Oh My Dog

When it comes to movies with children as the targetted audience, judging the quality kind of becomes tricky. You obviously need to understand the filmmaking sensibility, and the evaluation is almost based on how the filmmaker respects the cinematic sensibility of its target audience. Oh My Dog, the new Amazon Original film produced by Suriya and Jyothika, is an emotionally flat and preachy movie where director Sarov Shanmugam tries to cater to that really small age group.

Arjun is this small kid studying in Ootty. He lives with his father Shankar, his mother Priya, and his Grandfather. One day Arjun gets this Siberian Husky dog, who is blind. Knowing how his parents will react, Arjun decides to keep Simba (the pet) secretly. The events that happen in Arjun’s life after the entry of Simba are what we get to see in this film.

A puppy Siberian Husky in a frame full of vibrant colors is indeed a treat to watch, and as I was seeing those visuals, I felt like recommending the film to people who have really small kids who get glued to the screen if they see something vibrant and cute. The target of this movie at no point is the adults. There is a sequence where a teacher tells the students not to fight with another individual. Instead, they should give the other person chocolate.

Sarov Shanmugam doesn’t want his story to have any surprise element to keep the viewer curious. You will have an idea about what all things are going to happen roughly half an hour before the actual occurrence of that event. The template nature of the movie is pretty much exposed in the very first sequence, where we are shown a competition.

Arnav Vijay as Arjun fits into the kind of pitch the movie wants to have. Arun Vijay as the father with a backstory, is fine in terms of performance, and Sarov even gives him some moments to flex his muscles. Vijay Kumar as the Grandfather and Mahima Nambiar as the mother were also okay. Vinay seems to be the go-to Villain option these days, and since this was a kid’s movie, his character Fernando had this caricature tone.

If you want to keep a 5-year-old kid engaged to something he or she would like, then Oh My Dog is a fine babysitting option. There are films that were intended for kids but had worked for adults as well. Oh My Dog is clearly not that kind of film.