They Call Him OG: Fan Feast Paradox

Star Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Sriya Reddy, Arjun Das, Emraan Hashmi, Prakash Raj, Priyanka Arul Mohan, Harish Uthaman, Sriya Reddy, and Subhalekha Sudhakar
Music Composed by S. Thaman
Cinematography by Ravi K Chandran & Manoj Paramahamsa 
Edited by Navin Nooli
Directed by Sujeeth

Earlier in the year, Good Bad Ugly [2025] came up with fan stuff for Ajith Kumar, and it tried to take the art of elevating a favorite star to unprecedented idiotic levels. Still, it worked due to the narrative flow, which tried to stick with one story and then opened flashbacks as callbacks to the star’s previous cult films. As a film, it would never feature in any top ten list of the actor, but fans would revisit it. OG tries to be such a film but fails to even narrate a proper plot. While GBU is no Picasso, it isn’t a disposable cup of wastewater either. They Call Him OG is disposable at best, a forgettable, run-of-the-mill attempt at aping a popular template. KGF [2018] is not about elevations, it is about the journey of Rocky, and the chapters in his story have been approached as highlight reels. Every story cannot be told in the same manner.

Bushido bows to no secret

Sujeeth, while making Saaho [2019], could be excused as a storyteller with the least experience. But in OG, he showcased no sign of maturity. Each frame looks well thought out, but there is nothing solid on paper or in the scene to really engage anyone. Saaho had a similar issue, and many felt the bits of the movie are good but not as a whole. Here, it feels like an excuse to insert old Pawan Kalyan films to give a nostalgic touch. Trying to use him as a highlight of a scene, Sujeeth forgot to write the scene. It almost feels like a random assembly of scenes from different movies like A History of Violence [2005], Taken [2008], Commando [1985], Sonatine [1993], and John Wick [2014], with a big influence from Batman Begins [2005]. If there is no Bruce Wayne, then there is no Batman. The entire trilogy spends ample time on Bruce and Batman as two different entities and identities of the same man. There are differentiable qualities that make Bruce a human character who aspires to be the superhero Batman. If you start your character as a superhero, then what is his journey? Where is this travelling soldier hoping to reach? What is his accomplishment? A good society, or decorating roads and staircases with blood in different places? Is he living just to kill someone?

Ojas Gambheera needed to be established as a person we could connect with, and then he could take off to any extent. When you know Manikyam, then you can try to choose between his Baashha [1995] persona or Manikyam. If you only know Baashha, then would you think the story would have had a similar connect? Fine, times have changed. Even in KGF, we are introduced to Rocky before Rocky Bhai. He is never showcased as a messiah, but he becomes one. Still, his motive is always selfish like how his mother stated he should live. What is the motive of Ojas Gambhira? Saving Satya Dada? Living for Kanmani? just taking out the sword or some sort of a gun? Or fighting to save his samurai clan, living by Bushido rules? When you don’t define these basics, then you end up writing random stuff like police getting scared and running when someone starts to kill. Then you tend to write scenes that really carry no weight. If every 20 minutes the hero takes out his Katana, then why would an audience member wait for him to pick it up? You know he would use it anyway in the next scene and he does it exactly how you imagine, too. Credit where it’s due, the interval point did surprise and gave some credible excitement about the hero’s revenge.

Batman tries to lead a life on Ras al Ghul‘s terms and finds out that the motive is wrong. He rectifies his journey, but why does OG not live by Bushido rules? What made him content as a gangster? Why is he missing this gangster life as a married man? Why isn’t he thinking about inner peace? If someone just walks into a theatre to see in how many ways Pawan Kalyan can hold a Katana, then they might not have an issue, but those who don’t, would. In Lokah [2025], you see a universe being built, and while the larger mission isn’t revealed, you clearly know what Neeli’s life is and why she needs to be Chandra at a personal level. The bigger mission can wait, just meet Kaliyankattu Neeli first and that approach worked as she is new to meet up and get acquainted with. OG is, more or less, just a Pawan Kalyan fan fiction rather than a character story. Who is allowing Ojas Gambhira to walk free even after so many murders? How come political power is silent on such daylight murders? What compels OG (a samurai) to always choose violence over debate? The Godfather [1972] twist, where the eldest son turns out to be the disobeyer also feels rushed, even on paper. Why does that character want to rebel against Satya Dada or even kill his own father so badly? Why does OG think sparing him would be the right option rather than talking to him? Where are the scenes that really establish characters?

