By Subhash K Jha
Thank God
Directed by Indra Kumar
Rating: *
Thank God is a mystery thriller masquerading as a comedy. The mystery of why two actors like Ajay Devgn and Siddharth Malhotra would do something so outdated, fetid and stale haunts the film to the very end.
Indra Kumar’s Ishq brand of comedy has little chance of working in today’s day and age when audiences are exposed to first-rate comic talent from all over the world. Does the team behind this film really expect audiences to rush to the theatre to see Devgn as a game-show host in Heaven who asks semi-dead Malhotra the silliest of questions. If he answers correctly white balls go into a big basket; if he answers wrongly, it’s black balls.
This film gets baskets of black balls,plus a shoutdown for ridiculing death and religion, in that order. The cast is clearly on the warpath.Everyone is told to overact to the optimum even the skilled Seema Pahwa whom I’ve never seen ham so much. Only Devgn seem to have disobeyed Indra Kumar’s ham-till-you-drop diktat.
Indra Kumar’s concept of Heaven includes two skimpily clad apsaras wearing shorts and cleavage-revealing teeshirts.They are as wooden as the jokes and punchlines.
The gameshow contestant is given a chance to rectify his mistakes during his lifetime.I do hope Indra Kumar gets a chance to rectify this mistake.Thank God is a bummer with no redeeming quality except our exit from the theatre as fast as possible, hoping to never see anything so tired and retired ever again.
Forgive them, Oh Lord, they know not what they do.
