Om Shanti Om : a shradhanjali (tribute) to yesteryear cinema!

13/01/2014

Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Bollywood romantic-reincarnation film directed and choreographed by Farah Khan. It stars Shahrukh Khan and Hindi debutant actress who is now at the peak of her career Deepika Padukone in the lead roles while Arjun Rampal, Shreyas Talpade, and Kirron Kher feature in supporting roles. More than forty-two well-known Bollywood stars appear in the course of the film, including thirty of them (not including the stars of the film) in one song alone. The film is set in the 1970s and 2000’s it pays tribute to, and pokes fun at, the Indian film industry of both these eras. The film was released in 2,000 prints worldwide making it the largest Indian cinematic release at the time.Om Shanti Om was released on 9 November 2007 to mostly positive reviews from critics and record-breaking box office collections. It grossed INR1.49 billion (US$24 million) worldwide and thus became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time at the time of its release. Another notable fact is Deepika Padukone’s voice has been dubbed by by sound artiste Mona Ghosh Shetty for this film!

The Cast

Deepika Padukone as Shanti Priya / Sandhya “Sandy”
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Prakash Makhija / Om Kapoor
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra “Mike” / Mikey
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor
Asawari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly
Bindu Desai as Kamini
Satish Shah as Film Director
Shawar Ali as Shawar Ali Khan

Special appearances during the song “Deewangi Deewangi” (in order of appearance)

Other Cameo appearances throughout the film (in alphabetical order)

Abhishek Bachchan as himself
Akshay Kumar as himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor’s heroine at Filmfare Awards
Amitabh Bachchan as himself
Arshad Warsi as himself
Bappi Lahiri as himself
Bipasha Basu as herself
Chunky Pandey as himself
Dhananjay Singh as himself
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor’s heroine at Filmfare Awards.
Farah Khan in the opening of the film.
Feroz Khan as himself
Gauri Khan as herself

Hrithik Roshan as himself
Karan Johar as himself
Soumya Seth as Audience
Koena Mitra as herself
Mayur Puri as the Gujarati director of Apahij Pyar.
Rakesh Roshan as himself
Rishi Kapoor as himself
Shabana Azmi as herself
Subhash Ghai as himself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film.
V. Manikandan as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films.
Yash Chopra as himself

The Plot of Om Shanti Om

Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a junior artiste in the 1970s Bollywood film industry, in love with film star Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone). One evening, Om views the premiere of Shanti’s film Dreamy Girl, posing as Manoj Kumar. Later that night, Om becomes drunk and describes his vision of himself as a famous, wealthy film star to his friend Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) and some local children. At the shooting of a later film, Om rescues Shanti from a fire scene whereof the fire has escaped control, and they become friends. One day, he overhears from Shanti and producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal), that Mukesh and Shanti have married in secret and that Shanti is pregnant and expects a traditional wedding. At the set of their soon-to-be-made film Om Shanti Om, Mukesh promises to cancel the film, reveal their marriage to the public, and have a grand wedding on the set; but instead traps Shanti on the set and sets it on fire, to prevent his financial loss.
Om attempts to rescue Shanti, but is attacked by Mukesh’s guards, and later thrown from the building by an explosion. Outside, Om is hit by a car owned by Rajesh Kapoor (Javed Sheikh), a well-known actor taking his wife Lovely to the hospital to give birth. At the hospital Om dies of his injuries, while Lovely gives birth to a son, also named Om, who in adulthood has become a popular movie star, nicknamed ‘O.K.’, and lives the luxurious life imagined by Om Prakash, but experiences pyrophobia and subconsciously inherits Om Prakash’s memories.

In acceptance of an award, O.K. unexpectedly delivers Om Prakash’s drunken speech to the assembly. Pappu hears this on television. At a celebration of his award, O.K. is introduced by his father to Mukesh Mehra, and thereupon recovers Om Prakash’s memories. He later reunites with Bela and Pappu and conspires to avenge Shanti’s death by making Mukesh confess his crime. To that end, O.K. convinces Mukesh to restart Om Shanti Om, while scheming to convince Mukesh that Shanti is a ghost haunting himself. To impersonate Shanti, O.K. finds Sandhya, a.k.a. Sandy, a doppelganger of Shanti. Throughout the film’s shooting, O.K. and his friends arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime.

During the music launch of the film, O.K. taunts Mukesh by revealing, through a song, the extent to which he knows the story of Shanti’s death. Seeing Sandy bleed of a scratch, Mukesh confirms that she is not Shanti’s ghost. Thereafter O.K. and Mukesh confront each other with their knowledge of each other’s actions. During the quarrel, an apparently-genuine ghost of Shanti reveals that Mukesh, after the fire ceased to burn, buried her alive under the set’s chandelier. Mukesh and O.K. fight, resulting in another fire; and the chandelier falls on Mukesh, killing him instantly. Pappu and Sandy join O.K., who watch as the ghost leaves the scene. The film ends with arrival of its cast & crew at a studio…

The Awards