'OMG 2' Delivers Preachy Tale Amidst Mixed Messaging, Underwhelming Execution
Even the Gods suggest legal remedies. At a time when the laity is cynical of the legalese and delay, here comes the saviour Amit Rai. This time he takes over from Umesh Shukla who had handled the Paresh Rawal-anti-God tongue-in-cheek stance. The rest requires no mention. Suffice to state that in the midst of mainstream humour and prejudiced chuckles, Amit Rai manages to push the envelope. However, even as he garners steam, he loses control of the script and messes up a narrative that stays considerably close to reality.
The issues raised and ignored are both interesting. While it primarily deals with need to varnish our hackneyed archaic thoughts on sex. The collective double-speak and the long mortal shadows it draws, further sculpted by contemporaneous conscience-keepers, suggests that we are not only sitting on a volcano collectively but are unwittingly pushing individuals in crisis down the abyss. Spare a thought for the alarming increase in suicides.
Another deals with privacy rights and ‘school space’. Take the debate on hand. It focuses on the “indulgence” of a school kid and pushes under the carpet critical institutional issues like bullying, ragging, privacy, crimes under the Information Technology Act, class bias and the like. It is typical of our times and the convenient agendas we push. Also, the film peddles for a change in our education system and could well be pushing for the NEP – not that it details anything beyond the periphery and that to in the limited space advocating for sex education.
Irving Wallace in The Seven Minutes argues at length on the usage of the popular four-letter word and need to use it for its precision. Could Amit Rai have taken a look at this book that, within the space of pulp fiction, is a must-read? Wallace’s treatment of prejudice could have cemented the credibility of his wares, not to mention the quality of the contrived court scenes. Is this our own version of the ‘monkey trial’ in Inherit the Wind?
Over to Mahakaal and zoom in on the God-fearing Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi) living with wife Indumati (Geeta Agrawal – in a very theatrical outing) and two children: daughter Damu and son Vivek (Aarush Varma).
Vivek’s “doing a selfie” in contrast to taking one finds him pitch-forked centrestage, for all the wrong reasons. Captured live from the school washroom with its graffiti suggestively screaming, he is rusticated by Chairman (Arun Govil – as blank as ever) abetted by the pujari (Govind Namdev). Shamed in the orthodox milieu the Mudgals plan to leave town. The plan gets aborted when Mahadev (Akshay Kumar) makes his miracle-filled appearance and tempts Kanti Sharan to invoke the jurisdiction of the court and seek damages for the trauma caused. Arrayed as defendants or accused (status not clear from the narrative), the ‘court case’ begins with Sharan being party-in-person and lawyer Kamini (Yami Gautam – stiff to a fault and voicing clichés with an obnoxious sense of confidence!!)
“The Trial” as stated before is neither inspired by Wallace not guided by Darrow. No, it is not even up the B.R. Chopra street, leave alone the Govind Nihlani take. A few smart lines apart, the trial takes multiple liberties with law, justice and the system. Witnesses are uniformly harassed in the name of cross-examination. It is half-baked, half-hearted and toned to see sex education more as a fashion than as a holistic part of education – though such intent is voiced. From quacks who promise cure where there is no disease to pharmacists who sell medicines without prescription to an education system mentally outdated and emotionally dishonest Amit Rai touches them all – but either too briefly or too synthetically. The film lacks proper grammar and is largely wanting in its hygiene.
The filmmaker has obviously been in a hurry with the cast – not that the script offers the players much scope while Akshay Kumar walks in and out in Atrangi Re, he is neither called upon nor attempts to leave any memories or impact.
The extremely talented Pankaj Tripathi faces multiple challenges – a cast that fails in quality, a narrative that fails in credibility and a product too caught up in sending a message for its own good. Yet he fights it all. Also don’t forget he has to fit into the shoes of Paresh Rawal. He not only delivers, he saves the film. If in the course of about three hours you get to watch something worth the ticket-time matrix, it is Pankaj. What promises pans out into a hollow pretentious preachy tale. Apart from a few chuckles you end up exclaiming Oh My God!!!
