OMG 2 review: Pankaj Tripathi, Akshay Kumar deliver laughs with a purposeful punch

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I loved OMG 2. When I booked the tickets and decided to watch it, the aim was just to do my work: review a film. After all, film critics sometimes have to review bad films also. It is something of an occupational hazard. But my preconceived notions were shattered within the first few moments of OMG 2. And this is coming from somebody who was only mildly impressed by the first film. The surprise wasn't the film's ability to challenge societal norms and shed light on a topic as crucial as sex education. The surprise to me was how skillful and candid the handling of the said topic was. 

To make the need of sex education more digestible for the general audience, I suspect, our protagonist Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi) was not written as an atheist (like Paresh Rawal's Kanjibhai was in the original). I am not a believer in anything divine or supernatural, but I duly appreciate the writer-director Amit Rai's efforts here. Why? Because in a country like India, it was certainly crucial for the character's faith and devotion to be a driving force for change without alienating viewers with differing beliefs. When clothed in the garb of religion, most individuals can be persuaded towards any idea, whether good or bad.

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What is OMG 2 about?

But I am getting ahead of myself. OMG 2 is what these days movie marketing calls a spiritual sequel (which in this context takes on a whole new meaning) to the first one. The film follows Kanti, an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, who resides in Ujjain. His world takes an abrupt turn when his son, Vivek, becomes ensnared in a controversy that leads to his expulsion from school. Not to put too fine a point on it, he was filmed masturbating in the school toilet by some of his uncharitable classmates. The video goes viral over the internet and eventually reaches the school authorities. Instead of finding out how somebody was filmed inside a locked toilet, the higher-ups decide to pull up the kid and his father instead. 

Kanti, like any God-fearing father, is upset and embarrassed by his son. But a suicide attempt by his son and a nudge by Akshay Kumar's mysterious Shiva devotee character forces him to delve deeper into the matter. Not just the act of masturbation, but why there is an aversion towards the word sex in respected spaces in the most populous country in the world. He sues all the people who are behind the current mental state of his son.

(Aside: Akshay's character is referred to as a messenger of Lord Shiva, but I suspect before the Indian censors got involved, he was written as Shiva himself.)

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Is OMG 2 any good?

In case it wasn't clear already, yes. OMG 2 is a lot of fun. It manages to strike a nice and delicate balance between dealing with a serious issue (sex education) and delivering moments of genuine laughter and heartfelt emotions.

Pankaj Tripathi is reliably excellent, and so is Kumar (this might be a radical idea, but he should do more comedy again), but the film is peppered with a number of outstanding character actors in supporting roles. Pavan Malhotra shines as Judge Purushottam Nagar presiding over the case. Initially sceptical and even unfriendly towards Kanti, he learns to respect the determination of the man. His struggles with Kanti's "shuddh", or pure, Hindi are played for some nice humour as his assistant tries to explain what the man is saying non-verbally.

Brijendra Kala plays a sex therapist in a rather small role and leaves a significant impact. His character keeps inventive contraptions in his clinic that are built by doing unspeakable things to balloons and are used to explain sexual concepts and even acts to his patients. Having grown accustomed to startling and flustering his visitors with his unabashed honesty, he responds with serene acceptance when in a scene early on in the movie, a man splashes tea on him after being told his wife probably cheated on him.

The humour in the film is all-around superb, actually, and it does not come at the expense of Vivek's dignity or the film's central themes. It does, however, come at the expense of those who would shame a child for natural curiosity about his burgeoning sexuality. It also comes at the expense of the absurdity of societal double standards and the hypocrisy that often accompanies discussions about sex in India. 

In the course of his research, Kanti discovers that the Hindu religion boasts a rich tradition of embracing openness when it comes to matters of sex and sexuality, with texts even hinting at the presence of sexual education practices in ancient India. It was only when the British colonialists arrived and imposed Victorian morality upon Indians that they become such Puritans related to sex. 

It is, of course, an extremely simplistic explanation of Indian prudery. At best, it urges us to improve our outlook. At worst, it encourages the notion that our pristine religious traditions were polluted exclusively by outsiders, which somebody with even a remote knowledge of history would tell you is simply not true.

But if this explanation, however devoid of nuance, effectively nudges viewers to reevaluate their outlook on tradition and modernity, I'd consider it a win. The only egregious crime of the movie, in my opinion, is to take a totally concocted piece of text and falsely attribute it to one Thomas Babington Macaulay like a social media troll. Yes, the same one where the guy is shown explaining how India is so prosperous and arguing to replace the Indian education system with English (or some such).

Those minor concerns aside, OMG 2 is a film that for me defied expectations. It is an engaging, thought-provoking, and endlessly funny film. It is also an important film in a society that continues to grapple with essential conversations about education, morality, and tradition.

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