Child might be the father of man but the Indian father is often a manchild. Raised under the patriarchal system which limits men to their hunter-gatherer history, the Indian dad provides for his family more out of a sense of duty than love. This man, whose idea of strength is curbing emotional release, lives his middle-age as a disciplinarian, commanding his family, his tribe, with an iron hand. But when the kids grow up and the wife discovers her calling, the dad, now retired, witnesses his grip loosening over the family. Then comes the annoyance, the mean comments, the thumping around the house like a wrecking ball.
Writer and director: Harish Vyas
Cast: Raghubir Yadav, Anshuman Jha, Soni Razdan, and Jagat Rawat
Raghubir Yadav’s Hari Prasad in Om Ka Hari is one such father. He loudly criticises his son Om (Anshuman Jha) for anything he does, never uttering a word of encouragement or appreciation. In the family there is also Hari’s wife (played by Soni Razdan) and daughter (Samta Sudiksha). After a heart-attack scare (which was actually just a gastric problem), Hari puts a garland around his photo, convinced that he will die in six days. He wants to spend his last days in Varanasi. The family somehow gives into his whims and Om is sent to chaperone him.
“After a death scare, an old, difficult man, convinced he is going to die soon, spends six days in Varanasi with his estranged son,” Om Ka Hari seems intriguing as a logline but the treatment is extremely derivative. With an animatedly ever-complaining father, a “modern” son, a pacifying mother, and a house that tells this story in Vijay Raaz’s voiceover, this could very well be an Ayushmann Khurrana middle-India comedy. The film also bides away its time before getting on the central conflict. We are piled on with subplots of Om opening his own salon, his love story and unnecessary song sequences. The bickering between Raghubir’s Hari and Anshuman’s Om is the only saving factor in the beginning but that also becomes dreary as the movie progresses.
Om Ka Hari is extremely surface level. Once the father-son duo reach Varanasi, the things they learn about each other and about life are something the viewer has seen enough of across multiple films. A cliched character of a seemingly greedy pandit at the banks of the Ganga makes an appearance. The conversations with him make Om and Hari learn a thing or two about life. Everything is rather easily resolved. The drama often feels orchestrated, plastic and play-like. Raghubir Yadav tries to fill up the gaps with his expansive acting but soon starts burdening the film. Anshuman is serviceable at best. Om Ka Hari wishes to tell a sweet story but its ideas are borrowed. The father-son dynamic has been explored since biblical times, it’s time we update the lens.