Om Shanty Om...
You can't walk down a street without seeing a
poster for this movie.
November 19, 2007

I absolutely 100% loved this movie!

So there were only about 20 words in English. It didn’t matter. I knew exactly what was going on (it didn’t hurt that the girl
next to me would fill me in on what was going on with the dialogue – especially when everybody was bursting into laughter).

This movie released during Diwali. But even before that, I knew I wanted to see it once Christine bought the soundtrack while
we were in Varanasi. The song ‘Om Shanti Om’ is something that has been engrained in my mind for the past few weeks. It
was only fair that I see the movie, right? I knew I had to before leaving this country.

One of the dance numbers had about 30 of the top Bollywood stars in it. Can you believe that? That is like going to a movie
back home and watching a scene with every major actor and actress in it. Considering many of these people were in the movie
I saw last year, it was especially fun as I was familiar with some of these people. The best part of it was how excited the
audience got. Every time there was an actor/actress they especially loved, they would whoop it up by screaming and clapping.
The other interesting thing was that the guys had no reservations about cheering and screaming for actors that they liked. So
different from at home – when would you ever find a guy screaming and clapping for an actor?  There were a couple actors
that I noticed were absent from the scene – Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan. I asked the girl next to me about this. She told
me that they weren’t in it because the filming was going on while they were preparing for his wedding to Aishiwariya. (I don’t
even need to use last names any more – I’m
that in-the-know about these Bollywood people.)

Even when I walked into the theater (a few minutes late) the audience was going crazy singing and dancing in their seats while
there was a dance scene on the screen. You could almost say there was a tinge of a ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ vibe.

All I can say is that I want to own this movie. It’s too bad it’s not available yet out here as I doubt I can get it at home.

I guess I always have Netflix…
Back to India.
One of the dance scenes in the movie.