Thank God (film)

Thank God is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language fantasy comedy drama film directed by Indra Kumar. It is an official remake of the 2009 Danish film  Sorte kugler (What Goes Around, 2009). It stars Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh.

Thank God was released theatrically on 25 October 2022 during Diwali festivities. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial failure.

Plot 
Ayaan Kapoor is an extremely greedy, selfish and egoistic real estate businessman who is in a debt of 16 crores. When he’s in a bad mood, he yells at people and expects them to be nice to him when he’s happy. His day to day life involves carrying out his real estate business in 80% black and 20% white money, visiting a nearby Hanuman temple every Tuesday and Saturday to smear the idol of Hanuman with holy paste, offer laddus, pour oil on the idol and greedily ask for petty things, then watching his favourite actress Nora Fatehi’s songs. He has a booming real estate business, but falls into debt due to the demonetisation, as he has a lot of black money. He wants to sell his mansion to clear his debts but can’t find any buyer and starts living at his wife's house with his wife, Inspector Ruhi, and daughter Pihu.  

One day, Ayaan gets involved in a road accident, and regains consciousness in Heaven, where Yamaduta and Chitragupta give him a chance to go back to Earth and survive the accident, by asking him to play a game called Game of Life. He is shown a vision of his physical body currently being in the operation theatre and is told by CG that his surgery will take 5 hours, during which his soul will play the game.  

The rules of the game: There are two containers - one for white balls, which represent Ayaan’s positives, and the other for black balls, which represent his sins and weaknesses. The containers would be filled with white or black balls by the residents of heaven (who are the audience members of the game), which will be considered their votes. The votes would be given based on how Ayaan does his virtual tasks and how he behaves in a certain situation which he is put in. If the container with the black balls overflows, he will be sent to hell and if the container with the white balls overflows, he gets to return to earth.  

CG starts to show Ayaan his sins one after the other - his jealousy of his loyal loving police officer wife Ruhi, his lust for his favourite actress, his inhuman nature which he shows by ignoring the old hungry beggar outside the Hanuman temple he visits frequently, his fake devotion for Lord Hanuman, his lie which traumatised and destroyed his sister, his frustration and anger which worries his wife, his selfishness due to which he can’t spend time with his daughter even on her birthday, him looking down on his mother, him seeing only the negatives and not the positives in other people.  

When he’s shown his sin “jealousy”, Ayaan argues with CG that he finds it unfair that his wife became a police officer when she is actually incapable of it, but he failed to become a police officer even if he’s highly capable. So CG recreates a situation virtually in which Ayaan is put in the same place as his wife was, in real life - a bank hostage situation wherein a poor man holds 24 people hostage, to get some money for his son’s surgery. Ayaan fails to be a good police officer in the virtual situation, and argues that it was a very tough situation and anyone in his place would have failed. Then, CG plays the real footage of how Ruhi handled the situation with her intelligence, bravery and empathy. Ayaan is stunned. Similarly, one after the other, Ayaan is showed all the times his weaknesses got the better of him - that is, his other bad qualities like his lust (which made him almost get intimate with his favourite actress), his greed (which displaced an elderly couple from their ancestral home), his inhuman nature (which killed a hungry woman) and when he tries to reason with CG, he is put in that situation virtually and shown what he did wrong.  

The black balls keep on getting accumulated but in a situation where Ayaan takes the help of a lifeline (CG’s help) and shows love to his mom instead of belittling her, he starts to get white balls. He is happy. He is then tasked to tell his sister the truth about their childhood home burning down. In their childhood, during Diwali, one of Ayaan’s rockets misfires and ends up burning their house but when his parents ask him how the fire started, he panics and puts the blame on his sister saying she lit a lamp and placed it next to a curtain due to which it caught fire. His sister is gaslit and ends up believing it’s her fault. To make things worse, their father stops talking to her. So she lives with the guilt that her carelessness burnt down their house and that their father never forgave her. In heaven, Ayaan meets and gets beaten up by his father due to which he is sent to the earth briefly to apologise to his sister. He finally tells her the truth and takes the blame on himself. He wins by earning white balls (the white ball container overflows) due to which Chitragupta declares Ayaan a winner, awards him a check of 18 crores by getting his house sold and allows him to return to earth.  

CG then asks Ayaan if he would like to donate some white balls to the next contestant. Ayaan’s selfishness shows up again and he says “no”, because he doesn’t care who the next contestant is, he just wants to leave.   

