One of the joys of watching "Dhoom Tana" from the 2007 Farah Khan film Om Shanti Om (OSO) is the seeing how scenes from films of the 1960s and 1970s are integrated into the item number. In Mushtaq Shiekh's book, The Making of Om Shanti Om, he explains:
"There is only so much that you can create when it comes to the past. Say, if you needed to establish the fiction that your character Shantipriya had been one of the top heroines of the seventies. And you think that if you had scenes of Shantipriya actually dancing with seventies version of Jeetendra or Sunil Dutt, that would lend authenticity and conviction to the scene. How would you do that?"
This is where the special effects experts and costume designers came into play to bring Farah Khan's vision to the silver screen. Specific blockbuster films and scenes had to be identified. The folks at Red Chillies VFX had to obtain, scan, and clean up the negatives. The costumes had to reflect the fabrics and styles of those that would have been worn at that time. The cast and crew had to determine how to choreograph the item number so as to place the stars of past and present seamlessly together in the same frames and have them interact. This was the first time Bollywood attempted to merge different silver screen worlds - and the magic worked.
While films selected for integration may be recognizable from their stars and costumes, I wanted to explore how the specific scenes were integrated. I've gone into the Bollywood archives to provide screenshots highlighting the integration of scenes.
The 16:9 screen size wasn't available in the earlier films, so I've cropped the original film scenes to approximate the scenes in Om Shanti Om - a technique no doubt used by the filmmakers.
1. Historical Epic
Shanti Priya dances with Sunil Dutt in a remix of "Tadap Yeh Din Raat Ki" from the 1966 film Amrapali. In Amrapali, Sunil Dutt and Vyjayantimala are alone in a boat on a river at night while Vyjayantimala sings a tender love song to Sunil Dutt. To bring the footage of Sunil Dutt in to "Dhoom Taana", the Red Chillies VFX team brightened up the palette and shined up the jewelry to better match the palette of OSO.
|
Om Shanti Om |
Amrapali |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. Dance Party
Renovating the footage for "Karle Pyar Karle Aankhen Char" - from the 1970 film Saccha Jhutha starring Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz - required brightening up the colors to match the palette of bright gold, red and black of the dance hall. Some resources indicate the palette and performance style may have been inspired by the 1963 film Bye Bye Birdie. The special effects team took a few more liberties with the placement of Rajesh Khanna in the scene - flipping him from right to left and adjusting the tilt of his head to adjust for the difference in heights between the different actresses.
|
Om Shanti Om |
Saccha Jhutha |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Badminton Game
The 1970 film Humjole features a badminton game between Jeetendra and Leena Chandavarkar in the item number "Dhal Gaya Din Ho Gayi Sham". While neither of the original stars appears in "Dhoom Tana" you definitely recognize the recreation of this famous scene in the costume design and the game itself - even the "pop" sound of hitting the birdy is recreated here. The only downside to wearing all white on a pink badminton court is that the outfit reflects the pink hue. What makes this song choice even more interesting is that before Deepika Padukone turned to acting, she was training to become a professional badminton player. Deepika's father, a badminton player of international fame, was the first Indian to win the All England Championship. He currently runs the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.
|
Om Shanti Om |
|
|
|
|
|
Humjole |
|
|
|
|
4. Dancing for the King
In the 1977 film Jay-Vejay, the item number "Sab Janoon Re Tori Batiyan" features our hero (Jeetendra) masquerading as a king. He visits Menaka (Jayshree T.) who has a reputation of being a great dancer "who dances and makes everyone a pauper." Deepika Padukone steps into this dancer's role - but with more of a playful nature. Along with moving the setting from a drawing room to a beach, the color palette was modified.
|
Om Shanti Om |
Jay-Vejay |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5. The Princess and the Pirate
For the initial outfit worn by Shantipriya, you can't help but recognize the similarities in color and style to the outfit worn by Mumtaz in Sachaa Jhutha. Through the costume design team of Manish Malhotra and Sanjeev, we are introduced to the technicolor world of Bollywood in the 70s - perhaps as it was truly meant to be seen.
Some point to the 1948 Vincente Minnelli film The Pirate starring Gene Kelly as another film represented in Om Shanti Om through the pirate costume worn by Shah Rukh Khan. However, when you compare the two costumes, there are both similarities and differences. For instance, Gene Kelly's costume was form fitting whereas that worn by SRK featured a"puffy shirt". Om Shanti Om features bright, primary colors, whereas The Pirate colors are more muted.
|
Om Shanti Om |
Sachaa Jhutha |
|
Om Shanti Om |
The Pirate |
|
|
|
The following video playlist features the Om Shanti Om item number "Dhoom Tana", the original item numbers from Amrapali, Sachaa Jhutha, Humjole, and Jay-Vejay followed by the Red Chillies VFX "Making of" video highlighting the special effects used in Om Shanti Om.