Thank God

Story: Ayaan is a hard-on-luck but self-centred and egoistic real estate guy who meets with a car accident and reaches Heaven. He encounters Chitragupt there and needs to play the ‘Game of Life’ that will decide whether he goes back to Earth or Hell, depending on his deeds. Will he win the game and be united with his wife and daughter?

Review: The movie quickly establishes Ayaan Kapoor (Sidharth Malhotra) as a successful but amoral real estate agent who has a huge debt and needs to sell his bungalow to repay it. As he struggles to crack a deal, he often takes out his stress on his cop wife, Ruhi Kapoor (Rakul Preet Singh). On his daughter’s birthday, as he’s rushing to meet a prospective client, Ayaan meets with a car accident and gains consciousness in Heaven, where his deeds will be judged. By this point, one can already predict the course of the judgement as one is already familiar with Ayaan’s character. Written by Aakash Kaushik and Madhur Sharma, the simplistic story leaves little to the imagination, and the audience can foretell how things will go. Most events that the judgement will be based on are predictable, and things are made too convenient for the protagonist, Ayaan.

Director Indra Kumar sets out to deliver an entertainer with a message about karma and stays the course without making the narrative too heavy or dark. Chitragupt or CG (Ajay Devgn), YD or Yamdoot (Mahesh Balraj) and apsaras are given modern avatars to make viewing more palatable and relatable. There are references to Devgn’s superhit franchise Singham and a nod to Kaun Banega Crorepati. The premise is mostly dialogue-driven but adding flashbacks, encounters with YD and apsaras, and ‘lifelines’ breaks the monotony. The makers could have paid more attention to the CGI, which appears gimmicky in most parts.

Although Ajay Devgn plays his part as the stern yet regardful deity well, the role is too simplistic for a powerful performer like him. Sidharth performs earnestly as the self-absorbed and unprincipled man, but things would have been more interesting if his character had more depth to make the judgement more gripping. Rakul, as his supportive and more talented wife, is decent. Senior actors Kanwaljeet Singh and Seema Pahwa have cameo appearances as Ayaan’s parents but display their acting chops.

The story is stuck in the 90s and oversimplified but the movie makes for an easy watch. It might find favour with audiences who want a clean entertainer, as the film has a message or two about moving on about tribulations, being humane and the importance of one’s family.