However, Chitragupta sees the phone number of Ayaan’s favourite actress (with whom he was about to get intimate) on Ayaan's hand, and declares that Ayaan has cheated, thus Ayaan gets many black balls. Additionally, CG reveals to Ayaan that the car which collided with Ayaan’s car was being driven by his wife Ruhi and now, Ruhi and Pihu are battling for their lives in the hospital. He tells Ayaan that they are the next contestants on the Game of Life, but he didn’t care to donate some white balls to them. Chitragupta then shows him the footage, where his wife and relatives pool money to buy him a new car after hearing that his current car would be towed due to his bank loan. Ayaan is horrified and very angry at himself for being so selfish. Suddenly, the white balls get replaced by black balls and black balls overflow from both the containers and now Ayaan has to die and go to hell. But CG changes his mind - he sends Ayaan back to Earth to make him experience hell on earth, which is, living without his family even after realising their importance. 

So Ayaan returns to earth (his surgery is successful and he regains consciousness). The doctor tells him that Pihu and Ruhi are in a coma and that both of Pihu's kidneys and one of Ruhi's kidneys are damaged. Now Ayaan is a changed man and values his family immensely. So he begs the doctor to take away both his kidneys and give one each to his wife and daughter. But the doctor refuses, saying that’s not possible as Ayaan can’t live without kidneys. He is asked by the doctor to choose between his wife and daughter. Ayaan is devastated, he thinks the whole situation over and out of helplessness, he commits suicide (by consuming his pain killer) so that both of his kidneys can be taken and Ruhi and Pihu can live. Before killing himself, he signs the donor form and leaves an emotional message to the doctor saying he wants his family to live and he doesn’t care about himself.

This time, Ayaan returns to heaven, but as a hero. CG, Ayaan’s father and all the other residents of heaven are proud of him. Chitragupta blesses Ayaan and his family with a new life. So Ayaan returns to earth again, that is, in the hospital, he regains consciousness after 3 days. The doctors give Ayaan news that Ruhi and Pihu have undergone successful kidney transplants because of a man who brought in his dead relative's body. Ayaan wants to thank the man for saving his family’s life, but the doctors say they know nothing about the man except that he wore a locket around his neck with the letters “CG”. Ayaan cries happy tears.

Having been given a second chance at life, Ayaan vows to accumulate only “punya” now and be a loving, supportive and responsible family man. Ayaan gets his ancestral home repaired and hands over the keys to his sister and her husband. He also adopts the grandson of the hungry old woman who passed away due to Ayaan’s refusal to help her. He is shown celebrating his wife and loving his family like never before.

Cast 
 Ajay Devgn as C. G. (Chitragupta)
 Sidharth Malhotra as Ayaan Kapoor
 Rakul Preet Singh as Inspector Ruhi Kapoor, Ayaan's wife
 Kiara Khanna as Pihu Kapoor, Ayaan's daughter 
 Kiku Sharda as man in lift
 Seema Pahwa as Mrs. Kapoor, Ayaan's mother
 Kanwaljit Singh as Professor Avinash Kapoor, Ayaan's father
 Urmilla Kothare as Ayaan's sister
 Pratik Dixit as Ayaan's brother-in-law
 Sumit Gulati 
 Mahesh Balraj as YD (Yamdoot)
 Saanand Verma as Dr. Akshat "Akki" Gupta
 Soundarya Sharma as Tanya 
 Nora Fatehi as herself, cameo appearance in the song "Manike"

Production 
The official announcement of the film was made on 7 January 2021. Principal photography began in Mumbai on 21 January, and wrapped on 11 January 2022.

Soundtrack 

The songs are composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Rochak Kohli and Chamath Sangeeth. The lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir, Rashmi Virag, Sameer, Dulan ARX and Mellow D. The film score is composed by Amar Mohile.

The first song "Manike" is a remake of "Manike Mage Hithe", sung by the same singer Yohani.

Reception 
Thank God received mixed reviews from critics.

Bollywood Hungama rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Thank God is a film that entertains and enlightens, a perfect family entertainer this Diwali". Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Indra Kumar perfectly blends comedy and drama to give us a Diwali entertainer with Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh starrer Thank God". Dhaval Roy of The Times of India rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film has a message or two about moving on about tribulations, being humane and the importance of one's family". Devesh Sharma of Filmfare rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Watch Thank God for its light-hearted moments". Rohit Bhatnagar of The Free Press Journal rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Thank God is a so-called family entertainer that is stuck in the '90s. Watch it if you are okay to expect a sob tale rather than a pure comedy". Sonil Dedhia of News 18 rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Thank God is an entertainer with its share of funny moments". Pratikshya Mishra of The Quint rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film goes from comedy to grief to introspection rapidly. While all these emotions are deployed well individually, as a whole, the film suffers from this constant tonal shift". Tushar Joshi of India Today rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Despite Ajay's star power and Siddharth's charm, the film fails to hold the viewers' interest".

References

External links 
 
 Thank God at Bollywood Hungama

2022 films
2020s Hindi-language films
Indian fantasy comedy films
T-Series (company) films
Films directed by Indra Kumar
Indian remakes of foreign films
Hindu mythology in popular culture
Indian religious comedy films
Yama in popular culture