On the eighteenth anniversary of the release of Om Shanti Om, I am joined by returning guest (to the point of exhaustion) Dhruv Krishna Goyal and philosopher-turned-Farah Khan scholar Cris to talk about the four films made by Khan: Main Hoon Na [2004], Om Shanti Om [2007], Tees Maar Khan [2010], and Happy New Year [2014]. We mull over the joyful cinephilia of her cinema, the details etched within the many thousands of frames, and also address some of the more troubling aspects of her work.
[VOB]
The Guests:
1. Dhruv Krishna Goyal holds a Master’s in Cinema Studies from the fabled New York University (aka NYU), spends his time writing about cinema at In Review Online and on his blog “Terminal Cinema”, and co-edits the podcast “Queen is Dead”. Follow him on Letterboxd and Instagram.
2. Cris is currently working on an academic project about the cinema of Farah Khan, and has previously produced work on Shah Rukh Khan. You can follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd to read more about his interactions with cinema, and through him, explore the deranged depths of Bollywood as well.
The Host:
Varun Oak-Bhakay has a Master’s in English Literature and the written word – consumption and production of it – is still rather close to him, but he’s had a fascination with cinema since the mid-2010s, which has led to a blog (“Cinephile Stock”), a newsletter that he hopes to revive (“Dispatches from a Dark Room”), and now this podcast. You can follow his interactions with cinema on Letterboxd and on Instagram as well.
Chapters:
Introduction and Opening Monologues – 00:00:00
Main Hoon Na – 01:02:14
Om Shanti Om – 01:49:02
Tees Maar Khan – 02:40:01
Happy New Year – 03:15:36
Final Thoughts – 04:25:05