Om Shanti Om

***Om Shanti Om*** (transl. Om, Shanti, and Om) is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language romantic fantasy comedy film directed and co-written by Farah Khan with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. It stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. *Om Shanti Om* also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.

The film was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of ₹50 crore. Farah conceived *Om Shanti Om* while directing the musical *Bombay Dreams* (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film *Happy New Year*, she was reminded of *Om Shanti Om*; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film *Karz*. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.

The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, *Om Shanti Om* earned over ₹215 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design. The climax of the movie was inspired by the climax of 1958 Hindi movie.

## Plot

In 1977, Om Prakash Makhija is a junior artist in Hindi cinema who is in love with a film actress named Shantipriya Kashyap aka Shanti. One evening, Om attends the premiere of Shanti's film, and envisions himself as the lead actor Manoj Kumar. Om and his friend Pappu take on numerous small acting roles as film extras at RC Studios, a major film studio compound owned by Mukesh Mehra aka Mike. One night, a drunk Om describes his fantasy of one day winning a Filmfare Award for Best Actor and makes a speech in street. At the shooting of a film, Om rescues Shanti after a fire grows out of control, and they become friends. Om tries to woo her.

One day, at an RC Studios backdrop set, Om Prakash overhears a conversation between Shanti and Mukesh Mehra. The pair have been married for two years in secret, and Shanti reveals that she is pregnant with Mukesh's child. Mukesh seems overjoyed and asks Shanti to meet him at the set of their upcoming film titled **Om Shanti Om**. Mukesh promises to cancel the film, reveal their marriage to the public, and have a grand wedding on the set much to the dismay of Om. However, while in the sets, Mukesh reveals his true colors. He says that the child is going destroy both him and his career; he tells her that he has arranged for the set to burn, and lights the set up, leaving Shanti inside and locking her.

Om attempts to rescue Shanti, but is attacked by Mukesh's guards. After the guards leave, he again attempts to rescue Shanti, but he is thrown from the building by its fiery explosion and lands in a nearby street. A disorientated Om is hit by a car owned by Rajesh Kapoor, an actor taking his pregnant wife, Lovely, to the hospital as she is in labour. At the hospital, Om remembers his moments with Shanti as he dies, while Lovely gives birth to a son, also named Om. After that, Om Prakash's soul reincarnates into the newborn Om Kapoor.

### 30 years later

In 2007, Om Kapoor, nicknamed OK, is a famous actor and lives the luxurious life dreamt of by Om Prakash, but experiences pyrophobia and subconsciously inherits Om Prakash's memories. He also bears a birthmark on his wrist similar to the "Om" tattoo which was on Om Prakash's wrist. Om Prakash's mother Bela visits every set of OK claiming him to be her son and OK feels weird seeing her.

Soon after his 30th birthday, OK and his assistant Anwar drive to the RC Studios compound – long neglected and in disarray after the fire 30 years earlier- to shoot for an upcoming film; while there, OK experiences unsettling memory flashes of his past life at the studio, including that of eavesdropping on Mukesh and Shanti. At an awards ceremony, Om Kapoor unknowingly delivers the same speech Om Prakash made when he was drunk, which is viewed by an aged Pappu on television. At the event, Rajesh Kapoor who is OK's father, introduces him to Mukesh, whose introduction causes OK to fully remember the events of Om Prakash's life. OK later reunites with Bela and Pappu, and conspires to avenge Shanti's death by making Mukesh confess his crime.

Om Kapoor convinces Mukesh to restart shooting for *Om Shanti Om*, and he plans to convince Mukesh that Shanti's spirit is haunting him. To find Shanti's lookalike, O.K, Pappu, and Bela audition many actresses, and are about to give up when they finally find a super-fan of OK's named Sandhya Bansal aka Sandy, an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Throughout the film's shooting, OK and his friends arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of the past including organising the film's launch at the same ruined set. During the music launch of the film, OK taunts Mukesh by revealing the extent to which he knows the story of Shanti's death. But when Mukesh runs after Sandy thinking she is the ghost of Shanti, Sandy accidentally cuts her arm and bleeds. Seeing this, Mukesh realises that she is not Shanti's spirit. Mukesh tries to confront O.K, but he is suddenly hit by the set's swinging chandelier.

After Mukesh regains consciousness, O.K confronts him but Mukesh reveals that he knows Sandy is not a ghost after all. During the quarrel, Sandy reappears and taunts Mukesh. She reveals that after the fire ceased to burn, Mukesh found that Shanti had survived and buried her alive below the chandelier. OK is confused about how Sandy knows this detail, since he did not know this himself. Mukesh, spooked by the fact that she knows all these details, attempts to shoot Sandy, shocked by the revelation about the murder, but Mukesh and OK fight, which results in yet another fire. Just when OK is about to kill Mukesh, Sandy stops him, saying Mukesh will die, but not by his hand. The chandelier proceeds to fall on Mukesh, killing him instantly.

Pappu and Sandy rush to join OK, who is shocked when he sees Sandy in two places at once. OK realises that the person he assumed to be Sandy was actually Shanti's spirit, and recalls instances where supernatural events helped when OK's plans almost did not work, realising that Shanti was responsible. She smiles warmly towards OK and tearfully bids him goodbye, disappearing as she moves into the light. OK reunites with Sandy.

