‘Om Shanti Oshana’… Sole efforts of a girl to win over the guy.

Om Shanti Oshana could be just another rom-com, just another coming-of-age story but it isn’t, because it is told solely from the perspective of the girl, Pooja Mathew (played by Nazriya Nazim) and the whole plot revolves around her sole efforts to win over the first and only love of her life, Giri (played by an understated Nivin Pauly) without making her resort to cringe-y, embarrassing and stupid attempts at it, and neither making her obsessive, crazy, or anything that would suggest that she would throw out her entire life out for this one man. If that itself isn’t a win, there is only the fact that Giri is exclusively presented to us through Pooja’s eyes, hence if there is no Pooja on screen, there is no Giri either.

This steadfast love for this one man throughout her life, only motivates her to be a better person for him, pushing her to study better, learn to cook or to dress in a more feminine manner.

The first half is set in the late ’90s and early 2000s, meaning that instead of finding out about Giri through stalking his Instagram profile, Pooja walks around town, asking everyone about him. She meets him at his Kung Fu Academy, the fields, the video rental store, at her aunt’s house, and this sometimes planned, sometimes coincidental meetings are completely befitting the time this movie is set in, where numbers or addresses aren’t exchanged between the two leads through the entirety of the movie.

There is also a small nod to the inter-caste relationship, with Giri being a Hindu, and Pooja, a Christian, but the movie thankfully doesn’t go there and keeps the plot simple, and sweet.