Teahank god Giving a story on morality, attempts to revisit the ‘accounting systems’ of the Hindu deity Chitragupta on the deeds and misdeeds of a man. The film is an official remake of the Norwegian film sort kugler, also marks the return of the film Fun And dhamaal Fame Indra Kumar in Bollywood after six years.
Ayaan (Siddharth Malhotra) is a greedy real estate broker whose business is affected by demonetisation. Forced to sell his mansion, he tries everything until a car accident takes him to Chitragupta aka CG’s (Ajay Devgan) game show. In the game show that inspired KBC, Ayan will have to give an account of his life’s misdeeds.
Heaven’s version of the movie seems to be inspired by Hunger Games’ Capitals with Ajay Devgn in a dapper suit. As Devgn’s character in the film says, this is not the era of Doordarshan but of Amazon Prime. There are celestial nymphs dressed as cheerleaders and eunuchs or wids in a crisp white shirt and black pants.
siddharth, ajay show
Sidharth Malhotra is comfortable and does justice to a character who is caught with his pants down and will do anything to win.
His character, Ayaan, is a toxic man, even jealous of his wife’s success. He tries to manipulate the Lord by offering him Rs 1,000. He feels like every other trader/broker in Delhi whose motto is to make profit and chant God’s name to cover his fraud. Sidharth seems completely comfortable playing the role of Mahapaap who gets angry and irritated at the drop of a hat. Actually, he makes his hideous character likeable.
Ajay Devgn delivers a solid performance and flaunts the hat of a game show host. Rakul Preet Singh is mostly doomed to be Ayaan’s police-officer wife. Seema Pahwa also has very few scenes that make a lasting impression.
Rakul-Siddharth’s chemistry is amazing. In fact, Sidharth’s pairing with Nora Fatehi in a song, or even his chemistry with Ajay for that matter seems more convincing.
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wasted opportunity
While the game show format is definitely a winner, the speeches on morality and how to be a good person aren’t interesting enough. It seems out of date, as do ‘abuse’. In an age of gray areas and dark lies, it almost seems like a clean approach that makes up for good and bad.
There are few really funny moments, and after the initial laugh, the film starts to feel the vibe.
In many scenes, the film looks like a cross between a 90s Bollywood film and the morning sermon that Aastha Channel was famous for in better clothing and settings. The game show itself is by no means thrilling or cutting edge. There are no funny jokes beyond the obvious, almost WhatsApp jokes.
The section on respecting women in particular seems out of date, using the trope to ‘respect women because they are one’s mother or sister’. Even while teaching Ayaan to respect his mother, it falls back on the trope of mothers pursuing their unpaid labour.
The film ruins the premise that could have been put to better use with original ideas or quirky twists and better comedy. Unfortunately, that never happens and the film ends up being just a ‘clean’ family drama.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)