Helmed by Director Amit Rai, OMG2 is an eye opener to the Indian society towards accepting sex education as an ancient Indian concept, and not as a taboo, writes Dr.Priyaankaa Mathur.
The film revolves around Kanti Sharan Mudgal, who’s a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva, is a simple man who provides for his family and kids. His teenage son Vivek ( Arush Verma), goes through an emotional turmoil after being rejected by his dance partner in school.He is mocked by other male students, that there is something wrong with his masculinity. The poor child falls into depression, while he’s also undergoing hormonal changes. Unable to seek answers, he takes drastic steps and is expelled from his school over immoral conduct.
Kanti comes to know about his son’s suffering when he is called by a doctor (Bijerndra Kala), who informs him of how his son took the wrong pills under misguidance and misinformation about sex and needs parental guidance and affection at this point. Kanti eventually realises his fault as a parent too, for not understanding the child.
Unable to handle societal shame, grief stuck Kanti tries to flee from the town with his family,while he prays to Lord Shiva. His prayers are answered as a divine intervention appears as a messenger of Shiva (Akshay Kumar), who guides him to face the situation and fight for justice. Meanwhile, Vivek feels so humiliated that he tries to commit suicide twice, but is mystically saved.
Kanti decides to file a case against himself for not understanding his son, and also the school authorities for not imparting sex education. At the court, he meets lawyer Kamini Maheshwari (Yami Gautam) who defends the school. Unable to find a lawyer to fight the mighty school Principal(Arun Govil), Kanti decides to fight the case himself in front of the judge (Pawan Malhotra).
Through Kanti’s intellectual and well-researched arguments, the film throws light on the richness of the ancient Indian education system ( Gurukuls) and scriptures including Rishi Vatstayana’s ‘Kamasutra’ which were taught by the Gurus at the Gurukuls.The Gurukuls were centres for imparted education in multiple fields including Art(kala), Science ( Vigyan), Medicine (Ayurveda) and even the Art of love-making or Sex Education ( Kama Shastra) for the overall mental and physical development of the children. This knowledge equipped them from the age of adolescence to understand their emotions, love, relationships and also their own bodily needs, which was never a taboo in Indian society.
Kanti also throws light on the historical facts, of how the British in India, trashed the Gurukul system condemning them as centres of vulgarity and obscenity. Later British established the colonial educational system in India. Ironically, the British took the concept of sex education to the West as a progressive thought, wherein, today the English Editions of Kamasutra happen to be the biggest best sellers.
In another argument by showcasing Khajoraho sculptures kanti talks about the 4 Purusharthas i.e the facets of one’s lives journey according to Indian scriptures.These include – Artha (economic values), Kam (pleasure), Dharma (righteousness) and Moksha (liberation).Here he tells how Kama is an essential and joyful aspect of human existence and survival.
Infact in reality, Khajuraho temples are again defamed by the West as obscene centres for erotic sculptures and ocult practices.While, in reality, only 10% sculptures are erotic and were created so that when a devotee enters a temple he leaves all his lust and desires at the periphery of the temple and enters the temple with a clean mind to worship.
Pankaj Tripathi excels in delivering well-written dialogues wrapped in subtle humour with a slight benarasi accent. He impressively delivers historical facts and inferences from Upanishads in Sanskrit at one point, while he clears all taboos to educate society, women and children to talk about sex in schools and also in our families.
The story did touch on issues of child molestation, rape, unwanted sex and prostitution all as a result of insatiable lust and curiosity in men, due to lack of sex education. In one scene, a five-year-old female child, after watching the court proceedings on Television, gets the courage to disclose to her grandfather who’s a Pujari (Govind Namdev), how her uncle molests her.
Yami Gautam excels yet again in her performance to play the shrewed business lawyer, who can do anything to win the case.You even start to hate her at one point and start contemplating her next move.Her character has been very well etched with subtle nuances under Amit Rai’s superb direction.
Akshay Kumar doesn’t play Lord Shiva, but his messenger, which gives you that mystical feeling of an Aghori. You feel the goose bumps with his calm demeanour to have encountered Jata Shankar, Neel Kantha, who drinks poison consumed by Vivek to save him. He is depicted as an embodiment of Shiva in contemporary setting of the film, while he is followed by a Nandi (bull) everywhere he goes.Akshay brilliantly performs Shiva’s powerful dance form ‘Tandava’ on the song ‘Har Har Mahadev’, shot and choreographed brilliantly. The music scape of the film also complements the Shiva Tandav Stotram and devotional mantras chanted at the backdrop.
Overall a very good well-researched and well-directed film by Amit Rai, which doesn’t deserve an A certificate.This film dares to talk about the subject of sex education with conviction,along with good narration, apt direction and splendid performances, which makes it a spell binding experience.
OMG2 is a must-go for all parents and children of all ages, to be knowledgeable enough to understand and protect themselves before anything wrong happens.
FF Ratings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
