Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan has been selected in the Berlin International Film Festival. What’s more, the film has been picked for the Official Selection of the festival, which takes place from February 11-21, 2010.

Karan Johar is jubilant. “It will be my first time in Berlin, and I’m so excited,” he says. “Of course, I’ll be going with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol! There’s nothing as prestigious as presenting my film at the Berlin film festival’s official selection. Even more than awards, it’s getting eyeballs at such a festival that is important.”

Bollywood casts its spell on everyone and even the Beijing Olympics fell for its charm. And interestingly, it was not the Indians, who took Bollywood to Beijing, but beautiful Israeli gymnasts, who played out their final round to the beats of a ‘Dhoom Tana’ track from ‘Om Shanti Om’.

What’s more, Bollywood made an appearance in a sport where India has never participated. The Israeli team participating in the Rhythmic Gymnastics were the ones who brought Bollywood music to the fore. The gymnasts Katarina Pisetsky, Veronika Vitenberg, Rahel Vigdozchik, Maria Savenkov and Olena Dvornichenko played out their final round to the beats of a Bollywood hit.

The song sequence from ‘Om Shanti Om’, featured on Shah Rukh and Deepika Padukone was one of the greatest hits of last year. Even Farah Khan, the director of ‘OSO’ had no clue on how the sizzling number reached Olympics. But she was reportedly “very excited” over this.

Eros Entertainment has announced that they will bring the Bollywood film ‘Om Shanti Om’ to Blu-ray on January 22nd, day-and-date with the DVD release.

The film broke box office records in its India debut, and played to packed crowds during its limited US release. Not all specs and features have been announced at this time, but we do know that video will be 1080p. Stay tuned for more soon.

Shah Rukh Khan himself desperately wants the song to go down into the Guinness book as a record of sorts. Yet the hit number was originally to have a few more famous and known faces dancing and making their presence felt. Like Amitabh Bachchan for instance who if not for Abhishek’s impending marriage would surely have been a part of the entire song sequence along with son Abhishek Bachchan . In fact Farah who left no stone unturned to have the duo says, “While both Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan have a special appearance in my film, they couldn’t make it in the Deewang i song. I wanted them to be part of the song, but when I shot the song, they were too busy with the Abhi-Ash marriage preparations.”

Aamir Khan too was conspicuous by his absence and Farah it seems had a long standing wish to have the three Khans – Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir dancing together alongside each other for the first time on the 70mm screen.

Shah Rukh Khan wanted his Main Hoon Na co-star Amrita Rao to be a part of the special song too. But director Farah Khan, we learn, had bigger plans. She wanted to have a complete Main Hoon Na segment in Deewangi song. That is to say she had hoped to have Main Hoon Na’s leading cast Sushmita Sen , Amrita Rao and Zayed Khan along with SRK to be featured together in a separate part of the song. Amrita says, “I couldn’t shoot for the song as I was busy shooting for Athidhi in Austria. Farah would call me up every time and badly wanted Sushmita, Zayed, Shah Rukh and myself to do a Main Hoon Na sequence but I just could not get out of my schedule.” And Farah went ahead with only Zayed and Shah Rukh where they do their trademark ‘head rubs’ from Main Hoon Na .

Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu who were the only senior actors who could not make it for the song though Shah Rukh and Farah wished for it desperately. Shah Rukh who was initially tagged of having a strong Dilip Kumar hangover has always looked up to the senior Devdas as his idol.

From the yesteryear celebrities, King Khan also wanted his personal favourite Zeenat Aman to add grace to the song. Not to forget Zeenat’s popular costar – the style icon Feroz Khan . Plus his son Fardeen Khan ! But both father and son were out of town.

So Shah Rukh says that what you saw in Om Shanti Om was not big – at least not as ‘magnanimous’ as he and Farah had visualized it to be, though for the audiences this was as grand as it could get. The king feels that if he could manage to get all the ones they had planned for that could have been huge. So SRK says, “Now I feel I will have to make a sequel to Om Shanti Om and request all the celebrities who missed out from the original song to shoot a song with me in the sequel”.

We would eagerly wait for ‘ OSO 2’ , Shah Rukh!

