Om Shanti Om Essay

 I'm like so not proud of this essay but posting it anyway. Silly essay on the Bollywood masterpiece Om Shanti Om. 

Observation and Embodiment in Om Shanti Om

Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om uses convention and artifice to advocate for the transformative, embodied emotions of cinema. The protagonist of the film, Om, begins as a struggling junior artist hoping to achieve stardom. He is infatuated with the saturated, heightened world of Bollywood cinema, which manifests in an undying desire for a famous actress, Shantipriya. Om and Shantipriya eventually fall in love, only for Shantipriya to be brutally murdered by her secret husband. Om is similarly killed, but is reincarnated as the movie star he always dreamed of. However, within his newly reincarnated form, Om has forgotten his former self. Eventually, his memories are returned, and he hatches a plot to take revenge on Shantipriya’s husband. Throughout the film, Khan uses song and dance sequences to establish Om’s singular ability to both venerate and participate in the transformative world of cinema. The heightened artifice of the numbers both amplify the emotions of the plot, while simultaneously suggesting the sequences allow the audience to embody these presented feelings. Om’s engagement with the dance sequences mirrors this embodiment; the numbers track his emotional journey towards his authentic, cinephilic self, in which he can simultaneously participate in, and appreciate the artifice of, cinema. 

Khan uses Dhoom Taana to establish Om’s ability to paradoxically view and participate in the saturated world of song and dance sequences. This transformative mode of observation creates an emotional journey towards the embodied sensations only possible within film. At the beginning of the sequence, Om is viewing the premiere of Shantipriya’s new film within a movie theater. The movie begins, and the camera becomes immersed in the world of the presented film. Shantipriya dances in a saturated realm of color, while the camera cuts between her and the background dancers. These cuts place the audience innside the world of the movie, breaking the barrier between the presented film and the supposed viewer identification with Om, sitting in the audience. However, as the viewer is previously aligned with Om, this immersion into the film suggests his own personal engrossment with the movie-going experience. Subsequently, the camera cuts to the male star of the film, and the quality of the film stock decreases.  The camera returns to Shantipriya and the film quality increases, effectively alternating between a complete immersion in the world of the presented film, and a reminder of the audience’s separation from the scene. Shantipriya stares at the camera while she dances, while the male star gazes across the screen at her, centering Shantipriya as the vehicle for audience engagement. After returning to the male star, the camera cuts to Om in the audience, similarly viewing Shantipriya longingly, suggesting that Om identifies with the position of the male star within the film. Subsequently, the male star gazes at Shantipriya with his back facing the camera, and the camera zooms in on Shantipriya again. Om appears behind Shantipriya, completing his audience identification with the male star, as he has officially replaced his position within the musical number. Om follows Shantipriya around the center of the frame, disrupting her centrality and visualizing his enthusiastic obsession with her. Shantipriya seems disturbed by this intrusion, frequently pushing Om to the side and attempting to recenter herself. Om alternates between dancing with Shantipriya and the background dancers, reestablishing the dynamic between viewer and participator within the film. Within Dhoom Taana, Khan establishes an idealized form of viewership represented through Om, in which the audience participates in the world of the film. This viewer participation is visualized through the separation of the low-quality film stock and Om’s place in the dance sequence, allowing the audience to both revel in the spectacle of the number while simultaneously participating in it. Om’s ability to completely personify the emotions of the presented dance number are finalized through his inclusion within the song itself; an emotional journey towards this embodied form of viewership is established. 

