Before I knew how, Om Shanti Om became a pop cultural moment. Till date, if someone really wants something, they say to their friends, “Agar tum kisi ko puri shiddat se chaho to puri kaynat tumhe us se milane ki koshish me lag jati hai”.
‘Dard E Disco’ and ‘Deewangi Deewangi’ played in birthday parties, annual days, weddings even, for years after the film released and the former remains a treat for all Shah Rukh fans (I checked).
And I’ve heard the ‘ek chutki Sindoor ki keemat tum kya jaano Ramesh babu’ line be recreated numerous times.
'Om Shanti Om' is the Filmy-est of Films
Watching Om Shanti Om was like watching a film being made – the colours, the cinematography and the background music all created magic on screen. By the time ‘Deewangi Deewangi’ started, I was already at the edge of my seat.
The song, in itself, is a laundry list of Bollywood’s ‘Who’s Who’ and it doesn’t hurt that the film’s music, courtesy Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar, is brilliant and memorable from the get-go.
It’s the quintessential Bollywood film which also pays homage to the best.
In the track ‘Dhoom Tana’, the makers used special effects and placed Deepika and Shah Rukh in indelible Bollywood moments – Amrapali (1966), Saccha Jhutha (1970), the Humjoli (1970) badminton scene, and more.
In Om Makhija, the film gave the audience a character you can’t help but stay with – he has big dreams and limited means. He exists in stark contrast to the likes of Shanti and Mukesh, and yet their lives aren’t painted in perfection.
While the performances weren’t the career-best for any of them, Arjun Rampal was villainous enough for me to be mad at him for years before I differentiated reel from real. Deepika Padukone played two starkly different roles and made it easy to root for both of them.
Shah Rukh took us from an underdog to a superstar with us still holding out hope for one while believing in the other.
Placing Om and Shanti at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to their place in the film industry also gave the film a unique standpoint when it came to portraying the industry.
One wouldn’t say that the film is a brutally honest or scathing critique of the cinema world but it is anything but absolute, unflinching glamour and that’s a good start.
Now, in 2022 (when I’m much more pretentious and experienced than I was in 2007), if you asked me what my favourite film is, I’d probably name a few Hollywood flicks here and there, a Shyam Benegal film (how times have changed), and definitely Encanto.
But 2007 Bollywood films (shoutout to Aaja Nachle, Guru, and Welcome) will always be the ones that made me want to see films for what they are – art.
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