Om Shanthi Om

And so it happens once again in Kollywood. We have seen instances where two or more directors were inspired from the same foreign film and end up giving us films with the same concept. The last one was the Hollywood film Across The Hall, which ended up as three Tamil films. Now, it is the Korean film Hello Ghost. In June this year, the premise of that film was an inspiration for Masssu Engira Masilamani and now, Om Shanthi Om. But while Venkat Prabhu used the premise of the hero being able to see ghosts to tell a revenge masala, D Suryaprabaakar gives us an emotional drama. The film opens with a bus accident in which there is only one survivor — Vasu (Srikanth). The film flashes forward to six months later to show us what is happening with Vasu. He works in an automobile showroom and falls in love with Shanthi (Neelam Upadhyaya), who he also hires as his employee. Vasu begins to notice five individuals following him everywhere he goes. He confronts them and they tell him that they need his help. Being a helpful person, Vasu agrees. And as he fulfils their wishes, he learns that they are people who were involved in the same bus accident as him and they have appeared as spirits so that their last wishes can be fulfilled. However, Shanthi mistakes the signs of Vasu talking with the ghosts as a psychological problem, and the lovers separate. Can Vasu fulfil the wishes of the spirits and get back together with Shanthi forms the plot. Given that Masssu Engira Masilamani released a few months before it, the big reveal of Om Shanthi Om — that Vasu is actually helping ghosts — doesn't really come as a surprise to us. And that takes away the suspense that Suryaprabaakar seems to have counted on to keep us engaged in the first half. Plus, he gives us situations that lack drama. The first few minutes are spent in developing the romantic track between Vasu and Shanthi but there is hardly anything new in this segment to make us care about their romance. Instead, we get an introduction song for the heroine, a duet and more songs. The songs actually keep popping up now and then, slowing down the narrative and testing our patience. The ghosts keep telling that Vasu is a helpful person, but the director doesn't give us any scene to register this facet of the character. The nature of the wishes seem varied — an elderly ghost (Junior Balaiah) wants him to recover the money that has been usurped by a relative-thug and see his granddaughter get married; a lady ghost wants her husband to know that it was the spurious drugs being distributed by a corrupt man (Naren) and not her that killed their son; a little boy wants to eat ice cream; a girl wants to reunite her lover with her friend; a priest wants his daughter to get the medical seat that was assured to him by a big shot (Naren, again) — but they are solved with minimal trouble that there is hardly any sense of accomplishment that we feel when Vasu fulfils them. And each of these situations is treated in the fashion of melodrama that we see in our TV serials, with the only saving grace being the cinematography by Bhaskaran.