Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
It’s not every day that comes a Hindi film where one sees dogs; it’s even rarer to see them upstage humans so effortlessly. What makes Amit Rai’s feature Ohh My Dog all the more special is that he has opted to shine a light on the local ‘indies’ rather than pedigreed breeds.
This lends the film a certain rootedness, a sense of relatability and authenticity. One of the dogs happens to be Rai’s own pet Oscar, but the scene-stealer here is the professional Bruno, a year-and-a-half old who runs, barks and always has a look of purpose and determination. This isn’t a four-legged creature whose sole objective here is to make audiences go ‘Aww’ (that he naturally does), but more ‘Whoa’ at his physical prowess and olfactory powers.
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The story unfolds in two cities. In Assam, a young boy Apu (Maahi Rai) sets out on a mission to rescue his dognapped pet Momo (played by Oscar); while in Bihar, a stray dog named Oscar (played by Bruno), loved by youngsters working at a construction as one of their own, turns investigator to find a missing child. Through these two arcs, Rai touches on a host of issues—from kidnapping and smuggling of dogs for meat trade to an illegal human organ racket that preys on the poor and underprivileged.
However, it’s the clumsy, half-baked manner with which Ohh My Dog goes about incorporating them that makes it a tiring watch. The runtime of two hours and 30 minutes spent sporadically jumping between the two stories doesn’t help the cause either.
Instead it’s the fleeting moments which make a lasting impact, and to nobody’s surprise they all belong to Bruno. In one scene, Bruno runs and runs to track a car with the kidnapper. The subsequent behaviour of humans, including police officers, to scare it by bursting crackers and tiring him with zoomies is a noteworthy reminder of how normalised animal cruelty is in society as well as the utter lack of empathy that not only enables but even champions it.
In another, a sequence reminiscent of fine Hungarian drama White God, wherein a girl desperately seeks her pet dog, Bruno through his howl mobilises an army of streeties to help him chase down the baddies in cars, one of which carries the missing child. A significant chunk of Ohh My God requires a suspense of belief as it is devoted to its cause to make one root for dogs.
Despite its good intention and two ‘good boys’, where Ohh My Dog disappoints is by bringing in too much divine intervention into an already clunky story. The intended effect may be to show dogs as god’s creatures, but the exaggerated drama drags the proceedings to take away from the story itself. Losing one’s pet is a worst nightmare and seeing it harassed or tortured is far worse, but even here Rai fails to build emotional investment—one that should ideally lead to many bring-out-the-kerchiefs moments.
What he does do well is show the incompetence of adults (if anything they just annoy) as a kid and dogs become heroes. It is in the rare moment of silences where Bruno’s eyes do the talking that Ohh My Dog demonstrates what it set out to do: when it comes to unconditional love and loyalty, nobody can beat dogs.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
