Thank God REVIEW: Ajay Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra offer a decent movie but still need Godly powers to uplift it

Film: Thank God

Director: Indra Kumar

Star cast: Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra, Rakul Preet Singh

Bollywood Bubble ratings: 3/5 stars

Watch or not: Sure, it’s a mediocre film that will give you a bad effect after watching it.

Thank God Movie REVIEW: 

My mother is an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu and she reads Bhagavad Geeta every day without fail. I often see the pictures in the book and some of them really fascinate me. For instance, the role of Chitragupt. For the unversed, he is a Hindu deity who is assigned the task of keeping complete records of the actions of human beings and punishing or rewarding them according to their karma. Upon their death, Chitragupta decides whether humans go to Svarga or Naraka (heaven or hell), depending on their actions on earth. The mythological stories always amuse me and to see a modern touch to them gives a different feeling altogether. Speaking of which, Thank God is a movie that shows Chitragupt’s purgatory and how he runs the ‘Game of Life’ but with a modern touch.

Talking the movie, Thank God is inspired by the 2009 Norwegian film called Sorte Kugler which is basically about a greedy obnoxious man who finds himself playing a ‘Game of Life’ after he met with an accident. As he plays the game with a deity who is an account keeper of Karmas, he is been told that if he wins, he can live his life again and if he loses, then he will be sent to hell. I really liked the concept of Chitragupt in today’s world as people can easily relate to the film.

Won’t it be wonderful if God gives you a second chance to live after making you realise your perception? Well, these things only happen in the movies and not in real life, hence, Thank God tries to tell us that we really need to choose our options wisely before regretting them for the rest of our lives or in this case, the afterlife. The movie has several flaws especially when it started to make me feel a lot more dramatic. The climax of the film seems a bit too dragged.

But if you wonder why Chitragupt is in a sexy tuxedo and has a waxed hairdo, well, Indra Kumar gives an explanation behind these sartorial choices because it’s the age of Amazon Prime, not Doordarshan which was quite funny.

Story:

A man, full of all sins and confusion reaches “Yamlok” after meeting with an accident. Upon reaching, he meets CG aka Chitragupt who plays a game of life with him, to make him realise the deeds that he did on Earth. His encounter with CG makes him realise certain things but will he act upon his bad deeds? Will he change himself?

Star performances:

Ajay Devgn as CG aka Chitragupt is simply fantastic. His job is to give punishments and rewards to humans according to their karma, basically, a judge who will give a verdict to the person if they can live a free life or inside a four wall. Ajay as the modern CG looks really handsome. Right from his stance, his heavy voice to his intense gaze, Ajay’s presence as Chitragupt will make you believe that this is how a Chitragupt would look like in reality, of course, minus the sexy tuxedo and neatly trimmed beard. Ajay steals all the limelight and seems like the only saving grace in the movie.

 

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Sidharth Malhotra plays the role of Ayaan Kapoor who is a bankrupt real estate agent and is in Chitragupt purgatory as guilty. He is someone who has a lot of flaws and is often seen choosing the wrong path for himself. He is a greedy man full of jealousy, pride, lust and more. After he visits Chitragupt’s purgatory, he realises what wrong he has done in life. After the mega success of Shershaah, Sidharth Malhotra tries his hand at a light comedy film where he does a decent job. Sidharth still needs a lot of work in the comedy department as it looks a little forced and tries too hard. Overall, he delivers a decent performance as per the plot.

 

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Rakul Preet Singh plays the role of a cop Ruhi Kapoor, wife of Ayaan Kapoor. Rakul is barely there in the movie, I guess it was her extended cameo role. She does nothing substantial but delivers a good job with the limited screen time. The chemistry between Rakul and Sidharth was a dud.

 

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Direction/Screenplay:

After directing Total Dhamaal, Director Indra Kumar once again donned the director’s hat with Thank God. Just like his previous films, Thank God is also quite loud. Since it is inspired by a Norwegian film and I have not watched the movie, it would be a little difficult for me to actually draw comparisons between the two. Nevertheless, Indra tries to offer a smooth adaptation (as per the plot of the film) but he adds the celestial bit to it. It would have been a good watch if he had added more humour instead of adding more ‘balls’ of drama. Whatever humour you have seen in the trailer, that was it in the entire movie.

Conclusion: 

If asked to do Thank God review in one word then I would say it is a fun and decent movie that might make you think differently about certain scenarios and situations. Ajay Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra’s banter is quite entertaining. Though certain scenes will make you feel bored and you will zone out, they are evitable. I’m going to 3 stars as I liked the modern take of Yamdut and Chitragupt’s story and the banter between Ajay and Sidharth.

Watch the Thank God trailer after the review:

 

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Also read: Code Name Tiranga Review: Parineeti Chopra, Harrdy Sandhu starrer is far from being a patriotic film