OMG 2 review: True continuation of Oh My God
Now, it is taking pot shots at our school education that carries a prudish approach and a whispered take on sex education.
Hyderabad: The first worked in the field of beliefs and superstitions, Amit Rai sticks to Umesh Shukla’s style but enlarges the scope of looking at social issues with a traditional hue.
Then it was Lord Krishna working a rational challenge on Godmen. Now, it is taking pot shots at our school education that carries a prudish approach and a whispered take on sex education. Placed under the wraps, the resulting perversity is for all to see.
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Our education system has multiple potholes and to take a critical look at it is never too late. Reference to Macaulay is therefore only expected. Surely so when we are coming a full circle. Remember, he advocated shutting down institutions with a bias to exclusive eastern philosophy!! Also, you can be sure that if Akshay Kumar is around so is the pulpit.
In the small-town Mahakaal – a pilgrim’s must see place for followers of Lord Shiva – live the Mudgals: Kanti Sharan (Pankaj Tripathi), wife Indumati (Gita Agarwal), a teenaged daughter Damayanti and stepping dangerously, secretively and hesitatingly into adolescence – son Vivek (Aarush Varma).
Vivek shocks the morality of his school, and also the middle-class when he is caught by a secret camera indulging in the school washroom. He is expelled.
The family decide to move out of the holy city till Kanti Sharan is inspired to take on those whose actions led to traumatising the adolescent boy for indulging in what most honest adolescent confess to do and medical experts have gone to town assuring that there is nothing unhealthy about the practice.
At the instance of Mahadev (Akshay Kumar), Kanti Sharan sues the school represented by its chairman (Arun Govil), the pharmacist, the local quack, and the peddler. The case is before the judge Purushottam Nagar (Pavan Malhotra) and the counsel on the other side for defamation and compensation is Kamini (Yami Goutam).
The usual hypocrisy is planted well and in the midst of chuckling one-liners a story case is out for a new education policy. Never mind if the details of the real and reel are well distanced. The film does make a clear call for the need of sex education as a part of mainstream education.
What singularly harms the film is the challenge of time management. While initially too much of time is spent on the very incident that is central to the film, and the frills around it, it takes a long while to get to the crux of the issue. Suddenly the film maker realises that he is behind the clock and rushes into a very loud cinematic climax. It is so hurtingly dramatic that it robs the narrative of all its credibility.
Aarush Varma as the kid caught unwittingly in the midst of the storm has a difficult role to perform. Leave alone doing it, it is a challenge to explain it to a kid. He sure comes out with success.
The support cast including those like the guys who sell various solutions for him to improve on size are disapproving, so is it with the members of the family. Akshay Kumar’s role at best can be termed as an energetic cameo with his trademark advice mode.
The film belongs to Pankaj Tripathi. A role performed by Paresh Rawal is not easy to replicate. Pankaj not only creates his own ground but certainly adds a higher seriousness to the character.
In the bargain the balance shifts to a character a tad more serious than the protagonist in OMG.
The film sadly is a well-intentioned, reasonably well crafted but poorly executed product.
