''Oh My God!'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi language

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

written and directed by

Umesh Shukla Umesh Shukla is an Indian director who works in Bollywood films. He is best known for his work in the critically acclaimed comedy drama film '' Oh My God''. He made his directorial debut with UTV Motion Pictures' and Bindass' presentation '' Dh ...

and produced by

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures Viacom18 Studios (Also known as Paramount 18 Studios), a subsidiary of Viacom18 (a Paramount Networks EMEAA and Network18 joint venture) based in Mumbai, is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in I ...

, S Spice Studios, Grazing Goat Pictures and Playtime Creations. The storyline is based on the Gujarati stage-play ''Kanji Virudh Kanji'' which itself was inspired from the Australian film ''

The Man Who Sued God ''The Man Who Sued God'' is a 2001 Australian comedy film starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, and directed by Mark Joffe. The film was a financial success, debuting at number one at the Australian box office in the week of its launch. Pl ...

''. Producers of this movie purchased remake rights from Australian Producers. The film is originally written by co-writer Saumya Joshi, with Bhavesh Mandalia as an additional co-writer. The film stars

Akshay Kumar Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia (born 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian-born naturalised Canadian Quote: "(Former prime minister Stephen) Harper campaigned in 2011 alongside one of Modi's biggest celebrity backer ...

and

Paresh Rawal Paresh Rawal (born 30 May 1955) is an Indian actor, comedian, film producer and politician known for his works notably in Hindi films, and Telugu, and a few Gujarati and a few Tamil films. He has appeared in over 240 films and is the recipie ...

, along with

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, producer and politician who predominantly worked in Hindi and Bengali language films. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three ...

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada, English,Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starr ...

Govind Namdeo Govind Namdev (born 3 September 1954) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Namdev made his debut as a corrupt cop in David Dhawan's '' Shola Aur Shabnam'' (1992). He has acted in numerous movies, often as a villain. He is an alumnus o ...

, Poonam Jhawer,

Puja Gupta Puja Gupta (born 30 January 1987) is an Indian model and actress. She is a former Miss India Universe, a title she won in 2007. Life and career Gupta was born in New Delhi, India. Her modeling breakthrough came in 2007 when she won the title ...

and

Mahesh Manjrekar Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ maːɲd͡zɾekəɾ born 16 August 1958) is an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, alongside Marathi, Telugu and Bhojpuri films. He ...

in pivotal roles. Made on a budget of , the film released on 28 September 2012 was praised for its themes and for Rawal's and Kumar's performance. The film was remade in Telugu as '' Gopala Gopala'' in 2015 with

Venkatesh Venkatesh is a given name and family name from the Indian subcontinent derived from Venkateswara, a Hindu deity. Notable persons with the name include: * A. Venkatesh Naik (born 1936), member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India * A. Venkatesh (director) ...

Pawan Kalyan Pawan Kalyan (born Konidela Kalyan Babu; 2 September is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and politician. His films are predominantly in Telugu cinema. Kalyan is the younger brother of actor-ex.politician Chiranjeevi, and made his debut in the 1996 ...

and

Shriya Saran Shriya Saran Bhatnagar (; born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi-language films. Although Saran aspired to become a well-known dancer, she became an actress with her film debut in 2001 ...

. It was also remade in Kannada as '' Mukunda Murari'' in 2016 with Upendra and

Sudeep Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He ...

. A second instalment is in development with

Pankaj Tripathi Pankaj Tripathi (né Tiwari; born 5 September 1976) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and has also appeared in Telugu and Tamil language films. Tripathi has established himself as one of the notable actors of Hindi cinema. He is the ...

, and Yami Gautam.

Plot

Kanji Lalji Mehta, a middle-class Gujarati

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, owns a shop of Hindu idols and antiques in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

. He makes fun of religious activities around him and one such day, a low-intensity earthquake hits the city, and Kanji's shop is the only shop that is destroyed. His family and friends blame this on his atheism. At the insurance office, Kanji learns that the disaster claim does not cover any damage caused by natural calamities classified under "

Act of God In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in con ...

". Running out of options, he decides to sue God but fails to find a lawyer for such a lawsuit. Hanif Qureshi, a poor Muslim lawyer, helps him file the case after Kanji decides to fight on his own. Legal notices are sent to the insurance company as well as to religious priests, Siddheshwar Maharaj, Gopi Maiyya, and their group's founder, Leeladhar Swamy, summoning them to court as representatives of God. As the court case commences and gains traction for its bizarre quality, Kanji finds himself facing armed fundamentalists and harassment, with his mortgage bank occupying the house, and his wife and kids leaving him. He is rescued from all of this by Krishna Vasudev Yadav, who claims to be a real estate agent originally from

