Om Prakash Makhija (Shahrukh Khan) is a junior artist aspiring to become a superstar one day and live life of luxury and comfort. He is a die hard fan and a secret lover of popular actress Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone). His mother and Papu (Shreyas Talpade) are the only true believers of his talent. A fire accident on one of the shooting sets introduces Shanti to Om. As Om finds happiness and satisfaction he finds out an untold truth of Shanti being married to film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal) who kills her after she admits her pregnancy to him. As a witness to this crime, Om gets killed in a fight with Mehra's men.Om Prakash comes back to the world now as Om Kapoor, a star-kid. Om Kapoor is all set to take revenge on Mehra for killing his love Shanti. He plans a conspiracy with Shanti’s clone Sandy, his mother and friend Papu to make Mehra (who is now a big producer in Hollywood) confess about his deadly crime. Will the purpose of Om’s rebirth be fulfilled? Will Mukesh Mehra confess his crime? Whats the future of Om and Sandy?
Pic is really two movies in one, with part one a jokey tribute to the ’70s and part two much more plot-heavy and dramatic. With the hunky Khan onscreen almost the whole time, and seriously overdoing his mature-boyish charm in the first half, the movie also requires considerable tolerance of the King’s limited range. Padukone, a real looker with major screen presence, acts as a balance in the early stages; more’s the pity she’s not given much chance in part two to develop her likeable, klutzy wannabe actress, Sandhya ("just call me Sandy").
Going out in a reported 2,000 prints, the film claims to be the biggest day-and-date international release in Bollywood history. (Official red-carpet world preem Oct. 8 was held in London, not Mumbai.) And with one number alone that features cameo appearances by 31 Bollywood stars, past and present, pic has a wow factor unequalled by any Hindi film in memory. Box office slugfest over the Diwali period with equally awaited "Saawariya", the first Bollypic funded by a U.S. major (Sony), looks to be a battle royale.
Credit must go to Farah Khan who mixes the commercial elements of the movie with an inherent class which she wanted to lay out in the soundtrack for Om Shanti Om. This is why a fine balancing act is done in the album with hardcore massy tracks like ‘Deewangi Deewangi‘ [best of the lot], ‘Dhoom Taana‘ and ‘Dard-E-Disco‘ presented along with touching tracks like ‘Aankhon Mein Teri’, ‘Main Agar Kahoon’ and ‘Jag Soona Soona Lage‘. And then there is always a ‘Dastaan-E-Om Shanti Om’ to bring the nostalgia of ‘Ek Haseena Thi‘ [Karz’].
SRK proves his supremacy yet again. If you thought that playing to the gallery came easy to certain actors only, watch SRK spin magic in OM SHANTI OM. He's magnificent, the star attraction, the soul of this film, the true baadshah. Deepika has all it takes to be a top star -- the personality, the looks and yes, she's supremely talented too. Arjun Rampal is a complete revelation. Shreyas Talpade is another surprise.
On the whole, OM SHANTI OM is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best.
