Starring Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Govind Namdeo, Poonam Jhawer and Mahesh Manjrekar. Written by Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukla. Directed by Umesh Shukla.
Sometimes a film is memorable because it smears the underlining message in your face with unabashed gumption and not because its some refined piece of art. You like it or not, OMG tries its level best to convince you the inefficacy behind temples and other "paraphernalia" to reach God.
It is a simple story of a fundamental phenomena - human insecurity, greed and deception. During times when human weaknesses have restricted the idea of God to the shenanigans of religion pettifogs and saints and priests to colorful buffoonery, OMG puts crosshairs right on its subjects, that is you and me, and shoots them with bullets of awakening.
Tersely, OMG places Kanji Bhai (Paresh Rawal), an atheist, right in the center of religious hooliganism when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake, an act of god, and the insurance company denies all claims of compensation. The most rational breed of man, an atheist, then embarks on the most ludicrous journey of all - a lawsuit against God, since it's an act of God and God needs to recoup. Of course, as an atheist, his agenda is not to mingle with the idea of God but to recover his money and in process drag the colorful "gurus" into the court who have been maddeningly buzzing on his rationale shoulders for eons.
This film is a preachment sprinkled with entertainment and not the other way around. The whole court session, the "God's" (Akshay Kumar) repeated conversations with Kanji and the entire flow of the film inclines towards decontaminating the idea of God from the political strata of religions.
Honestly, I want to bottle the filmmaker's gumption and sell it in black market for so bluntly refusing the idea of religion, temples and other "gateways" to God and that too in such an outlandishly direct manner. From Mithun's effeminate take on Swamis to Poonam as babe of a saint, we smirk to the images of real life "gurus" these characters remind us of (Swami Nithyananda and Guru Ma, perhaps!).
Such overt films require a personal connect with actors to look convincing. For Paresh Rawal, I believe this film is as personal as it could be. He is awe inspiring. Akshay is passable as an actor but he does look like a Greek God. Mithun is fantastic, so is Govind Namdeo. They are loud but lovable as mischievous gurus.
If films could change the world, this planet would be a much better place. Oh My God will probably not even make a dent in our minds contaminated with insecurities and superstitions. But at least they are trying.
It is a simple story of a fundamental phenomena - human insecurity, greed and deception. During times when human weaknesses have restricted the idea of God to the shenanigans of religion pettifogs and saints and priests to colorful buffoonery, OMG puts crosshairs right on its subjects, that is you and me, and shoots them with bullets of awakening.
Tersely, OMG places Kanji Bhai (Paresh Rawal), an atheist, right in the center of religious hooliganism when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake, an act of god, and the insurance company denies all claims of compensation. The most rational breed of man, an atheist, then embarks on the most ludicrous journey of all - a lawsuit against God, since it's an act of God and God needs to recoup. Of course, as an atheist, his agenda is not to mingle with the idea of God but to recover his money and in process drag the colorful "gurus" into the court who have been maddeningly buzzing on his rationale shoulders for eons.
This film is a preachment sprinkled with entertainment and not the other way around. The whole court session, the "God's" (Akshay Kumar) repeated conversations with Kanji and the entire flow of the film inclines towards decontaminating the idea of God from the political strata of religions.
Such overt films require a personal connect with actors to look convincing. For Paresh Rawal, I believe this film is as personal as it could be. He is awe inspiring. Akshay is passable as an actor but he does look like a Greek God. Mithun is fantastic, so is Govind Namdeo. They are loud but lovable as mischievous gurus.
If films could change the world, this planet would be a much better place. Oh My God will probably not even make a dent in our minds contaminated with insecurities and superstitions. But at least they are trying.
No comments:
Post a Comment