Thank God Movie Review: Ajay Devgn-Sidharth Malhotra's Film Suspends Between Dull And Exciting

Story

Ayaan Kapoor (Sidharth Malhotra), a self-centric real-estate broker finds himself in crushing debt after demonetization brings his black money-led business to halt. Desperate to sell off his huge mansion to pay off his arrears, he finds himself battling anger issues and irritability and ends up neglecting his family life.

Until one fine day, he has a sudden car crash and wakes up in a realm between life and death where he is introduced to CG aka Chitragupt (Ajay Devgn). He finds himself surrounded by an arena of silent spectators in this modernized-mythological universe.

Left with no other choice, Ayaan is forced to participate in a game of life and death where CG examines each of his weaknesses (anger, selfishness, lust etc) to decide whether he is worthy to live or deserves to rot in hell.

Direction

Inspired by Danish social comedy Sorte Kugle, writers Aakash Kaushik and Madhur Sharma pen a story that centres on the concept of afterlife and self reflection. Known for slapstick comedies like Masti, Dhamaal, to name a few, director Indra Kumar offers a simple family entertainer with morality as its core theme.

While this time, the filmmaker relies more on situational humour, one cannot turn a blind eye to the streaks of melodrama that seeps in the narrative post interval to take away some fun from the plot. The screenplay is jarring at a few places. With a predictable storyline and a handful of funny and emotional moments, Ajay Devgn-Sidharth Malhotra's Thank God passes off as an average entertainer.

Performances

Fresh off from the success of his last outing Shershaah, Sidharth Malhotra tip-toes on the fine rope to deliver a fairly enjoyable performance. We won't mind the actor dabbling a little more in this genre!

Ajay Devgn with his trademark smirk and 'Singham' reference seems to be enjoying not taking himself too seriously and that actually works in favour of the film. Rakul Preet Singh suffers from some lazy writing and her cop act barely has any fire. The wonderful Seema Pahwa doesn't get enough material to showcase her impeccable acting chops. Urmilla Kothare as Ayaan's sister does a decent job.

Technical Aspects

The production value of Thank God is passable. Aseem Bajaj's camerawork doesn't give you any reasons to crib. Dharmendra Sharma should have sharpened his editing scissors as the film looks stretched at couple of places.

Music

Barring to the viral 'Manike' (a huge credit goes to Nora Fatehi's sultry dance moves) and the reworked version of 'Dil De Diya Hai,' none of the songs from Thank God are loopworthy.

Verdict

There's a dialogue in Thank God which goes like, "Jab ek joke pe baar baar hans nahi sakte toh ek gham pe baar baar rote kyun ho mere dost." If only Indra Kumar & Co. had realised that it's the cup of flaws which overflows in Thank God despite some moral lessons and laughs.