Paresh Rawal’s latest offering ‘Dharam Sankat Mein’(DSM) again revolves around religion and Godmen as the title suggests. Dharampal (Paresh) is a wealthy businessman in Ahmedabad. He is not shown to be deeply religious but neither is he atheist, where it differentiates from OMG. His son deeply follows Neelanand Baba (Naseerudin Shah). Dharam finds out that though he is Hindu, he was born in a Muslim family. Now in order to find and meet his biological father, Dharam has to adopt Islamic traditions and culture. Thus the divide in his mind of whether to follow Hinduism, as he always has and what his family wants ,or adopt Islam to meet his dying father.
Paresh plays the role with ease but it doesn’t seem to be as convincing as Kanjibhai, from OMG. Time and again similarities do crop up between this movie and OMG, which leaves the audience a bit disappointed. Annu Kapoor again plays a stellar supporting role, who helps Dharam in this crisis, by helping him adopt Islamic traditions. It is a real treat watching him. Naseer aptly plays the godman Neelanand Baba, who has his staunch followers and how he manipulates them. Naseer has been underused in the movie. He could have had much more screen time and effect on the movie.
In spite of the director’s best effort, DSM at some point, feels very lousy and slow, even for its theme. There were several subplots, which he could have captured. Screenplay too, isn’t that captivating. The end becomes very predictable with Dharam having a face-off with Neel Baba and opening his follower’s eyes, regarding truth about Neel Baba. The message coming out, too is the same as OMG and thus the movie doesn’t bring something new to the table. Also with PK still fresh in our minds, I think this theme of Religion and Godmen is being overused and the director should have made an effort to differentiate his movie.
All in all, not a good movie and can give it a miss.
By: Sahil kamdar
(Rating: 2.5/5)