Planet Bollywood
Om Shanti Om
 
Producer: Red Chillies Entertainment
Director: Farah Khan
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, and Malaika Arora Khan
Music: Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar, Vishal Dadlani, and Kumaar
Release Date: 09 November 2007
 
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Credit must be given to Farah Khan for going with the nostalgia evoking title, “Om Shanti Om” for her second directorial venture. The first thing that comes to mind upon hearing that title is an image of Rishi Kapoor dancing on a giant spinning record trying not to trip on his wide bell bottom pants in Shubhash Ghai’s “Karz”. That classic tale of reincarnation and a killer in the form of Simi Garewal has been burned into the collective memory of any Indian who grew up during that time.

Going for the built in intrinsic nostalgic value of the title, Farah Khan has chosen a reincarnation theme for her second film. The story centers on an artist who grows up in the seventies (perhaps watching Karz), meets the love of his life and shortly thereafter suffers an untimely demise. He is immediately reincarnated and the story flash-forwards to the present day. Haunted by the memories of his past life and love, he attempts to not only solve the mystery of his death, but also reunite with the love of his past life. The movie is apparently “inspired” by the Hollywood movie, “Chances Are” wherein a man is reincarnated and immediately attempts to find the wife from his previous life. The problem is that she is now much older than him and does not believe that he is the reincarnation of the man she once loved.

The music for the film was to have been composed by A.R. Rahman, but he wanted 33 percent of the music rights/profits, so T-Series balked and ended their discussions with him. Instead, the music baton was handed to maestros Vishal-Shekhar (Dus, Honeymoon Private LTD, Bluffmaster). The addition of these two-music directors will be a bonus as it adds to the anticipation of this follow-up project to Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan’s directorial debut). One does wonder, why Farah did not go with Anu Malik this time, as his soundtrack to Main Hoon Na was a blockbuster. Still, we are guaranteed a fresh sounding soundtrack with Vishal-Shekhar and hopefully no reincarnated music. The master poet Gulzar will write lyrics.

Special mention must be made that Farah’s husband Shirish Kunder (director of Jaan E Mann) will be handling the editing on this movie as he did on Main Hoon Na. Also, apparently Skakira, who is a big fan of SRK and is acquainted with Farah as a choreographer, is in talks to make an appearance.


The movie features Shah Rukh Khan as the lead and introduces supermodel Deepika Padukone as the main love interest. The supporting cast includes Arjun Rampal (Don) and Shreyas Talpade (Iqbal, Dor). Both SRK and Deepika Padukone are getting rave reviews for their performances in the dailies. The actor to watch out for though, is the talented Shreyas Talpade.

One can expect that the movie will be in the same tone as Main Hoon Na, and will be a light hearted romp with excellent music. Only time will tell whether this reincarnated movie will please the movie going audience. With the talent involved, expectations are running high that this movie won’t be a reincarnated bomb, but rather a reincarnated hit ala Main Hoon Na.

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