The new film by Amit Rai, the director of Road to Sangam and Oh My God 2, looks for the divine in the canine. Ohh My Dog is about the bond between humans and their four-legged friends who give more than they ever get in return.
The Hindi film, which is out in cinemas, follows two stories. In a small town in Assam, young Apu’s pet Momo goes missing. Police officer Mohammed (Vijay Mishra) starts investigating, but he’s several steps behind the sharp-brained, tech-savvy Apu (Maahi Rai).
Not for nothing is Apu named after the hero of Pather Panchali. A large poster of Satyajit Ray in Apu’s home suggests that Apu is a younger version of Ray’s fictional detective Feluda. Apu and his tuition teacher Krishna (Sulakhyana Baruah) accompany Mohammed on the quest for Momo, with Apu leading the way.
In a city in Bihar, it’s a person who’s missing. Construction worker Prince (Nikhil Kumar) has vanished, which upsets his adopted Indie Oscar tremendously. Oscar puts his nose to work, turning up results that shame the local police inspector (Rajesh Kumar).
A grisly fate awaits both man and beast. The abductors aren’t fairy tale ogres who will easily be defeated. In keeping with the gravity of the situation, Amit Rai turns a potentially light-hearted tale that would delight children and dog-adoring adults into a deadly serious crime drama.
Keen on proving Apu’s genius and Oscar’s sleuthing kills, the 150-minute Ohh My Dog spells out every move that proves how a kid can make instant sense of a complex kidnapping operation and how a dog can sniff out the truth about its owner entirely by itself.
This refusal to trust viewers leads to overly long scenes, repetition and a fuel-guzzling chase. The movie lasts far longer than the average attention span of children and dogs.
The realistic treatment is at odds with some of the more fantastic moments, especially the sequence lifted from Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo’s White God, in which hundreds of dogs ignore their territorial instincts to confront their tormentors. (There’s another Hungarian connection in cinematographer Mate Herbai).
Like Mundruczo’s acclaimed film, Ohh My Dog is a parable about the need for goodness in a ruthless world that preys on the weak and the defenceless. Although Amit Rai undermines his screenplay’s impact through stubborn bloat, he displays empathy towards his characters, especially the poverty-stricken Prince, as well as a strong sense of justice.
There are powerful moments in store for patient viewers. Rai invokes religion to bless the efforts of Apu and Oscar. But it’s a handful of humans and one determined dog that make all the difference.
The anguish that Apu and his mother (Geeta Aggarwal Sharma) feel over Momo is as heart-tugging as Oscar’s desperate hunt for Prince. While various nasty authority figures obstruct Apu and Oscar, Apu is taken seriously because he’s better off than Prince’s family and friends on the construction site. Their only champion is the teacher played by Pankaj Tripathi.
Two performances stand out, and neither of them is by the adults, except for Tripathi.
Maahi Rai is a compelling knee-high hero, displaying a confidence that borders on contempt when the adults around him behave stupidly. Oscar, played by Bruno, is terrific, like an unending treat.
Bruno runs and runs, gives the correct expression in emotional scenes, and displays the intelligence associated with his species. Bruno puts the dog in doggedness and qualifies for the canine equivalent of an Oscar for bringing the loyal Oscar to life.
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