om shanti om
As the conversation between our Pawan Luthra and Tony Burke goes viral, less for their immigration banter and more for Mr Burke’s favourite Hindi films, the spotlight has suddenly come on his ‘all-time favourite film ever’ – Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om (2007).
The film is almost twenty years old now. A hit upon its release, it has aged. And yet wave after wave of Next Gen keeps finding it thanks to Netflix, and, like my kids, not only see it again and again but also show it to their non-Indian friends. And unfailingly, Western millennials and Gen Z find it fascinating, funny, and absorbing – perhaps a vision of a Disneyfied India.
Makes you wonder – what exactly makes this film such a lasting favourite?
I do imagine, though, if you had put a request for a sure-fire hit film idea into ChatGPT and asked it to suggest themes, here’s what you may have got:
- Take SRK – and have him take his shirt off.
- In fact, WTF. Take 2 SRKs!
- Take the hottest model you can find with talent and make this her debut.
- In fact, WTF. Give her a double role too.
-
Om (Shah Rukh Khan) and Shanti (Deepika Padukone) meeting for the first time. (Source: Pinterest) - Take a hit leading actor like Arjun Rampal and make him the villain (screw you Dhurandhar, Farah Khan thought of it first)
- Set it in the ‘70s and have your designers go wild.
- Go retro hard in your themes and songs. Here are some inspirations – Mother India scene where Sunil Dutt actually rescued Nargis from the fire. John Jani Janardhan from Naseeb.
- While on retro, it’s been a while for punar janam (reincarnation) films. Take Karz and suck it dry. Oh – borrow your title from one of its songs. Om Shanti Om. Two Oms, one Shanti. Got it?? Shhhh, don’t tell.
- Oh, and steal the whole theme of The Alchemist: if you desire something hard enough, the whole universe conspires to get it for you.
- Anchor your film on the mother – always works in Bollywood. And not any mother. A drama queen Punjabi mother who is a has-been actress.
- Get Pyarelal ji from LP to make a comeback and compose one song.
- Sign the hottest musical duo Vishal-Shekhar. om shanti om
- Get Javed Uncle to write the most absurd song ever – a disco song with nonsense lyrics and steeped in pain and anguish. Erm, call it Dard-E-Disco.
- Amp the colour scheme so high that kids “loooove” the film and remember it always.
- Tell Farah to make her famous Yakhni Pulao, send it to every actor in Mumbai, and ask them ALL to do walk-on cameos in the film. For free.
- Oh, and finally, make it funny. Make it sad. Make it dramatic. But make it all seem frivolous and make-believe. Remember, Bollywood is the suspension of disbelief.
And this is how Farah Khan came up with Om Shanti Om.
But wait. Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost. She got SRK to produce it as well!
Genius. Had to work.
READ ALSO: Dharmendra: The accidental ‘Meme King’ of Bollywood
