OMG 2 Review

No matter what you might first imagine Oh My God 2 to be about from its title or trailer, I can assure you that it will still catch you off-guard. Just like its spiritual prequel, OMG 2 is a brazen courtroom drama with a significant "God" element. But with a new cast and a new god, Amit Rai's OMG 2 grapples with a bold new theme: the lack of sex education in our country.

That's right. A series known for its religious angle - in which Hindu gods take human form and help devotees win court cases - has a remarkably progressive take on sex-ed. Rai pulls off this improbable feat in which sex, religion and even nationalism dance together without stepping one on another's toes.

How does he do that? By marrying two incongruous images: an ardent devotee of Shiva, and a champion of sex education. These disparate ideas find a home inside his protagonist, Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi). When Kanti's son Vivek is expelled from school for masturbating in the bathroom, his family is, at first, too humiliated to even discuss it in straightforward terms. However, Kanti learns that Vivek's masturbation obsession began with him being bullied by his classmates for his "size". Kanti turns it all around and sues everyone involved in this travesty: the roadside snake-oil salesman who sold Vivek phoney penis-enlargement tonics; the pharmacist who dispensed erectile dysfunction pills; the school that never taught sex-ed; and finally even himself for being a bad parent. He becomes his own lawyer, too.

Pulling Kanti's strings is Lord Shiva (Akshay Kumar) himself, incarnate as a dreadlocked hippie. He is at Kanti's side at the exact right times with the exact right advice to nudge his case arguments forward. With his help, Kanti buries the opposition. He brings props: a Kama Sutra, miniature Khajuraho sculptures, and even a copy of the Panchatantra which I was surprised to learn calls for sex-ed in its very introductory page. He takes potshots on "international" schools that claim to follow the Western standards but balk at sex-ed citing impracticality or vulgarity.

We see the full subversive glory of OMG 2 when Kanti unrolls an anatomical chart of the male and female bodies and builds a case for teaching children about sex openly, with no shame. Kanti is dressed every bit as you might imagine a devotee to be: in a kurta, a rudraksha mala around his neck, and a smear of vibhuti on his forehead. His opposition lawyer, defending the school, is Kamini (Yami Gautam), the picture of a liberal feminist. And yet all she can muster is, "It's vulgar. Masturbation is wrong."

If Amit Rai wanted to make his case that India reclaim its rightful place as the pioneer of sex-ed, then Kanti is the perfect messenger to do so. Kanti's religiosity is an asset to his case. For he can ask - how does being a Hindu be at odds with sex-positivity when the Hindus were the first to unlock the secrets of sexual pleasure, a la kama sutra? When desire (kama) is one of the pillars of the Hindu Sanathana Dharma? When one of our "main" gods takes the form of a sex organ? The courtroom setting happily allows for lengthy exposition and debate about these facets, unburdened by the need for immediate context or action.

Pankaj Tripathi slips into his role as the shiv bhakt completely, and makes Kanti a man worth listening to. Akshay Kumar appears to be having the time of his life playing Lord Shiva. After all OMG 2 is the sort of project that he feels most at home in - social message dramas. Yami Gautam paints a formidable opponent as lawyer Kamini, although her dialogues are a bit short-changed in favor of Kanti's more eloquent ones.

OMG 2 is an impressive piece of storytelling, especially if you consider all the gimmicks that a lesser filmmaker may have grabbed onto to convey Indian historical pride. Although "God" drops in the clues for Kanti to pick up, Kanti must still do his homework - read the scriptures, construct arguments, present them logically, orate cleverly and, above all, do it with an air of decency rather than cockiness. It is details like these, and the overall mature treatment of the subject, that make OMG 2 a movie that won my atheistic heart.