The movie has made it to the hit list and the movie buffs would agree with me though the mafia may not. Only those with really high resistance levels (or those with highly obsessive aversion for SRK as well as the "i don't watch hindi movie" kinds) would not have seen it by now. That is fine with me of course. I don't get paid for promoting Farah Khan movies anyway (thats not such a bad idea though, i like the proposal already ;), what say FK? ).
The reason I'm making my readers go through this torturous blog entry is to share an observation i made when i went to see this movie with friends. Noone who's been watching hindi movies in the last few years would be surprised when a complete music video greets them at the end of a movie. Its a new trend that has been picked up by movie makers to make people sit through the end credits. Maybe they figured that if they made that one good song/video for the whole movie, the precious few who bought tickets to the film might just endure it till the end to be able to watch that song. Maybe its their way of thanking cine goers for coming to the movie theater and not watching the movie on pirated DVDs. or maybe they think they will be able to cover up for a lousy ending by mitigating any ill-will generated. Guess this is their way of saying, "Smile please, atleast we have the lead actor dancing with hot women in bikinis for you".
You obviously know by now that I'm going to talk about the end credits of "OM shanti OM". Those who've seen the movie may point out that there are no babes in bikinis in that song. Those who havn't seen the movie may check out the video on youtube and then be quick to point out that there are no babes in bikinis in that song. All you have is the entire cast and crew dancing their way down the red carpet wearing their sunday best. Those who've seen Farah Khan's previous directorial venture (Main Hoon Na) wouldn't have been surprised at all. She did this in that movie as well.
"Geez! Is that your observation? Great going Dewy!" Of course I have to say "Of course not!". Only this time I mean it. Did anyone spot the spot boys? or the dress crew or the light men? or the sundry other characters associated with a film crew? You know the kind of people you don't even know about? Did you see the look on their faces? Assuming of course that you sat through the entire video to watch the "invisible" men of the film industry. Can you for a second imagine what must be going through their minds while they danced down the carpet like movie stars? Ecstacy? Jubilation? or just pure Thrill! What do you think they must've done when they went home after the shoot? Probably told their entire neighbourhood to go watch Om Shanti Om cause it has them staring in it!!! Wouldn't you? What can be cooler than being on screen to be watched by thousands of cine-goers?
But that isn't my observation either. My observation is that there should be a case study on organization behaviour on Farah Khan. I think the lady nailed employee satisfaction/motivation right on the head. I would be even more impressed if I learn to find out that she knows what she has achieved by this move. She made even the smallest member (in terms of work load & impact on the project) of the crew seem as important as a star of the movie. She acknowledged their contribution in front of the entire nation (or even the whole world). Which organization can boast of that? With this promise she gained the loyalty of her work force. She made everyone dedicated to their job and give their best to the project.
The cream of the cake is that, while she did all this, she also made the maximum use of the age old way of film promotion - word of mouth marketing. Its incredible how, with the help of every single member of her crew, she has been able to penetrate all the stratas of the Indian society, from the billionaire to the kickshaw puller. That has to draw crowds if nothing else does.
(This is not to undermine the importance of the dard-e-disco dance number or the special appearance of the entire film industry in the deewangi song.)
Opinion maybe divided on what made this movie do so well. Re-incarnation? Spoof on all the movies of that last 30 years? Karz relaoded? or SRK? Some would say this was one of the silliest movies they've ever seen. Some would call it downright crappy. But all that doesn't matter does it? As they say पिक्चर HIT है भाई! (the movie is a hit man!) Project is successful. The producers made a lot of moolah. The director and the bombshell Deepika Padukone got the cheers. They all featured in Koffee with Karan (although they would still have come on the show even if the movie was a super failure).
I would love to know the answer to one question though. Did Farah Khan know what she was doing when she did this?
