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He’s boorish, self-centered and supremely irascible. Grumbling all the time after (and before) retiring from his job, Hari Prasad Sharma (Raghubir Yadav) is a quintessential old-fashioned and uber-traditional middle-class patriarch, who thinks he does and thinks everything right.
He’s especially antagonistic towards his son, Om (Anshuman Jha), who is in his late twenties, and does not toe his line. Om wants to do something on his own, and upgrade their living standards, but Hari thinks that he is a worthless freeloader. Hari’s long-suffering wife of 35 years, Saroj (Soni Razdan), quietly bears all his tantrums and bossing around, but daughter Guddi (Samta Sudiksha) is spared the worst and bears only an occasional brunt of his moods. His elder daughter, Vandana (Shivani Tanksale) is married and Hari assumes she is happy with the match he has arranged for her, unaware that she wanted to marry another boy.
A defiant Om wants to start a salon with his girlfriend, Priya (Ayesha Kapur). Hari steadfastly refuses to visit the place, as he had a job as well as a girl in mind for Om. Soon, Om and Priya get married.
Hari occasionally performs bhajans and is termed a kind of local ‘Anup Jalota’. At a particular concert, he collapses and is taken to hospital as he is believed to have had a heart attack. After he is out of hospital, he decides that he will die in six days and wants to end his days in the holy town of Benares where his ancestors passed on. Stubborn to the hilt, he refutes his family’s assertions that he is well, that all he had suffered from was gastric derangement, and makes his son take him there. What happens after that is what the feel-good family drama is about.
The good thing about such heartwarming family dramas is that we know that we will not be watching anything negative. The bad aspect for critics and detractors who do not like simple tales that are simply told is that they do not find anything remotely ‘new’ or ‘innovative’ in the story. Yes, we know that Hari will realize that what he has done all along is outdated, regressive and wrong, but the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of it will not be pathbreaking.
Yes, there will be some novel touches and characters, but the script (Harish Vyas with Swati) largely focuses on mixing the seriousness of Hari’s basically decent yet flawed character and his long-suffering but affectionate family with loads of humor and emotions.
The script subtly points out to how parents mislead themselves into believing that whatever they are doing is for their children’s benefit, and yet they have only their best interests at heart. But the bottom-line is that one must adapt to and change with the times and listen to the new generation as well.
Raghubir Yadav is magnificent as Hari, the man who refuses to see reason until a fraud astrologer in Benares, Atmaram (Jagat Rawat) gently, and son Om, not- so-gently but very frankly, make him realize the error of his authoritarian ways. Yadav himself sings the two Kabir bhajans soulfully and seems to have got into the very core of Hari, and due to his moods, accounts for most of the humor here.
Anhsuman Jha as Om acts very well in a tough role—balancing his love for his father with his own ambitions and steadfastly refusing to cow down before him. Soni Razdan, amusingly looking like real-life daughter Alia Bhatt might look 30 years down (!) in most scenes, plays the harrowed mother to perfection. Jagat Rawat is a natural scene-stealer with his penetrating voice and gentle tones. Ayesha Kapur as Priya is alright. Samta Sudiksha as Guddi is endearing, while Shivani Tanksale is effective as Vandana.
The music is decent, with Paresh Pahuja’s Sapna standing out and the Asha Bhosle number Ae meri zindagi (also sung by Amit Kumar during the end-credits) having an old-world charm. Achal Yadav’s composition of Sant Kabir’s Ram rakhe sung by Yadav is also excellent.
Harish Vyas’ script and direction remain the high points of this charmingly relatable movie, and additional assets include Santanu Chatterjee’s perfect production design, Joel Castro’s background score, Raakesh Rawat’s eye-catching camerawork and Aasif Pathan’s editing that ensures that there is no dull moment.
Rating: ***1/2
First Ray Films’ Om Ka Hari Produced by: First Ray Films Directed by: Harish Vyas Written by: Harish Vyas & Swati Music: Rajieve Sarang, Paresh Pahuja & Achal Yadav Starring: Raghubir Yadav, Anshuman Jha, Soni Razdan, Ayesha Kapur, Shivani Tanksale, Smita Sudiksha, Jagat Rawat, Pooja Malviya & others
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