Thank God, featuring Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh, makes the audience laugh thanks to a bunch of good actors doing crazy things to amuse you.
Whether it’s a thriller, comedy or romance, Bollywood has drawn inspiration from Hollywood and other language films on numerous occasions. Sometimes, they remake a film and just make a Hindi version, and in other instances they have altered the story to incorporate issues which are more relevant to the Indian audience.
Filmmaker Indra Kumar’s Thank God featuring Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh – inspired by the 2009 Norwegian film called Sorte Kugler – falls somewhere in between, where some part is lifted straight from the original while the rest has been altered.
Welcome to the world of Indra Kumar. This is our desi, lowbrow comedy, not to be taken seriously. Frankly, the premise is very simple. It revolves around an egoistic debt-ridden real estate broker (played by Sidharth Malhotra) who has a wife (Rakul Preet Singh) and a daughter. He lands in Yam Loka after meeting with an accident. As he gains consciousness, CG (Ajay Devgn) appears in front of him and informs him that he will have to play a “Game Of Life”. If he manages to win, he will be sent back to earth and if he loses, he will be sent to hell.
Once you adjust to that, you will find yourself laughing at a lot of stupid gags that keep flowing out of the Indra Kumar factory. Never one to have claimed that he is peddling anything but stupidity, the filmmaker, who has constantly made mainstream cinema, continues to keep churning out potboilers. No attention is paid to the screenplay and the dialogue is pedestrian; the WhatsApp sort of forwards, which rarely managed to brings a smile on your face. But in all fairness, some of the jokes do have you laughing out loud. It’s the kind of reaction that comes involuntarily when you watch a bunch of good actors doing crazy things just to keep you amused. The film is a mishmash of garish sets, mindless action and screeching actors.