Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Born again Bollywood., 24 April 2009
This `film within a film' starts off as a light-hearted bit of fun. Trivial points and obsession over becoming a celebrity are dragged out into desperate drama, this is the main source of comedy to start with. It all seems a little bit overacted with no real depth. Once you accept this as a silly film with little substance you can settle down to enjoy camped up performances with some incredibly vibrant visuals - this is one of the most colourful films I've seen in a long time.
*But*...there's a surprise in store. The first half might be plagued with a general feel of dipping below average, but the film makes a comeback!
After Om Prakash Makhija is reincarnated as Om `OK' Kapoor - the rich celebrity he always wanted to be, we see how wealth and fame aren't the true measures of a great man. The annoyingly shallow celebrity obsession we first saw is met with the more balanced reality of the business. The musical numbers start to be less average and far more catchy, and the plot (though far from plausible) actually starts to become gripping!
The fact that this film is set bang in the middle of the Bollywood film industry means it can milk cameos from as many top names as possible. In-jokes about the industry made me smile, especially the build up to an award ceremony where big name Indian actors joined in - any film with a Hrithik Roshan appearance is worth watching! Abhishek Bachchan was a great sport and I loved the gag about "Dhoom 5"! The pantomime starts to redeem itself with this frankly very funny scene, this is a milestone and from here onwards the film gets better.
You get the song-and-dance-spectaculars you expect from a modern Bollywood film, but like I say - you have to wait until the second half of the film to get the best stuff. But when it comes, it's great! I heard people mention that there was a likeness to The Phantom of the Opera, I couldn't really see any parallels until the final part of the film, and what you get is a satisfying conclusion to a film which initially looked to let itself down.
In a nutshell: To start with you have to skip through the individual trailers because you can't get straight to the main menu and when you do eventually play the main feature there's an advert for a finance company - the cheek of it! Then you get a good hour or so of unchallenging dialogue and mediocre dance routines - albeit presented in a vibrant bright way. Just when you start to feel let down by a film which has been marketed as an extravaganza, you find yourself toe tapping away to some of the catchiest tunes to come out of the Indian sub-continent and grinning at all the industry in-jokes before a meaty ending reassures you that this was a film worth watching after all.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just falls short of being a classic, 5 April 2008
The plot summary is as follows: Om (Shah Rukh Khan) is a lowly actor in the 70s trying to make it in Bollywood. Throughout his journey in the film industry, he has idolized and fallen in love with Shanti (Deepika Padukone), a big time actress. Eventually, the two meet and strike up a friendship; however, a tragic series of events sees Om being killed and then reincarnated in modern day Bollywood, where there remains some unfinished business to resolve from his previous life.
The director, Farah Khan, manages to successfully pay tribute and mock the film industry and its actors and cliched scripts. For Shah Rukh, this has been a perfect film for his brand of (over)acting and Padukone could not have wished for a better launch into the industry's A list: she is definitely going to be one to watch in the future! For the Bollywood fanatics, many actors from today and yesteryear make guest appearances throughout the film: and at one point, no less that 31 guest appearances in one song! Some of the songs are great and extreamly catchy, whereas others are more average. All in all, Om Shanti Om is a fantastic film to watch because it is so different; while some of the special affects are not perfect, the 70s theme throughout the film is a great reminder of a by-gone era in Indian cinema.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a very artistic film!, 24 May 2009
The film is purely artistic because of the wonderful imagery and creativity. Mixing the 70s with modern era divides the film in to two different moods and makes you forget the long hours of bollywood movies. The storyline is full of drama in a very imaginative way! Shahrukh's acting is amazing as usual and it seems like every movie that he does opens up a new dimension to his acting! The rest of cast have also done a good job and the music is one of the strong points of this movie!
As an artist I totally enjoyed the movie and watched it a couple of times and I'm sure that I would want to watch again pretty soon! To summarize 3 strong points in this movie I would say:
Shahrukh , Imagery and the Music
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