Sunday, September 30, 2012

Movie Review: OMG Oh My God

OMG is a movie the world needed today. When cities burn and hundreds are killed because of a stupid porn director's fallacy, you know something is going terribly wrong. Umesh Shukla's OMG is a wonderful adaptation of the movie ‘The Man Who Sued God’ and the Bhavesh Mandalia play ‘Kanji Virudh Kanji’, and has the potential to change lives - asking some very relevant questions about religion as we practice it today, and showing a simple path for the future. It uses comedy to entertain, and without once really questioning the existence of god, redefines god, faith and religion in such a beautiful way, it is difficult not to come away touched and inspired.

Kanji Mehta (Paresh Rawal) is business man, a hardcore athiest, with a shop wherein he dupes unsuspecting god-fearing men of their riches by selling them, ironically, god. However, when his shop is destroyed in a earthquake (unleashed by god (?) against him to punish him for his unfaith), and the insurance company refuses to pay for the "act of god", he does the unthinkable. He sues god in a court of law, demanding compensation.

As the war between the unfaithful Kanji and the legions of swamis and maulvis unfolds in court, and on the streets, Kanji meets the sauve, sexy, dashing chopper-riding smartly dressed Krishna Vasudev Yadav. Or, as we know him, Lord Krishna.

Will Kanji win the case in court? Will he be a Lord Krishna disciple? Will be become a believer?

Why do we pour lakhs of liters of oil and milk down the drain, when thousands die hungry ever day? Why does the bus carrying the faithful to Amarnath plunge down the abyss? Why does the Gamesh idol on the dash not protect those countless who die in car accidents every day? Why do we build temples and charge for VIP Darshan when god resides in every atom of the universe?

OMG raises many questions which the faithful might have termed irreverent and even blasphemous. But director Umesh Shukla walks the tightrope beautifully, using comedy as the balancing bar, and an amazing control over the script, the execution and the story, never once giving the faithful any reason to complain, while beautifully exposing the business empires and the shams in the name of god. 

Paresh Rawal puts in an amazing performance, using his subtlelity, his dialogues, his silences, and his timing, driving the message in a hard hitting manner that touches while it entertains! The film uses an amazing combination of reality and fantasy, giving god a very human, modern day avataar, to clearly differentiate between god and religion, faith and business, truth and sham. Using Kanji as the messenger, the movie makes its point: “People are not god-loving, they are god-fearing.”

Akshay Kumar’s cool dude avatar of Krishna is fun to watch, a breath of fresh air after many of his nonsensical performances, the harbinger of happiness and faith, while never once getting preachy or godly.
Govind Namdeo and Mithun Chakraborty (and Poonam Jhawer) as the various swamis portray their characters admirably, invoking immediate recall and relation to all the dramas one sees on TV these days. Govind Namdeo pulls off yet another stunner, while Mithun proves, yet again, why he is revered as such a good actor! Om Puri is wasted as the lawyer, but pulls off the cameo with elan.

Prabhu Deva and Sonakshi Sinha rock in their item number, 'Go Govinda', and fits in pretty well in the movie.

So stop salivating over that stale Barfi, and go watch OMG - it will not only entertain you, but will probably touch you in a way few other things have in your life. And in that, maybe, you will find god.

1 comment:

Shayari said...

Great concept but its not original...This movie is copy of 90's Australian classic "Man who sued God"