Wow! is the only word that comes to my mind when I think of Om Shanti Om.Well,atleast for the ‘First-Half’ of the movie.The makers have really put in lots of hard-work in bringing out to you a ‘Magical-Journey’ back into the 70’s Retro.Yes sir, the efforts are quite obvious!

The movie starts with the shooting of the Song ‘Om Shanti Om’ from ‘Ek Haseena Thee’.The 70’s youth anthem ‘Meri umar ke nau-jawano’ is aptly put in the sequence.The tale is about a ‘Junior Artist’ Om Prakash Makhijia (Shahrukh) who is in love with the diva of that time-ShantiPriya.There’s the ‘Jigree Dost’ Pappu(Shreyas) ,the ‘Pyaree Maa’(Kiron Kher) ,Director Saab,and many other characters which together make up a true 70’s movie.

It turns out that Producer Saab(Arjun Rampal) has an affair with ShantiPriya.He plans to make a movie ‘Om Shanti Om!’ with her. However,one fine day ShantiPriya(SP) announces to Producer Saab (PS) that ‘Main Apke Bacchon kee Maa Bannewalee hoon!’.Then starts a series of tragedies with PS killing SP.Om dies trying to save her.And then,in somewhat the same manner like ‘Ek Haseena Thee’,30 years later,Om resurrects with a vengeance.That my dear friends is called -’Punar Janam’!The second half follows with the new Om trying to take a revenge on the Producer.

As I mentioned earlier ,the first half is a master-piece.There’s everyone from the 70s.The list includes young Subhash Ghai,young ‘Govinda’,Manoj Kumar,Dharmendra,Dev-Anand.Theres a mention of the movie ‘Dreamy Girl’ starring ShantiPriya which is a reminiscent of ‘Dream Girl’ (actually starring Hema Malini).Then,there’s this scene wherein there’s a huge billboard of ‘Sholay–still running’.For those unware,Sholay was a big hit and back then,it ran continuously for five and a half years at a single theatre.

However the second half gets a bit dull.Even the songs get boring.However the title theme ‘Daasten E Om Shanti Om’ scores well above the others.Kudos to Vishal-Shekhar for the brilliant composition.Lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar.The performances by the actors are quite good,with Arjun Rampal’s being the best.Even Deepika Padukone performs well.The presentation style is very nice,you actually feel the difference when you switch over from the 70’s Retro to present day.

Worth a watch,especially if you are a connoisseur of the ’70’s’ Style.