I am a brave woman...

I steeled myself and watched Om Shanti Om...in all of Shahrukh's romping glory (eugh).
Here is how it went down:

Title: Om Shanti Om
Year: 2007
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Deepika Pudkone, Kiron Kher, Arjun Rampal.

Its the 70s, Om (Shahrukh) is a junior artiste in Bollywood- in love with superstar Shanti (Deepika), whom admires from afar. His mother (Kiron) and friend Pappu (Shreyas) support him through thick and thin.

Since this movie is a spoof of all Bollywood movies ever, he does meet and become friends with Shanti, and is about to propose, when...he finds out that Shanti is secretly married to Mahesh (Arjun), and expecting his child.


Om is reconciled with this- Shanti's happiness is his happiness- until he finds out that Mahesh is planning to marry a rich producer's daughter, and kill Shanti in a fire to silence her forever. He tries to save Shanti, but they both perish instead- in a fire started on set by the wily Mahesh.


Fast forward 30 or so years-
Om had been reborn the night of his death as Om Kapur, the son of a Bollywood superstar. Today he is a movie star himself. He slowly remembers his previous life, meets up with his ex-mom and Pappu again, finds Shanti's lookalike, and brings Mahesh to justice. End of story.


But the story is not the point here. The movie is basically a collection of spoofs, inside Bollywood jokes and the unabashed masala that the Indian movie industry is famous for, loosely stuck onto a rehash of the 70's hit Karz. Movie stars parade in and out of the frames, laughing at themselves sportingly enough. Despite all that, I just didn't feel satisfied with it- it just didn't seem enough. I feel I was expecting substance in a movie that never even attempted to pretend it had any!

Pros: Shreyas Talpade is a rising star- and Ms. Pudkune did well enough as well., as did Arjun Rampal- he should stick to villainous roles, and not smile :)

Cons: Brilliant jokes and spoofs aren't enough to make a successful movie- case in point: Hot Fuzz had every spoof in the book, but also a story- which made for a brilliant movie. Om.. had the former, but not the latter- but that's just my two cents!