Film OMG 2 starring Akshay Kumar, Pankaj Tripathi, and Yami Gautam in the lead roles has been released in the theatres on August 11. The film is a sequel to the 2012 hit ‘OMG: Oh My God’ and has been in controversy ever since its teaser came out.
The Amit Rai directorial has been given an ‘Adults Only’ certification by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), that too after 27 alterations were asked to be made which includes tweaking Akshay Kumar’s character of Lord Shiva to his messenger.
The film is based on the subject of sex education. The plot centers around Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi), a devotee of Lord Shiva who owns a pooja shop near a temple. His life changes upside down when his son Vivek is admitted to the hospital for exhaustion caused by excessive masturbation and is expelled from school on the grounds of obscene and vulgar behavior after a video of him performing the act in the school toilet goes viral online.
At this point, Kanti Sharan Mudgal decides to relocate with his family, however, Akshay Kumar as a messenger of god steps in and the movie takes a dramatic turn with Kanti Sharan Mudgal dragging sex therapists, a doctor, a chemist, and saints to the court. Yami Gautam plays a lawyer in the film named Kamini Maheshwari. Actor Arun Govil known for his portrayal of Lord Rama in Ramanand Sagar’s iconic Ramayan television series has been cast in a negative role in the film.
The mainstream media is heaping praises on the film for ‘reducing the gap between Indian parents and the children’ and ‘normalising sex and sexual desires which are otherwise seen as a taboo in society’. The film mentions Indian scriptures including Kamasutra as well as the sculptures of Ajanta-Elora and Khajuraho to justify masturbation as normal behavior.
Some social media users have accused the makers of selectively choosing Hindu characters and Hindu themes for the movie because plot association with any other religion would have generated outrage.
Contrary to what most people believe, Rishi Vastyayan authored Kamasutra is more of a study of ancient Indian power dynamics, gender roles, and pleasure etiquette than a sex handbook. While the Rishi did note that sex education among adolescents is pertinent keeping in view that early marriages were prevalent in those times, however, in the modern era, the minimum age of marriage in India is 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
Inside the courtroom in the film, a woman is asked to tell how she and her husband consummated their marriage. A sister explains why her brother’s masturbating was appropriate. A Shiva devotee describes the attractiveness of his opposing counsel’s buttocks. ‘How a child is born’ is a point of debate in court. Young men and women in the crowd shout that they masturbate. The question here is whether the film intended to discuss sex education or simply exploit the subject because the West is doing so.
There is a prevalent misconception that Westernization is modernization, the film feeds into this misconception as the makers of OMG 2 use Hindu dharma to justify and defend nudity in the name of modernization.
OMG 2 does the balancing act by asserting that the Macaulay education system and the disappearance of Gurukuls caused great damage to Indian education.
While the first installation of OMG films had a scene where Paresh Rawal tells the court how milk was being ‘wasted’ at a Shiva Temple in the name of offering to the god, some fans of Akshay Kumar were seen pouring milk on the actor’s poster outside a theatre, of course out of love and affection for the actor.
Fans shows their love and craziness as Akshay Kumar starrer Omg 2 got released today.😎😎#OMG2 #OMG2InTheatres11Aug #OMG2Review #AkshayKumar #YamiGautam #PankajTripathi pic.twitter.com/zHTFiyrDey
— E24 (@E24bollynews) August 11, 2023
Vivek Agnihotri opposes ‘A’ certificate for OMG 2
The Kashmir Files fame filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri who is himself a member of the CBFC has said that the Board should not exist at all. He also opined that giving A certificate to the film is also not justified. Agnihotri went on to assert that CBFC is a vulnerable body that easily succumbs to pressure adding that CBFC’s action against OMG 2 came due to religious and social pressure.
The Mahakal Temple priests have served legal notices to film director Amit Rai, producers Vipul Shah and Chandraprakash Dwivedi, and actor Akshay Kumar. Additionally, they have also sent a legal notice to Censor Board Chairman Prasoon Kumar Joshi.
Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple priests send legal notice to makers of OMG-2
The priests of the Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple submitted a legal warning to the filmmakers of the controversial film ‘Oh My God-2,’ starring Akshay Kumar, on August 7. They allege that Lord Shiva was misrepresented and trivialized in the film. According to them, in one scene, Lord Shiva is seen purchasing Kachori from a shop, which offended Lord Shiva devotees.
Priests demand a ban on OMG 2
Several priests from Ujjain have spoken out against the film’s release. They opined that films based on gods should not contain obscene content and that the CBFC should not authorize the release of such films. They believe that stern action should be taken against the makers of such films.
‘I personally feel that films attacking Hindu gods should not be made,’ said Shrawan Trivedi, a priest at Birla Mandir told FPJ.
Sanjay Agarwal, a trustee and priest at Badwale Mahadev temple, stated that he vehemently opposes the film if it contains any references to God or disrespects Hinduism in any manner adding that films like OMG 2 misguide the younger generations about religion.
