The sequel in the Akshay Kumar series titled OMG, OMG 2 starts by quite accurately representing the hustle and bustle of the epicentre of Hindu religious faith, Ujjain. The crowded and busy feeling of the Kumbh Mela, the devotional rush that almost suffocates and the commercialisation of traditional beliefs can be seen for a good 5 minutes in the beginning in OMG 2 and it already gets tiring. You get a feeling that the film is going to bash the nuances of Hindu religion with a condescending undertone that the religion and its followers are too suffocated, too backward and to naive. While it is a small solace that the film does not end up doing that, it doesn’t do anything worthwhile either.
Let’s present the positives first. Akshay Kumar looks great in his role as a member of Lord of Shiva’s entourage. Pankaj Tripathi is most certainly in his element; it is as if this was a piece of cake for him. There are scenes of Nandi, Lord Shiva’s pet bull following the character played by Akshay Kumar around, symbolically representing the endearing relationship between Lord Shiva and Nandi. In terms of cinematography and screenplay there aren’t any mistakes that I could find.
The biggest disappointment is the failure to carry the plot forward. The first part, OMG, became so popular because Paresh Rawal’s character filed a lawsuit against God because apparently the damage that had been inflicted on his property was God’s doing, and no one else claimed any responsibility for a natural disaster. He fought an interesting court case against people who claimed to be God’s men and ended up being supported by Lord Krishna himself, who descended to earth looking as dashing as Akshay Kumar. That movie was a delightful watch with some extraordinary performances, a highly reasonable plotline and some truly admirable and reflective dialogues.
OMG 2 surely intended to follow the path of the first film. Probably with the intention of taking it up a notch, the makers employed a rather unpredictable theme – sex education. What can God have to do with sex education? Quite plainly, nothing much. God isn’t directly responsible for anything in this story like he was in the first film. God simply becomes involved because a huge trouble had befallen one of his favourite devotees. His favourite devotee’s son had been expelled from a prestigious school because he was videographed masturbating in the toilet and the video was making rounds in the so-called prestigious circles. Even though he was misled by his bullies, no one saw from his point of view and the school’s reputation was at stake for which he was expelled. The bigger and necessary concept of sex education was linked in this scenario and yet again a court case followed.
Any movie that centres around a court case has a primary requirement- great dialogues. Court cases stand on arguments by defending and plaintiff parties and the arguments need to be great for a viewer to remain hooked to the film. The dialogues in OMG 2 are just okay, but the logical reasoning? Not so much. Sure, the child who was caught masturbating in the school toilet and made infamous did not deserve what he got, and on many levels the school is responsible for not teaching him the right things. However, the incident certainly did not need the boy’s father giving sermons at the court about things like how Kamasutra is a part of Indian academic heritage. More certainly, it did not require God’s interference.
So if you are looking for an incredible experience like OMG part 1, the second film disappoints. Yami Gautam, though gives a ‘not bad’ performance, also feels like a desperate addition of glamour quotient. The issue of necessity of sex education in schools could have been completely dissociated from God and made into a logical movie. Sure, there was an attempt to validate sex education by linking it with its normalcy in Indian culture; but that does not get conveyed enough in the film. It can be said that OMG 2 is the less impactful movie in the OMG series (hopefully there will be more) but a considerably entertaining one nonetheless. Not to mention it advocates something that is extremely important, so plus points for that.
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