OMG-Oh My God Movie Review (3.5 rating)

Beware:
Many are going to feel offended. But if you scratch the surface, you will see the truth behind this
teaching.
In a country plagued by religious beliefs, OH MY GOD! comes as a bold move. A move that is likely to be
viewed fanatically by those immersed in religious rituals
forgetting the simple truth of living. But for those with
wisdom, this movie is like, “Oh My God. Really!”
Kudos to director Umesh Shukla and his entire cast and
crew and those behind the scenes for illustrating the
pointlessness of all religious beliefs and driving the
message straight to the heart. Jesus had the same
problem with religious fanatics. The Bible, in the Gospel
of Mathew (chapter 23, verse 27) quotes Jesus as saying: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which
look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are
full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.” He shocked the radicals with his simple truth of loving.
This is the precise message Kanjibhai (Paresh Rawal) brings to the fore on screen with his forceful persona.
And he targets the babas and gurus and all those who go
for darshans seeking mannats by spending huge sums of
money to pour milk down the drain when just outside
the temple, there are hundreds who are hungry and
thirsty.
Kanjibhai is an atheist. He loves his life and his family. His
business is that of selling idols of various gods. He makes
fun of these as he buys them for a very small price and
fools the gullible fanatics by selling them for large sums,
giving gyaan of how it was unearthed hundreds of years
ago in famous temples. He is literally laughing all the way to the bank, when the Gods decide to reprimand
him.
There’s an earthquake and it is only his shop that is
completely destroyed. Those around him now point out
to him how god has punished him because he always
poked fun at him. But Kanjibhai is adamant; he knows there is no God and goes to claim his insurance where he
learns of the existence of God. In the clause it is written
that his shop is covered under all calamities, but for an
“Act of God”, there is no cover. The insurance company is
not liable to pay Kanjibhai a single naiya paisa.
There is a hilarious turn how Kanjibhai lets out his fury on the company’s boss in front of his employees.
He then decides to sue God. And since God has no address
his notices are sent to all temples where there is an
uproar among the pundits and babas. And since no
lawyer is willing to fight his case, he is guided by a
Muslim lawyer to fight his own case, since there is a
provision in the law for the same. After the initial indignation of the appalling act, Kanjibhai soon receives
support and in fact agrees to fight hundreds of cases of
people who have lost their insurance because of the “Act
of God” clause.
The courtroom scene where Kanjibhai takes on the
lawyer and pundits is hilarious and insightful. Ditto the television show where he is the guest. His views
transforms even the television anchor, who started by
putting him on the mat with her direct line of
questioning.
Kanjibhai’s logic is simple. If there is a God, show it in
your behavior. Don’t be a double-faced fool. Let the
millions being spent of useless rituals be used for the
poor and needy that really need that money. Let the
phoney babas and gurus be exposed for who they really
are, instead of blindly following them. Govind Namdeo, Mithun Chakraborty and Poonam Jhawer as Gopi Mayya who con the people in the name
of God are first rate. Mithun as the effeminate guru and
Namdeo as the fiery pundit along with their shadow,
Poonam, are perfect in enacting characters.
Akshay Kumar as God, who visits Kanjibhai in his fight, pitches in with a balanced performance. He urges
Kanjibhai to read the holy books when he gets stuck in
his case. He assures him that he will find all his answers
there. He does, as he boldly goes about quoting the
Bhagwad Gita, Quoran and the Holy Bible in court to
flummox the ‘holy ones’ In the end, the message that is preached is the simple
truth I spoke of in the beginning. That of loving. God is
within all of us. We all have to look within, instead of
running here and there in search of God. Someone has
rightly said, stones enter the temple and become gods,
we enter the temple and still remain stones! Theres a lovely insight Kanjibhai gives when asked what
religion does to a person. After thinking a bit he states,
“It either makes you a ritual-freak, or a terrorist.”

Rating: 3.5

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