OMG2 is serious stuff, no masti here
A boy faints from masturbating too much. We learn that he’s trying to increase the size of his member. We wonder where the heck this movie is going. I mean, are we watching OMG 2 or Masti 4?
The boy – Vivek – is suspended from school, the family is ostracized from society. Finally, the boy’s father Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi) — our hero— calls upon God. Two developments ensue. One: Lord Shiva sends his representative to earth to help– Akshay Kumar in oddly attractive dreadlocks. Two: Kanti files a case against the school for not providing sex education to his son.
And that’s the core of this movie. What follows is a hard-fought, fascinating court case about sex education in schools. Kanti and the school’s sly, formidable defense attorney Kamini Maheshwari (Yami Gautam Dhar) tussle over issues both ideological and practical. Can teaching kids about sex actually prevent sexual abuse? How will you teach it even if you can without being vulgar? Will parents really want this?
Prudishness in the land of Kama Sutra
And where does the G part of OMG come in? At every step, Akshay Kumar’s Shiva surrogate helps Kanti win his case. We are the country of the Kama Sutra and the Shiv Ling, why do we have such repressive sexual attitudes today, he– and the movie– ask. (OMG 2 attributes our current discomfort with sex –correctly if not completely–to the British). It’s a fine line to walk, making the case for progressive Hinduism while not offending religious sentiments, and the movie walks it perfectly. You can also see the heavy hand of the Censor Board here. The initial version had Akshay as Lord Shiva himself, but the final version has him as Shiva’s emissary instead, and several of the dialogues have been visibly changed from the original version.
Despite the 2h 35m length and the talkiness, the movie holds your attention. And the performances are pitch-perfect. The director makes a fun choice to cast Arun Govil, yesteryear’s Ram, as the main villain of this semi-religious movie. But the real standout performance comes from Arush Varma as the sensitive young Vivek whose masturbation mishap starts all of this. The decision to hinge the inciting case on a boy rather than a girl is interesting. Sexual transgressions in India are more easily forgiven in men, and one wonders whether the incident would have led to that level of shaming in real life.
A case for sex education
But where OMG 2 really comes alive is when it talks about how sex education can help prevent sexual abuse, even child abuse. One alarming statistic suggests 50% of Indian children have endured child abuse, primarily at the hands of family members. India is a country where US government travel advisories caution women against traveling solo. The country where policemen can harass couples for PDA. The country where women are often groped on streets and buses, the country of Nirbhaya.
Can sex education in schools change any part of that? Hard to tell, but OMG2 is a welcome start to the conversation.
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