A new inspiration....

Bollywood! Yes, how I had forgotten about this form of media whose inanity perplexes me to such an extent that it makes me think hard.

So here are my thoughts - mashed-up, truly new media, eh? ;) (Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om and a anthopological essay by Edward Bruner)

Om Shanti Om has flummoxed me and left me in all sorts of mental discomforts! For what I consider, a long time now. At one point, I branded it "new media"!

This surely wasn't a film. I didn't feel like I had watched a movie. The whole experience of the 'film' was unique, something that wasn't necessarily special or repulsive. There's definitely a frustration associated with my inability to express my feelings toward Farah Khan's self-deprecating, sometimes smug, sometimes preposterous (read hilarious),but most definitely grandiose movie. Its megalomania and pompous show-off at one level, yet it has deep cultural significance at another. The debate in my mind is the intention of the film maker. I doubt cultural commentary as the purpose and I suspect celebrating her sense of belonging toward the movie/glamor community as the underlying motivation. Whether the former thought even came to the film makers mind while making it is moot. Inadvertently or not, Farah Khan has created, what I consider, a very important cultural expression with Om Shanti Om.

Alright, so what am I exactly talking about? Bollywood is a culture. We all agree, right? Its not an isolated culture , it determines us and we determine it (That's how all media matures/grows - by reflecting upon and by being reflected ). But, culture is not static, its dynamic , its alive and it grows each moment. How, you ask? We contribute to its growth - by reenacting, retelling, redoing, reenacting,reliving,reconstructing and in general repeating things that we inherently understand due to our being part of the culture in the first place. The reflexivity is confounding yet it exists and its real. Farah Khan's film is reflexive with a capital R. Reflexive. There! And its this reflexivity that had me confused.

Let me elaborate on this reflexivity bit. Her use of cliches, (I don't even want to start a list here...), standard dialogs ("Yeh ek maa ka dil kehtaa hai" etc.) , twists , songs, hackneyed concepts like re-birth- all that what we've come to know as the quintessential "Bollywood Masala" is essentially retelling, repeating a kind of reinforcing of the culture that we are all too familiar with AND the film itself progresses with this reuse, expanding on/building on what already is. Due its reflexive nature, the film is hard to critique as a story. And that, in my mind makes it more of a cultural expression than a film per se. And to top it off, its Ms Khan's expression of her experience in Bollywood. Even if an Om Puri were asked to make a film on his experience in Bollywood, it would perhaps have similar elements - because Bollywood culture is so universal. Heck, if a person on the street in India is asked to make a film on his/her Bollywood experience, he'll most definitely have a similar tone of expression ( ignoring production qualities etc.)

Compare this dialog from the film "aur agar sab theek nahi hai toh...picture abhi baaki hai mere dost..." to this line from an anthropological essay on cultural expressions of experience- "Stories may have endings, but stories are never over". Om Shanti Om (the expression) will end but Bollywood (the experience) will continue on and that's where the unintended (for most part) brilliance of Om Shanti Om comes to the fore. It reflexively uses this dialog to drag the film until "sab kuch is theek", finally. And its not just this dialog, its many other countless instances which makes you think - this is silly, but most of Bollywood is silly. OSO doesn't re-mediate (like other Bollywood films) , it simply re-enacts and it re-tells what it is to have a Bollywood experience.

To complete this expression, self-deprecation is a tool, hackneyed dialogs are a tool, every little thing in the film whether Ms Khan intends or not is a tool toward completing her expression. And this is a landmark expression, hilarious and all. Because this will surely compel the Bollywood community to add to this culture thereby rendering new ideas and new thoughts and new kinds of films. I won't credit Farah Khan for making an amazingly entertaining film (because 'Mai Hoo Na' was far superior) but by making Om Shanti Om she has done a great service, which will hopefully make people more reflective on the Bollywood experience and contribute toward its maturity.