“Shirtless sequence of one of the songs and dance i.e. “Dard-E-Disco” of “Om Shanti Om”  was the original idea of Superstar Shah Rukh and not her,” Bollywood filmmaker Farah Khan said.
Farah Khan also gave credit to Shah Rukh Khan for this commendable idea, which brought such a big success to the film among other factors.  She said:”The entire credit for the film’s success goes to Shah Rukh,” director Farah Khan told in an interview. “He is the film’s main attraction and the shirtless song is definitely one of the main reasons for the film’s hit. It is the scene to watch out for.”

“Om Shanti Om”, a film on the theory of reincarnation, had to fight tough against “Saawariya”. However, OSO beat the Saawariya because of its top entertainer style and SRK knows how to read the pulse of the cine-goers.

OSO has all super touches of various areas of life and being star studded appearances of top stars of yester years and that of present era added a great color to the film. SRK’s acting was superb; it may not be possible for any producer to match this sort of top film nor could possible get assemble so many top stars of the Industry.

Shah Rukh Khan, in fact, had to undergo rigorous training to develop a six-pack, which made the song ‘Dard-E-Disco’ hit and the soul of the picture.

In short, SRK was a super star before release of OSO and after its release he has become the top star of the Industry.

Om Shanti Om has opened to an earth shattering 95-100% response smashing records all over. The film was released on around 600 single screens and set new first day highs on nearly 500 of these 600 screens. The multiplexes saw near 100% collections but the grosses are not as high as last year biggies as it only managed to get 8-10-12 shows as against the 14-16-18 that other biggies have managed. This was due to the clash with Saawariya which took up a similar amount of screens at multiplexes.
The reports are very positive from all parts of the country and the film will become a huge all India hit. The opening day in Delhi/UP, East Punjab, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Mysore was humungous as single screens went over capacity at places. The first week should see may more records being crushed.

In Overseas the film managed to collect around 125,000 pounds yesterday in UK.

Om Shanti Om is the most awaited Movie of 2007. First of all it is Farah Khan 2nd directed movie after Super Hit “Main Hoon Naa”. Secondly it is Shah Rukh Khan 2nd release this year after critically acclaimed and commercial Blockbuster “Chak De! India” and lastly it has 31 stars in the song “Deewangi Deewangi”.

So major question arises does Om Shanti Om lives up to the expectations? Was Main Hoon Naa a fluke? The answer is yes Om Shanti Om lives upto the expectation and we can easily that it even surpasses Main Hoon Naa in terms of entertainment or anything (Music, Performances, Dialogues, etc).

Story

OM SHANTI OM tells the story of Om [Shah Rukh Khan] and Shanti [Deepika Padukone]. Om is a junior artist in the 70s. Shanti is the reigning superstar. He is her biggest fan. He is in love with her. Om dreams of being a superstar, but an incident changes his life forever.

Om dies in a mishap, but is reborn into the present day. He attempts to discover the mystery of his demise…

Direction

Farah knows what her priorities are and most importantly, knows exactly what her target audience is. The execution of a number of sequences clearly shows Farah’s growth as a storyteller.

Music Vishal-Shekhar’s music is first-rate. The score is in sync with the content of the film and what accentuate the goings-on are the choreography and execution. Although every song is visually enticing, the 21-star track as also ‘Dard-E-Disco’ will have the masses going into a frenzy.

Technical Aspects

V. Manikanandan’s cinematography captures the gloss and grandeur to the minutest. The opulent sets [Sabu Cyril] deserve distinction marks. Dialogues [Mayur Puri] are witty and do raise a chuckle at several points. Background score [Sandeep Chowta] is effective.

Performances

With each and every film one thing is sure Shah Rukh Khan will be outstanding and in this film to he is outstanding as well. In this film Shah Rukh Khan shows His comic abilities and he is bang on target. It just goes to show his range and versatility as an actor that on one hand he is doing Chak De! India (Offbeat) and on other hand Om Shanti Om where he is playing to the gallery which came easily only to Shah Rukh Khan.