Khan highlights the mechanics of filmmaking within Main Agar Kahoon to suggest that embodied sensation can only exist in artifice. These heightened feelings track the emotional journey of the film, in which Om embodies a form of viewership and participation idealized in Dhoom Taana. The sequence begins as Om and Pappu lead Shantipriya into an abandoned movie set, where they have set up a dining table in front of a painted cityscape. The cityscape in no way claims realism, and instead emphasizes the artifice of the environment. Shantipriya and Om, both dressed in vibrant blues, blend seamlessly into the purple saturated backgrounds, suggesting their congruity with the magical, transformative powers of cinema. Om begins singing to Shantipriya as a strong wind blows through his hair, again emphasizing the artifice, or convention of the song sequence. Pappu then changes the lights to blue, and Shantipriya and Om are completely subsumed into the background, the visual heightening of their desire. Om stares longingly at Shantipriya, mirroring the form of viewership established by Dhoom Taana, in which Om simultaneously observes and participates in the heightened world of the film. Subsequently, Shantipriya dances off stage, traversing through the camera equipment on set. This equipment emphasizes the artificiality of the sequence, while the drab color palette contrasts with the saturated hues of the filmic world. Shantipriya runs off again, into another vivaciously saturated film set. She twirls around the center of the frame while Pappu is revealed to be blowing fake snow over her. Shantipriya seems almost unaware of the artifice of the situation, inviting the audience to follow a similar viewer identification pattern as within Dhoom Taana; the viewer is aligned with Om, attempting to embody the heightened sensations of film he simultaneously is excluded from and included within. This paradoxical viewer positioning is emphasized by Om’s position within the frame, which is slightly off center, viewing Shantipriya from the background. Shantipriya, seemingly unaware of even Om’s presence, can become sincerely immersed in the filmic world. Om, on the other hand, revels in the creation of the artifice, which allows him to temporarily embody the heightened sensations Shantipriya remains within. Main Agar Kahoon, like Dhoom Taana, uses the artificiality of film to suggest its capacity for embodied sensation. However, the emotional journey of the film is not towards the complete embodiment represented by Shantipriya, but instead, towards Om’s paradoxical viewership and participation. 

Dard E Disco marks a departure from the Om’s simultaneous viewing and embodying of dance sequences, suggesting his distance from his authentic, enthusiastically cinephilic self. Dard E Disco is presented as another film within the film, a dance sequence the newly reincarnated Om wants included in his upcoming feature. Like Dhoom Taana, the camera becomes immersed within the supposedly externally viewed sequence, allowing the audience complete access to the number. Dard E Disco opens with a multitude of female dancers, gesturing in cheetah print within a colorfully saturated world. Om enters, centered in the frame, and precedes to dance with the women. The camera continues to center him, frequently employing close ups as he sings to the audience. This centrality is reminiscent of Shantipriya’s stardom, visually reminding the audience of his newfound success. However, unlike her dance sequence in Dhoom Taana, the camera never cuts to the audience, or allows anyone to participate on the sidelines. While the dance sequence is indulgently entertaining, there is no character paradoxically observing and embodying the heightened emotions. Om has found success, yet he can no longer truly embody the sentiments of the number, until he regains his memory. Therefore, the emotional journey of the film is not marked by Om’s growing centrality within numbers; instead, Khan establishes Om’s ability to both appreciate and participate in the world of cinema, arguing that this form of embodiment must be reinstated for the emotional journey to be concluded. Near the end of the number, the camera briefly cuts to the director of the film, dancing along to Om’s singing. This contrast mirrors Om’s position in Dhoom Taana, however, the director never becomes immersed in the song sequences the way Om does previously. While Om’s stardom is well deserved, Khan still idealizes a form of simultaneous viewership and participation, which Dard E Disco marks Om’s departure from. 

Khan uses overtly stylized song sequences to highlight the transformative, endlessly enjoyable qualities of cinema. Om’s embodied enjoyment of these numbers is associated with the audience’s experience of the film, in which they can participate in and epitomize the heightened emotions of the cinema. While the movie’s journey is partially towards Om’s stardom, Khan does not represent his centrality within the later dance sequences as an idealized form of participation within cinema. Instead, she establishes Om’s ability to simultaneously view and partake in the numbers, epitomized through his obsession with Shantipriya, to illustrate the audience’s perspective. This advocacy for an embodied approach to cinema constitutes her argument within the film; the conventions of Bollywood cinema remain timeless because of their universal ability to involve the audience within the story itself.