Thank God movie review: Siddharth Malhotra leads a lifeless afterlife comedy

The final time Siddharth Malhotra starred in a fantastical, whimsical film aimed toward studying the worth of affection and life, it didn’t precisely pan out too nicely. 6 years after the unlucky Baar Baar Dekho, he stars in Indra Kumar’s Thank God. Malhotra performs Ayan Kapoor. A number of years in the past, Ayan was minting cash as a prime actual property tycoon in Mumbai. However after demonetisation, his black money-led enterprise got here to a grinding halt leaving him in crushing debt (as a result of, in fact, on this film demonetisation was an excellent, nice, constructive much-wow determination that was solely and solely profitable at instructing grasping wealthy individuals a lesson). (Additionally learn: Maja Ma overview: Madhuri Dixit’s film is probably the most Ayushmann Khurrana film with out an Ayushmann Khurrana)

Ayan’s debt-ridden predicament has left him irritable, self-centered, and with anger points. That’s till he has a sudden automobile crash and wakes up in a realm between life and demise, the place he’s to be judged to find out whether or not he’s price saving. It’s a world run by CG, quick for Chitragupta (a suitably playful Ajay Devgn). CG examines every of Ayan’s weaknesses and faults (anger, selfishness, lust, and past), and creates a take a look at for every, to permit him to show he’s capable of overcome his weaknesses. It’s an intriguing idea – reimagining the afterlife as a sport present the place every soul is a contestant given the prospect to play the sport of life to show they need to reside. However the movie’s creativeness stops there.

Boring narrative apart (the movie is written by Aakash Kaushik and Madhur Sharma), Thank God is hampered by the boundaries of Siddharth Malhotra who simply is not capable of carry a film like this. Malhotra’s efficiency is an artificial, strictly surface-level train as he appears to be way more targeted on conjuring the appropriate facial features on the proper second moderately than inhabiting Ayan as a lived-in character. His stilted stoic-ness ensures that he simply is not capable of do justice to the movie’s animated tonality. Comedy actually is not in his arsenal (how Raj and DK did wonders with him of their underrated motion comedy gem A Gentleman, is a thriller). There is a enjoyable little meta second within the movie the place Ayan’s spouse Ruhi (an enthralling Rakul Preet Singh, regardless of a wafer-thin position) is meant to accuse Ayan of mendacity. She says one thing like “tumhari expression se toh nahin lagtha” – as if she was speaking to the actor, not the character. I laughed out loud.

Tonally, Thank God takes place in a slapstick world the place the blaring background rating and squeaky sound results are required to do a lot of the dramatic and comedic heavy lifting, respectively. However low-hanging fruit as they might be, I did get pleasure from among the gags. Like when Ayan mistakenly tells a younger boy that he’s adopted, or later when he’s caught in a elevate with a really annoying man who’s barking down the telephone to his spouse. However maybe my favorite comedic second is a stunning little satirical sequence through which CG begins throwing oil and flowers at Ayan and forcing ladoos down his throat. It’s to show him a lesson about going to a temple every week and paying 1000’s of rupees for empty, transactional choices to God moderately than utilizing that cash to assist the poor or do some precise good. However apart from stray gags that land heading in the right direction, the movie’s humour falls flat.

Equally, the world-building and guidelines of the afterlife are convoluted and CG’s complete system of judgment doesn’t appear to make any sense. For every shortcoming CG creates a hypothetical state of affairs for Ayan to show he might be higher. However a few of these appear to be hypothetical and others, like one involving his sister, appear to happen in the actual world (?). The one that actually bought me was Ayan’s lust being examined by having him meet and be seduced by Nora Fatehi (right here enjoying herself). Regardless of virtually dishonest a number of occasions, Ayan musters all his willpower and manages to not be untrue for which he’s later celebrated as a hero. The bar is so low with males. So low.

The movie additionally appears to behave like all of Ayan’s flaws are new and never one thing he’s all the time had. Are we to imagine his anger points haven’t impacted his marriage? And whereas we’re at it, can somebody please clarify to me what on earth Rakul Preet Singh’s Ruhi (the textbook excellent, selfless spouse) sees in a whiny unbearable man-child like Ayan? To make issues simpler to digest, after a degree I began seeing Ayan’s character as a stand-in for each Hindi film hero. There was one thing immensely satisfying about watching the standard romantic hero being placed on the stand for simply how entitled, obnoxious and self-obsessed they are typically.

I appreciated most of the concepts on the middle of Thank God – a name for self-reflection, a battle cry for change and the idea of our good and dangerous deeds coming again to hang-out us as life comes full circle. However these are concepts constructed right into a journey of transformation that is delivered to life by an actor who doesn’t appear to really feel any of this himself, not to mention make us really feel a lot of something in any respect. In direction of the movie’s finish, as CG was itemizing out a brand new weak spot with every spherical of the sport (1st weak spot: anger, 2nd weak spot: greed, third weak spot: jealousy and many others), I couldn’t assist however prolong the checklist in my head. Sixth weak spot: performances, seventh weak spot: writing, eighth weak spot: hit or miss humour (I might actually go on). Whereas the movie is watchable sufficient as simplistic mainstream comedies go, at a time when there’s by no means been extra strain on Hindi cinema to supply up a considerable theatrical expertise, Thank God is forgettable storytelling of the primary order.