Reviews: Saawariya vs. Om Shanti Om

i got to check out both Saawariya and om shanti om, thought i’d write down a bit on what the bollywood diwali-faceoff.

saawariya: i think the reviews are a harsh and mis-guided. this movie isn’t meant to take you on a thrill ride, nor an emotional melodrama, nor a ‘paisa-wasoool’ entertainer, nor a boy-girl feel-good love story. this is a work of art put together by a master craftsman – Sanjay Leela Bansali has put together a work with unprecedented coherence not seen since the days of sholay. the film is top-notch in music, visuals, art direction, sound design, characterization, screenplay, dialogue and sheer craft of film-making. the story is quite simple to the point of being not ‘substantial-enough’, but the story isn’t what this film is about.

the artistic theme of the film is very well thought out and meticulously crafted. the art theme is extremely detailed, from the hue (greenish blue) and the imagery (flowery flowing vines) is wonderful down to the design of henna on the heroine’s hands. the songs and music are woven into the fabric of the film and there aren’t any discordant jumps (except rani mukherjee’s item song) in story telling. the movie sets have the ‘look’ of Moulin Rouge (the neon lights, caberet), with the ‘take’ of Romeo+Juliet (acting style, dialog, bringing modernity to period story), both by director Baz Luhrmann. the bollywood flavor thrives in the poetic dialog (“चाँद निकलेगा तो ईद होगी नहीं तो इंतज़ार”), costumes (wonderful mix of the sexy with the traditional), and subtle hat-tip to the master-craftsmen of yester-years in raj kapoor (umbrella in rain).

the director has done marvellous job on putting together a product that stands for something, and does it with unprecedented skill in indian films, without compromising the ‘bollywood-ness’ of it all. go watch it, take in one frame at a time, one scene at a time, you would definitely have your paisa-wasool.

links to reviews : idlebrain review, LA Times, Planet Bollywood

om shanti om: this is the second in the genre-bending cinema style by director farah khan after ‘mein hoon na’. a good mix of drama, comedy, theatrics and general nautanki, it brings the rajinikanth-style mass cinema to bollywood. the key idea is to show something interesting or funny every 10 minutes, rather than building a story and constructing a coherent piece of work.

pretty much everyone walked out of the theater thinking ‘i liked the film’, but no one person can really put their finger on what aspect of the film is in fact good (e.g. story, dialog, direction, whatnot). each scene is interesting in its own right, such as an emotional scene, a comedy scene, a spoof, a song, a medley, a generous showing of steroid-fueled six-pack abs et al, but the movie as a whole is is pretty non-sensical. besides the female dominated item number concept is now officially crossed the gender barrier. saawariya too had something nice for the ladies to drool at. not that there is anything wrong with that (said seinfeld style )

the heroine is perfectly cast, and so are shreyas talpade and arjun rampal. shah rukh looks old (or may be it’s the steroids). for some reason, the multiplex decided to turn up the volume, i am thinking it’s by special request of the distributor.

while watching the film i was thinking back to when we were in college, we didn’t have much money, and the best way to get high was to get a bottle of Carlo Rossi wine. you could get a gallon of it for $5, you could drink to your heart’s content, it got you high, and it didn’t leave a bad taste in the mouth. it did the job. om shanti om is like that. you’ll probably enjoy it, but NOT because it’s well-made.