Deepika has all it takes to be a top star — the personality, the looks and yes, she’s supremely talented too. Standing in the same frame as Shah Rukh Khan and getting it right is no small achievement. She comes as a whiff of fresh air!

Arjun Rampal impresses in a neagtive role which suites his image. Shreyas Talpade compliments Shah Rukh Khan wonderfully. Kirron Kher in one word wonderful. Javed Sheikh is good and Bindu leaves a mark.

Conclusion

On the whole, OM SHANTI OM is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best.

Rating

***** (Paisa Wasool)

Both Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan were seen at the Om Shanti Om screening, organised by Shah Rukh Khan.

This has quashed rumours of a split between the Bachchans and Shah Rukh Khan, which have been ongoing for over a year now. Earlier this week the Bachchans, along with daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, left early from a Bollywood event after it was revealed that Shah Rukh Khan was also in the crowd.

This screening of Om Shanti Om was attended by many Bollywood stars, including Yash Chopra, Ravi Chopra, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, David Dhawan, Subhash Ghai, Kunal Kohli, Sajid Khan, Ratan and Ganesh Jain of Venus, Ramesh Taurani of Tips, Vidya Balan, Lara Dutta, Amisha Patel, Urmila Matondkar, Neelam, Sanjay Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shabbir Boxwala, Milap Zaveri, distributor Anil Thadani with wife Raveena Tandon, Dino Morea, Rakesh and Ajai Acharya of Baba Films, Mimoh Chakraborty, and his mother Yogita.

The final countdown to the box office and this revenue war is now being fought by the distributors and exhibitors.

The ongoing tussle between Om Shanti Om’s distributor Eros International and multiplex owners has finally been resolved.

With this deal, Diwali weekend at the box office will translate into the clash of the titans and this year it ’s Farah Khan versus Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Distributors for both Om Shanti Om and Saawariya have decided on a 50 -50 revenue sharing for the first week.

“I don’t know of any problem, I believe the matter has been resolved,” said Shah Rukh Khan, actor.

But while Om Shanti Om releases with 1000 prints, Saawariya will have to be content with 850 prints worldwide.

If in Hyderabad Saawariya has clinched 20 single screens vs seven for Om Shanti Om, Delhi tells a different story as OSO releases in a record breaking number of single screens.

“We have tied up with Saawariya the thing is that they offer something and we give a counter offer to that. So that’s how it goes forward,” said Yogesh Raizada, Head, Wave Cinemas.

Since the advance booking for Saawariya began on Monday, the question is will the films 2 day heads up affect Om Shanti Om’s business?

“There is so much hype that even if they hit the deal with cinemas late this week they will be fine,” said Raizada.

So finally gear up for a cracker of a Diwali at a theatre close to you.

Om Shanti Om is most awaited movie this diwali here is Good Review of Taran Adarsh(indiaFm). Read this review and tell you, what you think about that review,Below in Comments area

Cut the crap, cut the gyan-baazi, cut the will-it-won’t-it work naatak. Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan’s OM SHANTI OM is a true-blue masala entertainer. If MAIN HOON NA was a chauka, this one hits a sixer!

Wait, a word of advice to all netizens/readers across the globe. Don’t, for God’s sake don’t, raise exclamations like kab?, kyun? kahan? as OM SHANTI OM begins to unravel. This is atypical Manmohan Desai film presented in a novel avtaar by Farah Khan. It’s definitely not for pseudos or advocates of arthouse cinema.

Now let’s clear some myths surrounding OM SHANTI OM. Is it the 2007 adaptation of Subhash Ghai’s immensely likable reincarnation film KARZ? Does it have traces of KUDRAT? Or MADHUMATI? Or MILAN? Or KARAN ARJUN? Hold on, there’s a dash of KARZ, a bit of KARAN ARJUN, a sprinkling of KUDRAT, but beyond that it’s a film that makes you nostalgic about 1970s Bollywood.

To sum up, OM SHANTI OM is paisa vasool entertainment. We haven’t seen SRK in a hardcore masala film since quite some time. He had drifted to other genres, which proved his range as an actor of repute and cemented his status further. With OM SHANTI OM, he gives back to the audience what he himself grew up on — a thorough entertainer that will have the audience thirsting for more.

