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T-Series Films, Maruti International, Soham Rockstar Entertainment, Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Azure Entertainment’s Thank God (UA) is a comedy with a message.
Ayaan Kapoor (Sidharth Malhotra) lives with his wife, Ruhi (Rakul Preet Singh), and little daughter, Pihu (Kiara Khanna). He is selfish and quite uncaring. One day, he meets with a car accident. Even as he is oscillating between life and death, he meets CD (Ajay Devgan) who interviews him to make him realise his mistakes and blunders. CD interviews Ayaan as if they are part of a game show, complete with judges etc. Ayaan could die if he loses the game. CD gives him a few life lines also. What happens ultimately? Does Ayaan die or does he remain alive?
Aakash Kaushik and Madhur Sharma have written the script which is inspired by Norwegian film, Sorte Kugler. The story is quite fresh but their screenplay is not half as good and funny as it should’ve been. The episodes in the drama rarely, if ever, evoke loud laughter. Yes, some scenes will be found entertaining but not universally. Since the game show format is continued all through the film, it does get repetitive and even boring after some time. The biggest minus point, of course, is that the viewers do not find the proceedings hilarious, which is what they should’ve been. The drama takes a serious turn in the second half. That portion is slightly emotional too. But the emotions do not make up for the dullness of the screenplay in the first half. Another drawback is that the character of Ayaan is established with each passing episode of the game show rather than the writers establishing his character before the game show begins. The duo’s dialogues are neither hilarious in the comic scenes nor heart-wrenching in the emotional ones.
Ajay Devgan does well as CD. However, his character is uni-dimensional and, therefore, there isn’t much variation in his performance too. Sidharth Malhotra looks handsome and acts quite well as Ayaan Kapoor. But his comedy is not outstanding. Rakul Preet Singh does a fair job as Ruhi Kapoor. Seema Pahwa lends nice support as Ayaan’s mother. Kanwaljit Singh leaves a fine mark as Ayaan’s father. Urmila Kanetkar has her moments as Ayaan’s sister. Pratik Dixit (as Ayaan’s brother-in-law), Kiara Khanna (as Pihu), Mahesh Balraj (as Yamdoot), Kiku Sharda (as the man talking on the cellphone, in the elevator), Gyanendra Tripathi (as the bank robber), Vikram Kochar (as the police inspector in the bank), Saanand Verma (as the doctor operating on Ayaan), Prachi Thakur (as the younger version of Ayaan’s sister), Anjali Schmuck and Rushali Yadav (as the two Apsaras), Sunita Shirole (as the beggar), Sumeet Gulati and Soundarya Sharma (as the first prospective buyer-couple of Ayaan’s bungalow), Sandeep Kumar and Rupali Yadav (as the second prospective buyer-couple of Ayaan’s bungalow), Vidhan Sharma (as the second buyer-couple’s child), Sanjeev Kumar (as the car owner), Heera Sohail (as Ayaan’s secretary), Sanjay Gurbaxani (as the senior doctor), Reyaansh Jaisinghani and Avtar N. Vaishnani (both as young Ayaan) and the others lend good support.
Indra Kumar’s direction is fairly nice. While he has handled the emotional part of the drama with maturity, he has not been able to evoke much laughter in the comic scenes. Of the songs, the refurbished version of the Sri Lankan ‘Manike mage hithe’ song (composed by Tanishk Bagchi and Chamath Sangeeth) is the best. The other songs (Rochak Kohli) are so-so. The old hit ‘Dil de diya hai’ song (Anand Raaj Anand) has been intelligently used. Lyrics (Manoj Muntashir, Rashmi Virag, Sameer, Dulan ARX and Mellow D) are okay. The picturisation of the Sri Lankan song’s version (by Ganesh Hegde) on Nora Fatehi is quite nice. Other song picturisations (Tushar Kalia and Dilip Mestry) are so-so. Amar Mohile’s background music is fair. Aseem Bajaj’s camerawork is nice. Action and stunt scenes (by R.P. Yadav) are average. Bhavik M. Dalwadi’s production designing is alright. Dharmendra Sharma’s editing should’ve been crisper.
On the whole, Thank God has comedy but it is not hilarious. It will, therefore, not find too many takers. Diwali period will, of course, help.
Released on 25-10-’22 at Inox (daily 8 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: good. Opening: so-so. …….Also released all over. Considering that it is Diwali, opening was dull at several places and fair at others. It was good only at a few places.