Om Deepika Om

[Kesava Mallela]

I am sure you have either read a ton of reviews already or listened to people drone about it. I am not sure how much I can add to the existing mass of 'literature' out there. But never the less, at the risk of being redundant, I'm gonna throw in my two cents (err...let's pick rising pence instead).

All the nice things: It's nice to see irreverence to historical cliches in a movie tradition where parody usually means wars between fans. Nice to see actors willing to parody themselves indicating a high level of self-confidence and identity. Nice to see a montage of all those new media. Nice to see Bollywood throw parodical light at themselves although it seems like one giant self-congratulatory, self-reveling party. etc. etc. and all other good things you have listened about the movie in spite of the movie driving itself speedily into a huge-bollywood-cliche-spiral by mocking one in the first place.

Its a Bollywood movie after all, and it remains loyal to all the elements that make one: Changes genre gears every 10 mins, songs for no particular reason which are totally incoherent and anachronistic to the genre of the storyline, fortune-cookie-ish punchlines like 'Dil se Maango, Mil Jaayega; Film Abhi Baaki Hai' and of course all that super-star smugness.

I would have loved to see more out-and-out mockery than frequent shifting gears. The movie should have hung on to MORE cliches and made buffoonery by using elements like "Making Sandy realize that she was Shanti", "Maang Bhari Sindhur and Chutki Sindhur scenes sponsored by Maybelline Cosmetics", "SRK watching a DVD of Karz and realizing his past life (instead of frequent fire nightmares)". That's something for MTV short film, I guess, if only it had the equal audience, budgets and access to star cast.

Kesava

[Rishi]

Disclaimer : This isn't a review, its my personal reading of the film inspired off my personal readings :P.

Om Shanti Om has flummoxed me and left me in all sorts of mental discomforts! For what I consider, a long time now. At one point, I branded it "new media"!

 This surely wasn't a film. I didn't feel like I had watched a movie. The whole experience of the 'film' was unique, something that wasn't necessarily special or repulsive. There was definitely a frustration associated with my inability to express my feelings toward Farah Khan's  self-deprecating, sometimes smug, sometimes preposterous (read hilarious),but most definitely grandiose movie. Its megalomania and pompous show-off at one level, yet it has deep cultural significance at another. The debate in my mind is the intention of the film maker. I doubt cultural commentary as the purpose and I suspect celebrating her sense of belonging toward the movie/glamor community as the underlying motivation. Whether the former thought even came to the film makers mind while making it is moot. Inadvertently or not, Farah Khan has created, what I consider, a very important cultural expression with Om Shanti Om.

Alright, so what am I exactly talking about? Bollywood is a culture. We all agree, right? Its not an isolated culture , it determines us  and we determine it (That's how all media matures/grows - by reflecting upon and by being reflected ). But, culture is not static, its dynamic , its alive and it grows each moment. How, you ask? We contribute to its growth - by reenacting, retelling, redoing, reenacting,reliving,reconstructing and in general repeating things that we  inherently understand due to our being part of the culture in the first place. The reflexivity is confounding yet it exists and its real.  Farah Khan's film is reflexive with a capital R. Reflexive. There!  And its this reflexivity that had me confused.

Let me elaborate on this reflexivity bit. Her use of cliches, (I don't even want to start a list here...), standard dialogs ("Yeh ek maa ka dil kehtaa hai" etc.) , twists , songs, hackneyed concepts like re-birth- all that what we've come to know as the quintessential "Bollywood Masala"  is essentially retelling, repeating a kind of reinforcing of the culture that we are all too familiar with AND the film itself progresses with this reuse, expanding on/building on what already is. Due its reflexive nature, the film is hard to critique as a story. And that, in my mind makes it more of a cultural expression than a film per se. And to top it off, its Ms Khan's expression of her experience in Bollywood. Even if an Om Puri were asked to make a film on his experience in Bollywood, it would perhaps have similar elements - because Bollywood culture is so universal. Heck, if a person on the street in India is asked to make a film on his/her Bollywood experience, he'll most definitely have a similar tone of expression ( ignoring production qualities etc.)

Compare this dialog from the film "aur agar sab theek nahi hai toh...picture abhi baaki hai mere dost..." to this line from an anthropological essay  on cultural expressions of experience- "Stories may have endings, but stories are never over". Om Shanti Om  (the expression) will end but Bollywood (the experience) will continue on and that's where the unintended (for most part) brilliance of Om Shanti Om comes to the fore. It reflexively uses this dialog to drag the film until "sab kuch is theek" (villain is punished, truth and justice prevail and all sorts of other socialistic messages).  And its not just this dialog, its many other countless instances which makes you think - this is silly, but most of Bollywood is silly. Reflexivity that entertains.OSO doesn't re-mediate (like other Bollywood films) , it simply re-enacts and it re-tells what it is to have a Bollywood experience.

To complete this expression, self-deprecation is a tool, hackneyed dialogs are a tool, every little thing in the film whether Ms Khan intends or not is a tool toward completing her expression. And this is a landmark expression, hilarious and all. Because this will surely compel the Bollywood community to add to this culture thereby rendering new ideas and new thoughts and new kinds of films. I won't credit Farah Khan for making an amazingly entertaining film (because 'Mai Hoo Na' was far superior) but by making Om Shanti Om she has done a great service, which should make people more reflective on the Bollywood experience and contribute toward its maturity.

-Rishi