Tax exempt status for OMG, Oh My God!

I was warned that Akshay Kumar starrer OMG, Oh My God! is not a movie for atheists. And, if you went in with the idea that it would help atheists, then God help atheists! Honest, this was what one of the reviews said. The movie asserts God’s existence, the review asserted.

That sentiment, in trying to increase atheists’ discomfort, undermined God Himself. If His existence needed to be asserted by mainstream cinema, I pity His status! But that is not the focus of this post.

I will take up the sentence that started this post. While Akshay Kumar might have been the biggest name in the credits, it is a through and through Paresh Rawal film. If Vidya Balan carried The Dirty Picture, Rawal as Kanji Bhai dons that role in this movie. I believe it is a casting coup. I wish the real God faced Kanji Bhai, aka Paresh Rawal!

The plot and its development are as strong or weak as the basic premise–religion exploits in the name of God–allowed. The way I understood the theme was not in terms of the ontology of God, but assuming God exists how he becomes useful in the selfish, nefarious designs of religionists. God is the handmaiden of religion / religionists and at one remove, the so-called spiritualists. God is not situated in contradistinction to the atheists. Indeed, I did not understand where and how the critic saw atheists enter this made-for-cineplex picture and why they were cautioned.

Why am I implicitly marking this movie as off limits to the segment of the public that cannot afford a visit to a multiplex (forgoing about five days of poverty level existence)? I deliberately used the word “ontology” in a sentence earlier. That was a pointer to the thumbing-one’s-nose attitude of the anti-religionists vis-à-vis the believers. No wonder that gets them nowhere with the latter.

But this movie does get the message to the believing-hoi polloi, particularly the ones roaming the multiplexes. The movie rehashes most of the arguments anti-religionists have made for centuries but not in such simple terms as in this movie (the melodramatic Tamil movie Parasakthi of 50+ years ago perhaps an exception; but that was a serious affair having political, movement and mobilization overtones).

Yet, OMG, carrying simple but not simplistic messages, abrades one’s consciousness. It makes one aware of one’s stupidity in being a religionist. This friction needs to be reduced, a lubricant applied in real time. Get to the multiplex; no tent talkies in rural outposts will do. You need the comfort of cushioned and reclining seats, Dolby Digital Sound, a concession stand where nothing less than Rs. 100/- will fetch you a morsel of popcorn. This is the current marketing strategy of movies, particularly movies against religion.

Where religion is, God follows.

Akshay Kumar sort of exists in the movie, just as the putative God does in the script. They merely appear and disappear, and by the end of the movie one is left wondering whether they existed at all. Both are like the prompters behind the screen. While I can say Akshay is adequate, I am not sure about God!

By the way, the law suit the protagonist brings against God is sourced not from God but from Kanji Bhai’s fertile mind. God just tags along for the joy ride, going against the US constitutional provision against self-implication! The message here is God is impotent against the powers of religion! Likewise, at the end, it is only a voiceover that tells Kanji Bhai to discard a possible divine charm that he intends to keep. God, who had thus far been ready, willing and able to present Himself to Kanji Bhai in human form suddenly becomes bashful! A truly nice ending this was.

The reviewer took exception to the hideous attire of, in the garb of a Swamiji, Mithun Chakraborty and his exaggerated body (finger) language. He also had a few negative comments on the Sonakshi Sinha-Prabhu Deva item-number. This is wrong on all counts. Every Swamiji carries his or her trademark appearance, and I have no need to name them. And, Mithunda’s makeup man has done an excellent job. Only religionists will understand the body (finger) language of the spiritual masters and the reviewer was way off mark! One has to recall a Swamiji sponsored event, with a host of musical instruments producing a cacophony in or near Bengaluru a few years ago, to dig out the legitimacy of the item-number. This add-on was more context relevant than any item-number in the local don’s den.

The script intelligently weaves into the story some recent miracles to take them down a notch or two in the minds of people, like an idol of God drinking milk. The explanation and the subsequent preaching, in trying to be brought to the level of the intelligence of multiplex going audience, undermine the basic premise. Here again, please understand I am thumbing my nose at the common man and woman to which tribe I belong. Heard of self-inflicted wound? That, in the military will get me a Court Marshall!

As much as the argument against religion / God has to be brought to the level of common people, to have any sustained effect on people’s psyche one cannot do without deeper analysis. Yes, I mean use of words like “ontology”, “epistemology”, “teleology”, “cosmology”! These arguments must be made outside of multiplexes, even going to tent talkies in rural areas with no immediate relief in sight. And, tax-exemption would help.

To end this post: will any state government accord this movie tax-free status? Justify whatever answer you give, if you deemed that the question deserved an answer.

Raghuram Ekambaram