Gokul Gokul is a town in the Mathura district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located south-east of Mathura. According to Bhagavata Purana, Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is w ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, but appears to do fantastical acts not possible for a human. The lawsuit causes a public outcry. On Krishna's advice, Kanji goes to the media and gets wide coverage. Many people in a similar situation join him in the lawsuit, causing the amount of claims to skyrocket and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

priests and Muslim Mullahs to also be summoned as defendants. When the court demands written proof that the earthquake was an 'Act of God,' Krishna steers Kanji toward holy books like Bhagavad Gita, The Quran and

The Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. Kanji reads them and finds a passage in each that says the world and all that happen in it, from beginning to end, is a creation of God and comes from God's will alone. This strengthens his case and increases public support. However, Kanji suffers a stroke in court and is rushed to the hospital where he goes into a coma and is paralyzed. When he opens his eyes after a month, he finds Krishna, who reveals that he is God, and proves it by curing Kanji completely. He further reveals that He created the entire world, animals and humans but religion was created by humans, and he was the one who destroyed Kanji's shop because he sought to punish the godmen who showed his fear to the public, to earn money. He adds that he created the entire world and thus doesn't like to live in temples contrary to what the godmen claims and he is not interested in the offerings he gets from devotees. Instead, he created millions of humans who die of hunger and would be glad if those offerings were given to them instead. He figured out that an atheist like Kanji would end up exposing them if he destroys his Shop, and thus destroyed it by causing the disaster and started to help him with lawsuit by appearing as a human and befriending him and revealed himself in his true form so that Kanji realises that although he does exist, he doesn't live in temples, but in every creature he created. Kanji learns that the lawsuit's verdict was in his favour, and religious organizations were ordered by the court to pay the compensation to all the plaintiffs. As a result of this, people have begun revering Kanji himself as a god. Leeladhar, Gopi Maiyya, and Siddheshwar have taken advantage of this by opening a temple dedicated to Kanji, and accumulating millions in donations. Krishna explains to Kanji that his job as God is to show people right and wrong – people do with it what they will. Kanji decides to fight back. He breaks his own statue, admonishing the crowd about trusting in God-men. He advises them to search for God in themselves and in others, not in statues; that God is everywhere, not just in temples, and faith should come from within. He tells them not to believe in fraudulent godmen, as their job is to turn religion into business. Krishna looks on proudly as Kanji speaks, then vanishes when Kanji tries to reach him after. Kanji is reunited with his family and sees Krishna's key chain on the ground. When he is about to keep it, he hears Krishna's voice, telling him to get rid of the key chain as fear of God and reliance on religious objects was what he'd fought against all this time. Kanji smiles and throws it away, watching as it disappears in the sky with a flash.

Cast

as Krishna Vasudev Yadav *

as Kanji Lalji Mehta *

as Leeladhar Swamy *

as Siddheshwar Maharaj *Poonam Jhawer as Gopi Maiyya *

as Advocate Hanif Qureshi *

as Advocate Sardesai *

as Hanif's Daughter *Yousuf Hussain Khan as Judge *

Lubna Salim Lubna Salim (née: Siddiqui) is an Indian theatre and television actress. Early life and education She is the daughter of the popular script writer Javed Siddiqui. She studied at Mithibai College Mumbai, and pursued theatre at the inter-coll ...

as Susheela Mehta (Kanji's wife) *

Nidhi Subbaiah Nidhi Subbaiah (born 16 February 1987) is an Indian actress and model, who has appeared in various television advertisements and films, she is known for her performance in successful Kannada movies such as ''Pancharangi'' (2010) and ''Krishnan ...

as Shweta Tiwari (News Reporter) * Murli Sharma as Laxman Mishra *

Tisca Chopra Tisca Zareen Chopra (née Arora; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress, author and film producer who has appeared in over 45 feature films, predominantly in Hindi language. ''Taare Zameen Par'', her best known feature film, was India's off ...

as The interview host *Bhanu Prasad as The Pujari * Ishita Vyas Manju Vyas as The Sardesai's assistant *Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Mahadev *Bhakti Ratnaparkhi as Mahadev's Wife * Arun Bali as Accha Sadhu * Jaineeraj Rajpurohit as Dinesh Gandhi * Apoorva Arora as Jigna Mehta (Kanji's daughter) *Azaan Rustam Shah as Chintu Mehta (Kanji's son) * Honey Chhaya as Jagdishbhai *Manu Narula as Krishna *Gopal Pathak *Sunil Chauhan *

Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada language films. In a career spanning 32 years, he has performed and designed ...

in a special appearance in the song "Go Go Go Govinda" *

Sonakshi Sinha Sonakshi Sinha (; born 2 June 1987) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. After working as a costume designer in independent films, she made her acting with the action film '' Dabangg'' in 2010, which won her the Filmfare Award for B ...

in a special appearance in the song "Go Go Go Govinda"

Production

Producer

announced the film in 2012.

who appeared in the original play ''Kishen vs Kanhaiya'' was cast in the lead role with Akshay Kumar playing the role of Krishna in the movie.

played a supporting role in the film. The filming was reported to have begun in January 2012. Director

appeared in an

item number In Indian cinema, an item number or item song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films (Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, and ...

along with

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''OMG – Oh My God!'' was composed by

Himesh Reshammiya Himesh Reshammiya (born 23 July 1973) is an Indian playback singer, music director, songwriter, film & music producer and actor in Hindi cinema. He started his career as music director in the film '' Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya'' in 1998 and made ...