## Cast

* Shah Rukh Khan as Om Prakash Makhija / Om Kapoor aka O.K. – A famous actor who experiences pyrophobia because of his past life, Om Prakash
* Deepika Padukone as Shantipriya Kashyap aka Shanti / Sandhya Bansal aka Sandy – Om Kapoor's love interest who is exact doppelgänger of Om Prakash's love interest, Shantipriya (Mona Ghosh Shetty as the Hindi dubbing voice)
* Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra aka Mike – Shanti's husband and murderer who is killed by Shanti's ghost after 30 years
* Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master – Om Prakash's friend who supported Om Kapoor later
* Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija – Om Prakash's mother
* Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora – Dolly's mother
* Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor – Om Kapoor's father
* Satish Shah as Partho Roy
* Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora – Kamini's daughter and Om Kapoor's friend
* Nitesh Pandey as Anwar – Om Kapoor's assistant
* Asawari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor – Om Kapoor's mother
* Nasser Abdullah as Nasser
* Shawar Ali as Shawar
* Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend

Cameo appearances
* Amitabh Bachchan as himself
* Anil Kapoor as himself
* Uday Chopra as himself
* Hrithik Roshan as himself
* Abhishek Bachchan as himself
* Akshay Kumar as himself
* Bipasha Basu as herself
* Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as herself
* Kareena Kapoor Khan as herself
* Ameesha Patel as herself, Om Kapoor's heroine at Filmfare Awards
* Dia Mirza as herself, Om Kapoor's heroine at Filmfare Awards.
* Arshad Warsi as himself
* Gul Panag as herself
* Bappi Lahiri as himself
* Chunky Pandey as himself
* Dhananjay Singh as himself
* Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Om Prakash when the show ends.
* Feroz Khan as himself
* Gauri Khan as herself
* Karan Johar as himself
* Koena Mitra as herself
* Malaika Arora Khan as herself
* Mayur Puri as the director of *Apahij Pyar*
* Vishal Dadlani as the director of *Mohabbat Man*, a superhero film
* Manikandan Velayutham as the director of *Mind It*, a parody of action films
* Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of *Apahij Pyar*
* Rakesh Roshan as himself
* Rishi Kapoor as himself
* Shabana Azmi as herself
* Soumya Seth as Audience
* Subhash Ghai as himself while shooting his iconic film Karz.
* Yash Chopra as himself

Special appearances during the song "**Deewangi Deewangi**" (in appearance order)
* Rani Mukerji
* Zayed Khan
* Vidya Balan
* Jeetendra Kapoor
* Tusshar Kapoor
* Priyanka Chopra Jonas
* Shilpa Shetty
* Dharmendra Deol
* Shabana Azmi
* Urmila Matondkar
* Karisma Kapoor
* Arbaaz Khan
* Malaika Arora Khan
* Dino Morea
* Amrita Arora
* Juhi Chawla
* Aftab Shivdasani
* Tabu Hashmi
* Govinda Ahuja
* Mithun Chakraborty
* Kajol Devgan
* Bobby Deol
* Preity Zinta
* Rekha Ganesan
* Riteish Deshmukh
* Saif Ali Khan
* Salman Khan
* Sanjay Dutt
* Lara Dutta
* Sunil Shetty
* Gauri Khan
* Rishi Kapoor

## Production

### Development

In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical *Bombay Dreams* in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled *Happy New Year*. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in *Happy New Year*, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. *Happy New Year*, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.

Farah completed writing the first script of *Om Shanti Om* within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70s—such as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.

In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognized as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in *Om Shanti Om*, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.

Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed *Guru* (2007) at a time when *Om Shanti Om* was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favorite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film *Karz* (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; *Om Shanti Om* roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".

The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.

### Casting

Deepika Padukone plays the love interest of Shah Rukh's character in her Hindi film debut.
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt *Om Shanti Om* was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."

In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of *Iqbal* (2005) and completing the filming of *Dor*, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be *Om Shanti Om*. He agreed to do the role.

Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to *Taare Zameen Par*'s (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.

### Principal photography

*Om Shanti Om* was made on a budget of ₹40 million. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film *Tarzan 303*. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.

A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of *Mother India* (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Tana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from *Amrapali* (1966), Rajesh Khanna from *Sachaa Jhutha* (1970) and Jeetendra from *Jay Vejay* (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.

In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for *Kaun Banega Crorepati*. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with *Main Hoon Na* (2004).

*Om Shanti Om* was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).

## Music

 Released
 Genre
 Label
 Producer

Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in *Om Shanti Om* were composed by the duo Vishal-Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of *Om Shanti Om* was released on 10 October 2007 on CD.

Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title *Dhoom Taana*. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.

In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "*Om Shanti Om* is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticized the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "*Om Shanti Om* is an out and out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal-Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album four and a half stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."

Vishal-Shekhar was nominated for Best Music at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards. It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.

## Release

*Om Shanti Om* created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. *Om Shanti Om* set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.

Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to *Dhoom Taana.* It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. *Om Shanti Om* was remade into a Japanese musical titled *Oomu Shanti Oumu*. A book, titled *The Making of Om Shanti Om* written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.

## Controversy

One of the leading actor of the film Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of ***Om Shanti Om*** for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."

In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in *Om Shanti Om* that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.

### Plagiarism allegations

On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in *Om Shanti Om* and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.

Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed *Madhumati*. She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of *Om Shanti Om*, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to *Madhumati*, also a rebirth saga.

## Reception

### Critical response

#### India

*Om Shanti Om* was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "*Om Shanti Om* is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of *Hindustan Times* gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature style—spontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."

Nikhat Kazmi of *The Times of India* gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to *Karz*. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "*Om Shanti Om* is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticized the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.

Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, *Om Shanti Om* is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like *Om Shanti Om*", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.

Sudish Kamnath of *The Hindu* stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticizing Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticized the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".

#### Overseas

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, *Om Shanti Om* holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of *BBC* gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of *National Post* gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." *AOL* gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a run away hit."

## Box office

*Om Shanti Om* opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was ₹994 million (US$14 million) in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of ₹215 crore (US$30 million) was accumulated.