Design by Joey Kong Wei Yee

When I think back to my childhood, there is always this one memory that always comes up no matter what, not a place or a person, but rather a movie. More specifically, the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om. Released only a year after my birth, for as long as I can remember I’ve known about this movie, and loved it just as long. If you asked me about the first time I watched it, or how many times I watched, I would not be able to give you the answer, because although it reminds me of my childhood, my memory of this movie isn’t tied to a specific time or frequency, but rather a feeling. A feeling that reminds of a simpler time when it felt like there was nothing to worry about and I could just live in the present. 

See, this is back when cable TV was still quite popular, and the network Star Plus would run movies during the weekends. Every so often on Sunday afternoons they would play Om Shanti Om, and I would be sat in front of the TV for nearly three hours straight, even through the ads, engrossed in the story, with no need for other distractions to occupy my mind. This one thing was… enough. It was enough to bring joy to my younger self, even if I didn’t fully grasp the references and nuances that I came to enjoy when I watch the movie now. To the younger version of me, it was just a really good story with fun songs, tragedy and love all in one..

Thinking back on these memories now, it just fills me with nostalgia, because nowadays it feels like everything is so complicated, with all the distractions available. If I want to watch a movie now at home, I often find myself reaching for my phone. My attention always seems to be divided between the movie, whatever’s playing on my phone, the average worries about assignments, the future and more. It’s as if watching that movie on the TV back then was one of the last times I could watch a movie at home without the urge to skip forward or put it in 2x speed. I feel like that’s the reason why this specific movie and the memories tied to it still resonate with me even after all these years. They act as a reminder that once upon a time, I was able to just be in the present, enjoy a movie without all the worries about the future weighing down on me. They are the reminder of the childhood innocence that everybody has at one point, when there is not much to think about, just where you are at that moment. 

So even now every time I watch Om Shanti Om again, even if it is on my laptop on Netflix, I am transported back in time right in front of that TV on Sunday afternoons when things were simpler and the smallest of things were able to bring me joy.