It was only playing once in my hometown. I actually had to skip class to go(Ironically, a class about Indian culture). My brother was supposed to accompany me, but he got sick the night before (wimp) and backed out. Mom offered to watch my daughter, but if she wouldn't have I would have dragged little Isa too.
What an experience!The movie was pure entertainment...And if I was uncertain at any point I know for sure now that Shahrukh Khan lives for the sake of making movies his fans will enjoy. If director Farah Khan was the breath in Om Shanti Om,then SRK was the air that gave it life, stretching his over hyped image to its length just so we would get a good laugh. I've never seen Main Hoon Naa, but if its anything like this, I'm in!
The critics said Om Shanti Om lacked a substantial plot(yet they ironically embraced Saawariya), but let's face it, the movie was only supposed to be sugary fluff anyways. And when you hold it up to those standards, the plot was actually pretty good. The whole good guy/bad guy aspect reminded me of any typical Hollywood commercial flick, particularly one you would go take your kid to see that's like based off of a comic character or something, but the reincarnation spin added a different twist from that idea(unless you've grown up on Bollywood, in which case you may be sick of reincarnation used in films). But who cares about the plot, right? I didn't, for once(that's how much fun I had)!
The movie theater was packed. Not a seat left in the house. Since I was alone, I did get some odd stares, but I sat next to a mother with a baby(who miraculously didn't make a peep for the entire film--I was so glad I didn't bring my daughter)and a seat that was out of order, which worked out kind of nice because I didn't feel smushed in by strangers(not that I'm uncomfortable with that in particular, but I always like a little elbow room).
As it turned out, the fullness of the movie theater made everything more exciting, because the audience was so reactive. This was helpful when attempting to understand all of the jokes, a bit of a challenge for a Bollywood rookie such as myself. If the audience laughed, I knew it was a joke(obviously). The cool thing was, most of the time I did get the jokes, and was laughing right along with them(how far I've come in my journey through Bollywood!)!
Speaking of audience reaction, Deepika Padukone got the most cheers from the guys that I've seen since Salma Hayek made her debut in Desperado. When she made her second entrance in the last half of the film, I even heard a guy shout, "Thank you, Director!"
I was completely starstruck for the awards ceremony piece and the 31 star cameo song, "Deewangi". I literally had butterflies in my stomach as I waited with baited breath for each star to appear, particularly Kajol...and the crowd's delight heightened my own. Kajol,Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty got the loudest applause from everyone, and Rekha got something between an applause and a gasp. The only thing I didn't get about this song was that while its supposed to be oh-so-cool, the English lyrics would be laughable if ever played in any of the nightclubs here in the U.S.("All cool boys, come on make some noise"? Come ON, people!).
I won't go on a tangent about SRK's now famous six pack. But I will say that I usually don't care whether guys are ripped or not, and I already love SRK for non-physical reasons. But when "Dard-E-Disco" came on, most of us were speechless(read into that what you will). Even the guys. I imagine plenty of them in the theater that night went home to dust off their Ab-rollers.
The romance of the film was weak, but that was okay too. At least I got "Main Agar Kahoon", which allowed me to do one of my favorite things--watch Shahrukh Khan fall in love.
The characters were adorable when playing the starstruck fan roles. I could have just hugged SRK's Om from the first half of the film, and I could see myself in Sandy, Deepika's second character, as she watched Om Kapoor's movies with hearts in her eyes(never mind that she's supposed to be a teenager and I'm 26).
One final thought on Deepika...As we all were leaving the theater, I overheard someone say, "She did a much better job than Sonam", while her friends nodded in agreement. Not an entirely fair statement, in my opinion, but worth mentioning.
Text (c) 2007 Nida Nazir Bitten By Bollywood