Why would a samurai – a white god leave his battle behind and fight battles of unknowns in new territory? What compels him to find such attachments when he knows the end of it all? Where did the climax Samurai’s originate from? Did their league ever regroup, stay in contact, or just happened to there for Thuppaki [2012] sequence in the end? If OG was once part of a disciplined warrior clan, why is there no mention of their code, or their presence in his journey? A surface-level writer would at least try to answer each question on screen, but Sujeeth left it to the audience’s imagination. He never explains why there is a need for Omi to use only Satya Dada’s port when there are other convenient ones. Did Kanmani try anything to calm him down or do something to keep him away from violence rather than just changing their location? When did OG meet her, and why does a doctor treat this violent samurai as her world and remain adamant about uniting him with family? No proper reason or explanation. Should the fight between Satya Dada and Miraj be seen as a “gang war” or just a fight for a port? There were powerful dons like Varadarajan Mudaliyar, Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, and the obvious popular one, Dawood Ibrahim. While Sujeeth tries to showcase some of their identical traits, Satya Dada is moulded more on Bal Thackeray. Why? Any reason to give such a twist to the tale? The idea of having someone to stop the 1993 Bombay serial blasts and the 1984 port strike is a good one, but he never tries to stress this factual connection to give it more visibility. Hence, everything feels superficial, and the dialogue-based elevation with Pawan Kalyan walking into the frame to pour a liter more blood just makes it further annoying. Even the post-credit tease with Subhash Chandra Bose and Azad Hind Fauj feels tacked on, not earned.

Again saying it here, only KGF worked in such a highlight reel method as the protagonist’s journey is captured. King of Kotha [2023], Kabza [2023], Tiger Nageswara Rao [2023], Harom Hara [2024], Eagle [2024], and many other “gangster” films trying to ape the same formula did not work. OG is a beat-to-beat narrative that is inspired by it, and each frame tries to give an “elevation” to Pawan Kalyan. Yes, there are fun frames like Pawan walking with one foot on fire, using a burning Katana, jumping in the air to cut off heads, and him speaking in Japanese, but then there are over-the-top things like the Katana becoming a boomerang, heavy usage of body doubles, and a weak villain. Even the CM [still, it’s unclear why OG supports this bad guy and starts a bloodbath for him] of the state cannot bring in a task force or high-level military agencies to contain the violence. No proper reason is established for a good person letting Mumbai burn in the hands of bad people when he just had personal issues with Satya Dada. You see OMI creating a ruckus at the port, but at the same, he was at Nasik killing Kanmani. There is no sign of the helicopter or any timing sense in the writing. One question also arises: when he himself can kill Satya and come back, why leave it to his brother? Such basics of screenplay have been thrown out of the system just to accommodate a fan reel. Even that fan reel turns into a bore fest after 20 minutes into the film. Like Saaho, Sujeeth again says whatever is shown on screen needs to be believed without questions asked, but fails to immerse you in it enough to really not care about anything else. Good frames by Ravi K. Chandran and extensive stylized drone shots by Manoj Paramahamsa will never make a good scene and one good scene can never make up for ten bad sequences. Pawan Kalyan seemed to have loved being lethargic on screen without needing to go for too much “acting”. He looks stylish, but nothing more than that, he can do it in his sleep too. Thaman throws in theme scores to lift the mood, but poor mixing keeps dragging the impact down. Samurai’s are trained soldiers meant to save a country from being exploited. They are in no way Gods, but have skills to be Ninjas too. How good it would have been had PK been designed as a Ninja who could finish a job without people knowing about it. It would’ve given audiences a chance to believe in this world too. Well, even Angels cannot save a God who doesn’t care for timeline logic that randomly changes every other second at convenience and creates brainrot chaos. On the whole, OG just leaves us hoping that we find a “saviour” to save us from this “paradoxical saviour syndrome” or God syndrome of TFI.

Theatrical Trailer: