Om Shanti Om: Intertextuality and the Figuration of the Actor

            Om Shanti Om, choreographed, co-written and directed by Farah Khan, is an multigenerational romantic drama and thriller. The story focuses on two star-crossed lovers; Om Prakash Makhija, a junior artiste in the Bollywood film industry, and Shanti Priya, a film star. Shanti’s wicked lover, the producer Mukesh Mehra, arranges her murder in order to hide their relationship from the public and to preserve his budding career. While trying to save Shanti, Om is blown up and hit by a car, and subsequently reincarnated as Om Kapoor (OK), the son of movie star Rajesh Kapoor, and a heartthrob in his own right. After a series of flashbacks and visions, OK remembers his previous life as Om, and plots his revenge against Mukesh. He decides to recreate “Om Shanti Om,” Shanti’s fateful last film, and scare Mukesh into believing that Shanti’s ghost haunts him. OK casts Sandy, a modern day Shanti look-a-like, to play Shanti, and initiates a series of stunts that push Mukesh to the brink of his sanity. Mukesh eventually uncovers OK’s plot, but right as Mukesh is about to kill OK, Shanti’s spirit comes to OK’s rescue and enacts her revenge against Mukesh. The film was the highest grossing Hindi film in history at the time of its release, and received favorable reviews from both audiences and critics.

            Om Shanti Om is a film that parodies, comments on, and alludes to Hindi and Western films, forming a meta-narrative that interacts with films and actors as texts to be interpreted in comparison with one another. According to Shastri, “Intertextuality in OSO consists of references to previous films through such tropes as names (of movies, of actors) as well as plots—of movies such as Karz (1980), for example. The first impression left on the viewer by such interaction is the thrill of recognition because no other Bollywood movie until now has borrowed so diversely or eclectically or with utter disdain of ontological borders.” (Shastri, 2011) The film contains numerous references to Hindi and Western films, actors, and cinema tropes.

            In Om Shanti Om, the male star, Shah Rukh Khan, also called “King Khan” or the “King of Bollywood,” serves both as an object of obsession and as an obsessive fan boy. Khan’s newest film, “Fan,” just set box office records in Pakistan, and is about a man who develops a dangerous obsession with a movie star who looks just like him. Khan’s star power bleeds into the narrative of Om Shanti Om as well. Many of the shots in the film are centered shots on Shah Rukh Khan; he dominates the screen both literally and figuratively, assuming a larger than life image. When Om Prakash gains starring role in his own film, Omswami, the extras on the set flock around him and praise his over-the-top acting, chanting, “Wow what acting, wow what acting, wow what acting.” This hero worship is taken to another level after Om dies and is reincarnated as OK. OK, the spoilt movie star has his every whim catered to, and is constantly surrounded by beautiful women and screaming fans. In the song, “Pain of Disco,” Khan parodies the fetishized figuration of the male body; OK goes through an increasingly ridiculous series of poses shirtless, then wet and shirtless, then wet and shirtless and being doused with a bucket of water.

            Fantasy and idolization also plays an important role for the main female actor in Om Shanti Om. Om Prakash fantasizes over the billboard of the film star, Shanti Priya, played by Deepika Padukone, with whom he engages in one-sided conversations. Om’s idolization of Shanti parodies Hindi cinema’s obsession with female stars, and the manner in which film actresses are objectified and scrutinized in the media and by the public. According to Shastri, “The name “Shanti Priya,” for instance, is a throwback to Bollywood actress Hema Malini, whose rise to stardom in the 1970s was no less phenomenal than her occupying prima donna status in Hindi cinema for decades to come.” (Shastri, 2011) Shanti Priya, the “Dreamy Girl,” is the ultimate symbol of female stardom, and the object of the male gaze.

            In the scene where Om attends the movie premier of “Dream Girl” with Pappu, Om gets caught on Shanti’s shawl, and is figuratively pulled along by her down the red carpet. This action speaks to not only the connection between Om and Shanti, but is also a parody of classical romantic tropes in cinema. Later, during the screening “Dream Girl,” Farah Khan uses a bit of cinematic magic to impose Deepika Padukone onto the image of Hema Malini. This use of video effects allows the audience to draw connections between the character of Shanti and Malini’s Dream Girl, and also establishes a link between fantasy and film history. Om fantasizes about being the hero in the film. By inserting Om into that alternate reality, Khan draws a distinction between actors playing a part in a film and actors engaging in masquerade.

            Throughout the film, male and female stars – from Shanti to the reincarnation of Om, OK – are depicted as spoilt and demanding. Shanti Priya refuses to act until her producer and lover Mukesh shows up on set, while OK is shown to repeatedly abuse his staff and argue with directors and producers. Even Om showed flashes of his inner diva after the opening scene, when one of the production assistants on the set of Karz says to him, “Is your dad some ‘Raj Kapoor’ who will stop our shoot?” Regardless of sex the claim is made that movie actors are susceptible to the allure of stardom and the power and attention associated with media fame.

            Om Shanti Om also contains numerous references to both Hindi and Western films. The film begins with a flashback to the late 1970s, an age of disco, sex, glitter and disco. The opening shots depict a film studio during the filming a movie, Karz. According to Shastri, “The title of OSO comes from a famous song featured in the Bollywood movie Karz. The plot of OSO, based on reincarnation, also comes from the movie Karz. To leave the audience in no doubt over its link with Karz, OSO begins with a car entering RC Studios, and we see a poster for Karz on one side. This is followed by the supposed shooting of the song “Om Shanti Om” featured in Karz. Watching this from among a crowd of cheering spectators inside the studio is junior artiste Omi.” (Shastri, 2011) This early allusion establishes a pattern that audiences can easily recognize, and keys viewers into the themes of parody and intertextuality early on in the film.

            

            In one scene, Om and Shanti are shooting a film that involves a sequence where Shanti has to run through a field of burning haystacks. This scene is almost identical to a scene in Mother India, where Nargis runs through a field of burning haystacks searching for her son, Birju. Shanti runs into the field only to be trapped by the raging inferno that has been allowed to grow up around her. Om Shanti Om parodies this scene by showing the hero of the film refuse to jump in and save her, and then having Om step into the shoes of Sunil Dutt, the actor who actually saved Nargis during the scene when the fires grew out of control during the filming of Mother India. This allusion to both Mother India and to one of the most infamous moments in film history demonstrates the willingness of Om Shanti Om to engage with film narratives on a macro level.

            To thank Om for saving her life, Shanti agrees to accompany him on a date. What follows is a whirlwind of behind-the-scenes parodies and allusions to Western romance films. Om and Shanti dance through an empty studio set, pretend to drive stationary cars while sets whisk by in the background, and ice skate under a blanket of fake snow. They even become dancers in the snow globe that Shanti gives to Om at the start of their date as a thank you present. This meta-awareness of film techniques and tropes creates a cinematic duality, because their romance is the stuff of movies, and they act out their romance on a movie set. To top it all off, Om and Shanti very neatly reenact a similar dance scene to one in the film, Singing in the Rain. The allusion to this fantasy scene speaks not only to the influence of Western films on Hindi cinema, but also the universal power of the fantasy narratives.

            The most blatant example of parody and self-awareness in Om Shanti Om occurs during the Filmfare awards show and after party. To begin, OK is nominated for the best actor award, but the two films that he is nominated for are almost identical. Meanwhile, the other actors nominated for the best actor award are depicted as attractive meatheads who play perfectly into the role of vapid movie stars. During the trailer of one of the films, one of the male actors shoots a pistol using his crotch, further supporting the theme of fetishization of the male actor. After OK is crowned the winner, what happens next has to be one of the longest series of cameo appearances and displays of star power that I have ever seen in a film. Movie stars – both male and female – from different eras in Hindi film enter the awards show after party and strut their stuff on the dance floor. According to several sources there are 42 cameos from famous Indian actors throughout the course of Om Shanti Om, but it’s hard to say for certain considering how many stars appear during the awards ceremony. And of course, what over-sexed scene is complete without a shout out to the bar dancing and strip scene from Coyote Ugly, Hindi style.

            The theme of reincarnation deserves some attention, as it plays a critical role in the film. The fire that engulfs Om and Shanti not only takes Shanti’s life, but it becomes the vehicle for Om’s rebirth as OK. In the narrative of the film, fire both gives life and takes it away. Like the phoenix, OK is born from the ashes of Om, and lives with visions of Om’s life, including his death.

            Oddly enough, reincarnation is only an issue for Om, and not for Shanti. Unlike Om, who is reincarnated as OK, Shanti is not reincarnated, but remains behind to haunt the studio set where she was murdered. Sandy, who OK casts to play Shanti in his revenge saga against Mukesh, is not the reincarnation of Shanti, but merely a look-a-like. I have to pose the question of whether or not this is a critique of the Hindi film industry’s one-sided favoritism of male stars? Unlike female actors, who normally age out of movie roles – particularly starring roles – male actors enjoy much longer careers as film leads. The male actors ability to “reincarnate” over the years elevates the male star to status of relative superiority in relation to female co-stars. This preference towards male actors has been well documented in scholarly literature, and is evident in the narrative of Om Shanti Om as well.

 

            Om Shanti Om is one of my favorite movies that we’ve watched this semester, and I’ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to conduct a close reading of the film. The intertextual elements, figurations of male and female stars, and allusions to Hindi and Western films make it a multi-layered film that casts a wide net in its critique of the movie industry and film actors.