18.11.2007

Om Shanti Om

I had decided already that whilst in India I would see a lot of Bollywood movies as I love the drama, the intensity, crazy story line and predicting the unpredictable end…So I managed to talk a few people into going together, Irene, Sayuri, Natalie, Andy and I took a trip to Panjim (capital city of Goa) to watch the latest Bollywood Buster Om Shanti Om.

There is something about watching movies in India. The cinema Inox was just 10 times better than the ones in Wood Green, no smell of piss in the auditoriums, stinking chairs, annoying gangster wanna-be group of thugs, screaming kids or the people behind the counter serving you popcorn who would rather throw it in your face…This cinema was so clean, so new, a huge foyer with all the counters open even when there are no customers, serving with happy grins on their faces, making recommendations about movies, a DJ playing funky Indian music and playing some weird competition game called "ladies who are wearing 3 or more rings please come up to stage" and the best surprise of all being samosas being served rather than hot dogs or greasy snacks.

Anyway, we probably freaked people out because of out amazing gazes, non-stop flash from our cameras, me grabbing a real life size poster of the main actor and groping him, over doing our order with samosas, popcorns, drinks, ice creams and coffees (and not knowing how to hold all of that in our hands), our enthusiastic questioning about the story line of the movie (as it is in Hindi and we just have to guess what the hell is going on)…But we did surpass all of that and found out seats without spilling anything on others laps and toning down our squeaky voices of "oh my God this is soooo exciting".

I'm sure that someone had mentioned to me before about the Indian national anthem sang before each movie so I'm glad that when everyone in the cinema stood up like steel rods, looking all serious and partaking in singing out loud I was able to tell our group to get their faces out of their ice-cream and stand up. We did try not to giggle so much as the seriousness of the crowd meant that we'd probably get thrown out.

The story line was pretty predictable as I had seen many Bollywood movies before and know that the more exaggerated your guess is the closer you get to it. The main male character (Om) was working in a Bollywood studio, head over heels in love with an actress (Shanti) but then found out that she was pregnant by a producer as a result of an affair. But when the producer found out about Shanti's pregnancy he decided to burn her alive in a beautiful film set he had created. Shanti happen to be nearby and witness this attempted murder and tried to save Shanti by breaking into the film set but it was too late and they both died (looking into each other's eyes, in tears). But at the time of their death a male child was born to another producer's family (happened to be the reincarnation of Om) and although we never see Shanti reincarnated we can guess that it also happened for her too. So the new Om becomes an actor/singer who has a phobia of fire (guess why that is?)…Anyway, he slowly begins to have flashbacks etc, find his original mother and brother, remember how Shanti was murdered. And by coincidence the producer who killed Shanti wants to do a movie with Om (who now remembers his past life and Shanti's death) so cunningly Om gets the producer to agree to do a film called "om shanti om" which would be about the original story. Anyway, then search for a girl to play Shanti and boom, there turns up Shanti who is now an actress who cant act (she doesn't remember the past life though)….

Aaaargh, I think I should give up writing the story, its just too long.The great experience for us was the audience who seem to get very involved in the movie, they cry, they laugh, they clap, they get up and dance. The kids wonder around the rows because they have no interest in being there and time to time there are mobile phone conversations floating around….And of course because the movie is over 3 hours there is an interim, which is good excuse to go to toilet and get more food and drinks!

I absolutely loved this cinema and will be returning backJ