Om Shanti Om (2007) directed by Farah Khan

Cameron Bailey selected Farah Khan as one of the best emerging film directors working today and chose the film Om Shanti Om (2007) as an example that best represents her work.

Om Shanti Om

Om Prakash Makhija works as a junior artist in Bollywood in the ‘70s. He is madly in love with the superstar of that time, Shanti Prita. His dreams and aspirations to become a superstar and be with his ladylove are thwarted as he witnesses the brutal murder of his beloved Shanti by a mercenary producer, Mukesh Mehra. Om Prakash dies trying to save Shanti, but destiny has something else in store when “Om Prakash” returns as “Om Kapoor,” the superstar of 2007.

“If each film genre ranges in execution from the classical to the baroque, Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om (2007) must be considered the ultimate baroque Bollywood movie. Shuttling between parody and sincerity, Khan’s sophomore feature is maximum Bollywood in the way that Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is Hollywood squared. Self-reflexive to a dizzying degree and expressing a deep fluency in India’s commercial cinema, it represents the high point to date from on the world’s most surprising popular auteurs.”

Cameron Bailey, co-directors of the Toronto International Film Festival