There are few things in life as electric as watching a Shah Rukh Khan film in a packed theatre. Eighteen years after Om Shanti Om first took the nation by storm with its reincarnation saga, stepping back into that world on the big screen feels like walking into a time capsule. The lights dim, the crowd roars, and as soon as Shah Rukh Khan walks into the screen, you realise cinema used to be this fun. Loud, fun, unabashedly filmi.
Back in 2007, Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om was branded campy, over the top, dripping with nostalgia. Critics saw it as a frothy spoof, a self-aware tribute to Hindi cinema’s masala age. But over the years, the film has earned its place in history as an unabashed love letter to Bollywood.
The re-release comes in the shadow of The Ba***ds of Bollywood, Aryan Khan’s Netflix show that shook up the industry earlier this year. Aryan’s sharp, cynical gaze on stardom, ambition, and rot beneath the gloss couldn’t be more tonally similar to his father’s world of dream sequences and reincarnation revenge. Both peel back the artifice of fame.
Watching OSO today, you can’t help but feel a pang for the kind of madcap energy Farah Khan brought to the screen. Her films weren’t afraid to be silly, yet sentimental. She made mainstream cinema that celebrated its own ridiculousness. There’s no one quite like her anymore. In this era of carefully curated ‘content’, we need a filmmaker like her who believes in showmanship.
But perhaps the most magical part of this re-release isn’t even what’s on screen — it’s what happens around you. The theatre turns into a party. People whistle when SRK strikes that arms-wide pose. They scream when Deepika twirls. Strangers get up to dance together during Deewangi Deewangi and Dard-E-Disco. The entire theatre sings along when Shah Rukh takes Deepika on a date in Main Agar Kahoon.
Revisiting Om Shanti Om in 2025 isn’t nostalgia. It’s a reminder of when cinema viewing was about the community experience. For two hours and forty-seven minutes, you are transported into a world where you don’t have to worry about deadlines and targets.
In a way, Om Shanti Om has aged like Shah Rukh himself. Like fine wine.
