I have "Ajab Si" playing in a loop for the 16th time now on my Creative 5.1 and no,I am not exaggerating. As I sit down to write on the movie Om Shanti Om, all I can remember is the ethereal eyes, the strategically placed dimple, the Goddess like smile and the beauty we all know by the name of Deepika Padukone. She has arrived and Bollywood,stand up and take notice. I went to see this movie not because of the much talked about sculpted physique of SRK, nor for the 31 guest starred Title Track, nor for Farah Khan's directorial skills. I went for only one reason-pretty obvious one, you do the math, my hormones are all over the place!! I paid 59 bucks for the ticket and I swear, the first glance made it all even-stevens and every scene that followed was a Diwali Bumper Lottery for me, which was striking the Jackpot and made me feel I was Gladstone eh! Take the scene when she lifts the veil, and my jaw dropped on the floor and all I could speak out was "FISHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" ( which is a jargon we used to say in our college, in lieu of the other famous F word, you know..).
Deepika is Vyjantimala meets the Diwali Pathaka-Cover South Indian beauty meets Vogue and Ralph Lauren meets non-plastic Aishwarya meets each and every friggin beautiful lady who knocks your socks off. It is like listening to Master of Puppets for the first time, except this one's heavier in a completely different way. OMFG!!! I am emotionally drained and I think I'm in love again. Last time was when I saw Malena, and the time before that was when I saw La Isla Bonita performed by Alizee. That's a different story.

The story here is Om Shanti Om. Farah Khan's second directorial venture comes from her own writing desk, but is a straight rip-off/tribute( whatever) to the Subhash Ghai retro-reincarnation magnum opus KARZ. We even get to see some reels of Rishi Kapoor in the original Om Shanti Om song. Only that, Simi Garewal is Arjun Rampal(they both share the same hairstyle,I swear) and SRK and Deepika play Rishi Kapoor(It takes two to fill a Kapoor's shoe-Quote of the Day).There's no Tina Munim Ambani here, yeah but a Ghai cameo indeed.The story begins in the late 70-early 80s era of Bollywood. I think Farah has a strong inclination to the era of Jawanee Diwanee, the bobby prints, the huge wigs, the badminton courts with white pants and pink salwars, and of course Extra Large Collars for extra protection( I donno from what!).The entire retro look could have been done much better which at parts was feeling like pieces of make up peeling off from a Ramsay flick Heroine. But then, all in all the special effects made it all up. The Sunil Dutt-Rajesh Khanna-Jeetendra morphed song was absolutely brilliant( reminded me of the first time I saw Forrest Gump). The lookalike party was ewww for me coz it freaks me out everytime to see a fake Dev Anand.( I mean one is enough,..I mean there can be only one Dev Anand, respect Dev Saab!!! )
I really don't know if making a Bollywood movie is as dysfunctional as it was shown here. You know the kind where the Director is dragged along and is manipulated by the Producer and probably a famous Lead Actor/Actress. SRK does a pretty well job, but hey! he has overdone it. I mean the gym regime. And it all shows on his face. He looks 10 years older, which means he looks 50. The abs are perfect no doubt! Coming back to the special effects, picture perfect. The fire sequences are one of the never seen before scenes in Bollywood and have been handled pretty amazingly. The art direction is also very commendable. The retro studio feel, the chandeliers , the stairs and all the candles shouted one and only one point ie. this is the Diwali movie of the year. And this is similar to the Thanksgivin' season of Movie releases in Hollywood. You know this is our LOTR. We got it all. The perfect masala in full throttle bay beh. Farah Khan knows how to do it just right. If it's masala, we make it Yummy. Featuring the biggest Guest Appearance Song with stars from the retro league to the now-Bollywood-A-league and well the sub-junior league comprising of Dino,Arbaaz,Aftab,Amrita,Malaika et al.
P.S.Shilpa Shetty is WHOA!!! TNT.

Om Shanti Om intelligently makes a spoofy-tribute to the different genres of Indian filmmaking.Be it Quickgun Murugun-the Rajni-isque Cowboy who's tag line is -Mind It(thhh)! or the Sindoor dialogue, ,the Red Chaddi Mohabbat Man,the overacting, melodramatic mother-Kirron Kher , the rhyming acceptance speech or even the "tharkee" Producer.The mock Filmfare Award thing was a riot of laughter for the batch of girls who were sitting next to me who fainted just at the glimpse of AB Jr. Another thing worth mentioning is the RING inspired scene, when Deepika is busy combing her hair.That was awesome!!!LOL. I LOVED IT. ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY.
The music just uplifts me everytime I listen to it. Trivia time: Pyarelal of Laxmikant Pyarelal has done the arrangement of the Dhoom Tana Song in a very 80'ish style.You know the Sridevi in an Apsara costume with Jeetendra in his yellow pants and lots of Sarees and Pots and huge percussions kind of arrangement where you need 120 strings to play simultaneously when Sridevi 's chin touchers Jeetendra's chin. Dhoom Tana takes you to that era and it still doesn't feel out of the place. Dastaan-e-Om Shanti Om sung by Shaan is very very-Ek Hasina Thi. The recap song with the musical flashback. The background score by Sandeep Chowta is brilliant. The bass rhythm on this song is very heavy.\m/ .Jaag Soona Soona by Rahat Fateh and Richa Sharma is a sufi-isque song which is pretty decent, a good song individually, but then when the entire soundtrack is so brilliant, this qualifies as the out of focus song which everyone won't remember after the movie.Dard-e-Disco is signature Sukhwinder. The Deewangi-guest Item song is just one of those run-of-the-mill Bollywood bhangra songs you hear a DJ playing now and then and is just average. NOW READ CAREFULLY. While Ajab Si would remain my favorite track in the movie for the sole reason of where this song is featured, my vote for the best song of the album goes to Main Aggar Kahoo by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. What a track!! Sonu takes the entire soundtrack to a level best described as zenith.That's it.
Finally,Ajab Si interestingly doesn't start( both the times) from the Mukhda. It begins with ..."Aayee aisi Raat Hai Jo bahut Khushnaseeb Hai..." in the first half and in the second half it begins with "...Tere Saath Saath aisa..koi Nuur aaya hai", and both are the intro songs of Deepika ( the rebirth thing, yeeah!). KK does a very good job and he could land up winning the Filmfare for this finally.The lyrics by Vishal is heartfelt and inspiring, as in he is the lead vocalist of Pentagram and he wrote Ajab Si-WHOA!!!

Now as I (am expecting to)recover slowly from the Deepika fever in the next few days, I can only say this. FORGET SAAWARIYA.I haven't seen it and I don't even care to give it a glance. This is the Diwali movie of the year by all means. Grab your popcorn because this reminds you what it used to be like being at the movies. SRK still rules at this age. DDLJ was released in 1995,12 years back and the girls still love him!! And Deepika,aaah!!!Sigh!
She came, I saw, she conquered.

FIN!