Kymm Zuckert Celebrates Bollywood with Om Shanti Om (2007, dir. Farah Khan, India)

“Life is like a film, it always has a happy ending, and if it’s not happy, then it’s not yet the end.”

I am part of a monthly online movie-watching group called Bollywood Club. My friend Amber is a huge fan of Bollywood and for her birthday she invited a group of us to watch a Bollywood movie together. I decided to do it because she is my friend, not because I had the slightest interest in Bollywood, but by the time the film was over, all of us newbies were raging fans. Bollywood will do that, it is magic!

The film we watched for the anniversary of Bollywood Club, Om Shanti Om, was saved for a year into our education because there are a ton of little jokes and references that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, not that I got all of them by any stretch of the imagination. But I got enough to feel like a teeny bit of a Bollywood insider.

It is the 1970s, and our fave rave Shah Rukh Khan plays Om, a junior artist (extra) who wants to be a superstar. His best friend, Pappu, (Shreyas Talpade), and mother, (Kirron Kher) both completely support him and believe it’s possible, though from what we see, he’s not overburdened with talent. He is very sweet and good-hearted, though, and has a mad crush on an actress, Shantipriya, (Deepika Padukone), whom he saves from a fire on set one day, and they become friends.

Later, something terrible happens, and the second half of the movie takes place in the present day (or at least the present day of 2007 when the film was made). SRK plays a different actor named Om, more successful, but also more spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, anything you read about this film will have in the first sentence a big fat spoiler of what I’m dancing around here, but I’m not going to say it. So if this sounds like something you might want to see, read nothing about it, including the Netflix blurb. Seriously!

As with all Bollywood films, this one is several genres at once, but fewer than usual. It’s mostly pretty light and funny, especially the music numbers, with a few pretty dark parts. For the 1970’s half, they clearly had a great deal of fun recreating the Bollywood film style of the period, not to mention the costumes, which are a candy-coloured joy. The aging makeup for some of the characters in the second half was less than stellar. Amber pointed out to us that one of the actors wears a scarf at all times so that they wouldn’t have to age his neck, and then all I ever noticed were the never-ending array of scarves. Om Scarfi Om, they should have called it!

Om Shanti Om is super fun, and like at least one I have already seen, the closing number was a curtain call that included all of the crew as well, which it just so charming. It is the best.

I highly recommend discovering Bollywood, if it’s something you are unfamiliar with, there is nothing like it anywhere else.

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog