OMG! This one is scathing

OMG Oh my god
Starring:Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty
At: PVR & others
Rated: 6.5/10
This is the best preachy movie one has seen in a long time. It is also the most courageous one against religion in quite a while. It is brutally irreverent, it puts the sadhus and the pundits in their place. And if that, you think, is no big deal, it goes much ahead and questions the role and existence of God himself.
By the way, despite all this Almighty bashing, this making fun of Him, castigating Him, smearing Him with allegations and what not, the God who appears on screen is the most becoming, handsome and engaging one to have ever visited the big screen. Akshay Kumar in a modern-day avataar of Lord Krishna gives you one reason to believe in God, so cool he is.
And when a seasoned Paresh Rawal is doing all such politically incorrect things like berating celestial entities, you somehow feel it is not all mere bluster. As a Gujarati merchant of religious props like idols etc, he operates out of chor bazaar and has no qualms in selling tap water as gangajal, selling idols costing only Rs150 for more than Rs10,000, weaving unbelievable tales around them being collector’s items and not letting his son have anything to do with religious mores.
His contempt for superstition and blind faith in God is scathing — and continues to be so till he drags God to court, accusing Him for non-payment of compensation.
The premise of the film is such that you would applaud even the Censor Board for having passed it, with just a disclaimer at the beginning. Rawal’s histrionics need no word of added appreciation so well he is entrenched in the good books of the audiences.
His casual relationship with Akshay Kumar, the God who lives in with him, is full of moments you would enjoy though this God, as such, does not have much of a role to play in the proceedings initiated by Rawal whose shop is the only one to go down in a freak earthquake.
The film was marketed as a comedy — which actually it is not. It is a hard-hitting satire against the blind faith of the public when it comes to religion and the dhongi Godmen who take full advantage of it.
Nothing new about this, except, of course, the candidness with which the subject has been dealt with. It may ruffle the feathers of believers, but it certainly gives atheists a boost. In the end though, belief triumphs all — even Rawal.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer on 30th September 2012

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