, Sachin–Jigar and Meet Bros Anjjan whilst the lyrics were penned by Shabbir Ahmed,

Kumaar Rakesh Kumar Pal, known mononymously as Kumaar, is an Indian lyricist active in Bollywood cinema. Some of his more successful songs include '' Rula ke gaya ishq, '' Tu bhi royega'', ''Dil ki aadat'', '' Baby Doll'','' Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan'', ...

Swanand Kirkire Swanand Kirkire (Marathi: स्वानंद किरकिरे) (born 29 April 1972) is an Indian lyricist, playback singer, writer, assistant director, actor and dialogue writer, both in television with Marathi and Hindi films. Kirkire w ...

and Subrat Sinha. The album features vocals by Reshammiya,

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awa ...

Kailash Kher Kailash Kher (born 7 July 1973) is an Indian music composer and singer. He sings songs with a music style influenced by Indian folk music and Sufi music. He was inspired by the classical musicians' Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Pandit Hridayna ...

Benny Dayal Benny Dayal (born 13 May 1984) is an Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi and more languages films. He has sung more than 3500 songs in 19+ Indian langu ...

Ash King Ashutosh Ganguly, better known by his stage name Ash King, is a British-Indian singer, songwriter and composer. He made his playback singing debut in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi-6. He is a relative of prominent Indian singer Kishore Kumar. ...

, Suraj Jagan, Keerthi Sagathia,

Zubeen Garg Zubeen Garg (born Zubeen Borthakur; 18 November 1972) is an Indian singer, music director, composer, lyricist, music producer, actor, film director, film producer, script writer and philanthropist. He primarily works for and sings in the Assam ...

, Meet Bros Anjjan, Arya Acharya, Mohammed Irfan, Aman Trikha and Parash Nath. The full audio album was launched on 12 September 2012 by T-Series.

Release

''OMG – Oh My God!'' released worldwide on 28 September 2012.

Critical reception

The film was critically well received.

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media. Career Taran Adarsh started his journalism career at the age of 15 with ''Trade Gui ...

of ''

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provide ...

'' gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that ''OMG – OH MY GOD!'' was a "thought-provoking adaptation of a massively successful play. A movie tackling a sensitive and an untouched subject matter, it will find its share of advocates and adversaries, but the social message the movie conveys comes across loud and clear and that's one of the prime reasons why OMG becomes a deserving watch". Sukanya Verma of ''

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 ...

'' rated it 4 out of 5 reviewing "A brave and absorbing blend of satire, fable and fantasy that brings our attention to the misuse and commercialisation of religion".

Faisal Saif Faisal Saif (27 April 1976 – 13 September 2022) was an Indian film director, film critic and writer. He began his film career as an assistant director on '' Aur Ek Prem Kahani'', ''Angaar'' and '' Grahan''. He mostly chose controversial horro ...

of ''Independent Bollywood'' rated it 4 out of 5 and said "Strongly Recommended. Fearless concept with some Fearless performances".

Box office

The film had a low opening but showed good growth on its 2nd and 3rd day and collected nett in its opening weekend. Despite a slow start, the film managed to gross collections of nett in its first week. The film collected in its second week. The film continued its successful run in its third week and make a total of around in three weeks. The film raked another in its fourth week to make a total of in four weeks. Overseas, ''OMG – Oh My God!'' grossed US$2.5 million in 10 days. At the end of 17 days, ''OMG – Oh My God!'' had grossed .

Awards

The movie was awarded the Best Hindi film award by Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS) during the second IRDS Hindi Film Awards for social concern. The film has won the award for

Best Adapted Screenplay This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

in 60th National Film Awards.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:OMG – Oh My God! 2012 films 2010s Hindi-language films Indian satirical films Films set in Mumbai Films about lawsuits against God Indian courtroom films 2010s fantasy comedy-drama films Hindi films remade in other languages Hinduism in pop culture-related controversies Indian fantasy comedy-drama films Indian religious comedy films Indian films based on plays Films scored by Amar Mohile Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay National Film Award Viacom18 Studios films Films directed by Umesh Shukla Films with atheism-related themes Films about Krishna Hinduism in popular culture Films about superstition