OMG – Oh My God!

Oh My God! is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written and directed by Umesh Shukla and produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, 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 by the Australian film The Man Who Sued God.

The film stars Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, and Mithun Chakraborty, along with Om Puri, Govind Namdeo, Poonam Jhawer, Puja Gupta, and Mahesh Manjrekar in pivotal roles.

Made on a budget of inr 200000000, the film released on 28 September 2012 and received positive reviews from critics.

It was remade in Telugu as Gopala Gopala (2015) with Venkatesh, Pawan Kalyan, and Shriya Saran. It was also remade in Kannada as Mukunda Murari (2016) with Upendra and Sudeep.

A stand-alone sequel, OMG 2, with Akshay Kumar starring as Lord Shiva's messenger, along with Pankaj Tripathi and Yami Gautam in other lead roles, was theatrically released on 11 August 2023.

Plot
Kanji Lalji Mehta, a middle-class Gujarati atheist, owns a shop of Hindu idols and antiques in Mumbai. He mocks religious activities around him until one day, a low-intensity earthquake hits the city, with Kanji's shop being the only one 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". Running out of options, he decides to sue God but fails to find a lawyer for such a lawsuit. Hanif Qureshi, a working class 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 people like Siddheshwar Maharaj, Gopi Maiyya, and their group's founder, Leeladhar Swamy, forcing them to court as representatives of God.

As the court case commences and gains attraction for its bizarre quality, Kanji finds himself facing armed fundamentalists and harassment, with his mortgage provider occupying the house, and his family leaving him. He is then rescued by Krishna Vasudev Yadav who claims to be a real estate agent originally from Gokul, Uttar Pradesh, yet is also responsible for supernatural acts outside of the human realm.

The lawsuit causes a public outcry. On Krishna's advice, Kanji goes to the media and gets wide coverage. Sympathisers join him in the lawsuit, causing the amount of claims to skyrocket and Catholic fathers and Muslim Maulvis to also be forced as defendants. When the court demands written proof that the earthquake was an 'Act of God,' Krishna steers Kanji toward holy books such as the Bhagavad Gita, The Holy Quran and Bible. Kanji reads them and finds a passage in each that says the world and all events are a creation of God and come 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 does not 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 does not 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.

After successfully completing the job, he goes back to thank Krishna, only to find that he along with his motorcycle has disappeared. Kanji’s family arrives and they get reunited. Kanji sees Krishna's keychain on the ground. When he is about to keep it, he hears Krishna's voice, telling him to get rid of the keychain as fear of God and reliance on religious objects was what he'd fought against. Kanji smiles and throws it away, watching as it disappears into the sky with a flash.

Cast

 * Paresh Rawal as Kanji Lalji Mehta
 * Akshay Kumar as Krishna Vasudev Yadav
 * Mithun Chakraborty as Leeladhar Swamy
 * Om Puri as Advocate Hanif Qureshi
 * Mahesh Manjrekar as Advocate Sardesai
 * Govind Namdev as Siddheshwar Maharaj
 * Murali Sharma as Laxman Mishra
 * Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Mahadev; Kanji's employee
 * Lubna Salim as Susheela Mehta (Kanji's wife)
 * Poonam Jhawer as Gopi Maiyya
 * Yousuf Hussain Khan as Judge
 * Jaineeraj Rajpurohit as Dinesh Gandhi, Chief Regional Manager of Saral Jeevan Insurance Company
 * Nidhi Subbaiah as Shweta Tiwari (news reporter)
 * Apoorva Arora as Jigna Mehta (Kanji and Susheela's daughter)
 * Azaan Rustam Shah as Chintu Mehta (Kanji and Susheela's son)
 * Honey Chhaya as Jagdeesh
 * Krunal Pandit as Praveen
 * Bhakti Ratnaparkhi as Mangala (Mahadev's wife)
 * Arun Bali as a sage
 * Pradeep Vengurlekar as Pujari
 * Kukul Taramaster as Mishra's right-hand man
 * Nilesh Pandya as the Bhajan singer
 * Pravin Naik as Besaniya
 * Puja Gupta as Hanif's daughter
 * Suneel Chauhan as Aslam
 * Shashi Omprakash Sati as Aslam's sister
 * Manju Vyas as Sardesai's assistant
 * Tisca Chopra as the interview host
 * Prabhu Deva in a special appearance in the song "Go Go Go Govinda"
 * Sonakshi Sinha in a special appearance in the song "Go Go Go Govinda"

Production
Producer Akshay Kumar announced the film in 2012. Paresh Rawal 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. Mithun Chakraborty played a supporting role in the film. The filming was reported to have begun in January 2012. Director Prabhu Deva appeared in an item number along with Sonakshi Sinha.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of OMG – Oh My God! was composed by Himesh Reshammiya, Sachin–Jigar and Meet Bros Anjjan whilst the lyrics were penned by Shabbir Ahmed, Kumaar, Swanand Kirkire and Subrat Sinha. The album features vocals by Reshammiya, Shreya Ghoshal, Kailash Kher, Benny Dayal, Ash King, Suraj Jagan, Keerthi Sagathia, Zubeen Garg, 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. The song, 'Go Go Go Govinda' is based on the song 'Govinda Aala Re Aala' from Bluff Master (1963), sung by Mohammed Rafi.

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

Critical reception
OMG received positive critical reviews.

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama 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 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 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 inr 30000000 nett in its opening weekend. Despite a slow start, the film managed to gross collections of inr 357400000 nett in its first week. The film collected inr 220000000 in its second week. The film continued its successful run in its third week and make a total of around inr 725000000 in three weeks. The film raked another inr 62400000 in its fourth week to make a total of inr 782400000 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 inr 104500000.

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 in 60th National Film Awards.