This Diwali, have a blast!

OM SHANTI OM tells the story of Om [Shah Rukh Khan] and Shanti [Deepika Padukone]. Om is a junior artist in the 70s. Shanti is the reigning superstar. He is her biggest fan. He is in love with her. Om dreams of being a superstar, but an incident changes his life forever.

Om dies in a mishap, but is reborn into the present day. He attempts to discover the mystery of his demise…

The general feeling is, Farah Khan has remade Ghai’s KARZ from Frame A to Z. False! There’re similarities, but it’s not a rehashed version of Ghai’s film. For, OM SHANTI OM takes you by complete surprise at several points.

The first twist in the tale [Arjun - Deepika’s heated confrontation, with SRK listening to this important conversation] comes as a bolt from the blue. The second jhatka comes slightly before the intermission, when Arjun takes Deepika to the set of his film ‘Om Shanti Om’ and the entire episode that follows, right till the intermission, is spellbinding. That’s a brilliant stroke from the writing [screenplay: Mushtaq Shaikh and Farah Khan] as also the execution point of view. When the opulent set is set to flames, it leaves you wide-eyed and awe-struck. Such is the impact!

The post-interval portions only get better and better! If the initial portions are laced with humour [the premiere of ‘Dreamy Girl’, the Manoj Kumar episode, Ghai directing Rishi on ‘Om Shanti Om’ song, et al], the second half moves into a new zone completely.

It’s punar-janam now, but thankfully, there’re no lightening, no fireworks, no zooming of the camera on the idols of Gods. The drama builds up gradually. The voices that SRK keeps hearing, the ‘fire’ soon after the ‘Dard-E-Disco’ track, the mother [Kirron Kher], an old lady now, chasing Om’s car [reminds you of Raakhee of KARAN ARJUN], the flashes of SRK’s earlier birth while receiving the Filmfare Award — the incidents that make him realize that his life was cut short in his earlier janam have been well structured.

When Deepika re-emerges as well, the viewer is confused, but the mystery is resolved towards the end, which, again, takes you by complete surprise.

Given the fact that OM SHANTI OM is a Manmohan Desai kind of a film set in the present-day, it would be foolhardy to ask questions, raise eyebrows and look for logic. But the second half could’ve been crisper [length: 18 reels/2.46 hours], although Shirish Kunder’s editing is perfect.

Farah knows what her priorities are and most importantly, knows exactly what her target audience is. The execution of a number of sequences clearly shows Farah’s growth as a storyteller. Mushtaq and Farah’s writing works because the writers pull out several surprises in those 2.46 hours.

V. Manikanandan’s cinematography captures the gloss and grandeur to the minutest. The opulent sets [Sabu Cyril] deserve distinction marks. Dialogues [Mayur Puri] are witty and do raise a chuckle at several points. Background score [Sandeep Chowta] is effective.

Vishal-Shekhar’s music is first-rate. The score is in sync with the content of the film and what accentuate the goings-on are the choreography and execution. Although every song is visually enticing, the 21-star track as also ‘Dard-E-Disco’ will have the masses going into a frenzy.

Now to the performances! SRK proves his supremacy yet again. If you thought that playing to the gallery came easy to certain actors only, watch SRK spin magic in OM SHANTI OM. He’s magnificent, the star attraction, the soul of this film, the true baadshah.

Deepika has all it takes to be a top star — the personality, the looks and yes, she’s supremely talented too. Standing in the same frame as SRK and getting it right is no small achievement. She comes as a whiff of fresh air!

Arjun Rampal is a complete revelation. Cast in a negative role this time, he enacts his part with panache and style. Shreyas Talpade is another surprise. A complete natural, he stands on his feet all through, not getting swayed while sharing the screen space with the topmost star.

Kirron Kher is superb as the over the top mom. Javed Sheikh is alright. Bindu adds to the funny moments.

On the whole, OM SHANTI OM is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best. At the box-office, the film will set new records in days to come and has the power to emerge one of the biggest hits of SRK’s career. Blockbuster hit!

Source IndiaFM