Oh My Dog Movie Review: Simba the Dog’s Antics in Arun Vijay’s Family Entertainer Are Purely for the Kids! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Oh My Dog Movie Review: How many of you have this favourite pastime of watching dog videos on YouTube? I do. There is something incredibly cathartic to watch these furry canines play around on your screen while you take short breaks from work. So ideally director Sarov Shanmugam has a winning ingredient for dog-lovers like me with his debut directorial Oh My Dog thanks to the 'star attraction' in an adorable Siberian husky. Or huskies. There is also the added advantage of having three generations of male actors as the leads in Oh My Dog with veteran actor Vijayakumar, his son and popular actor Arun Vijay and the latter's young son Arnav Vijay in the cast borrowing their real relationships into reel. You call it nepotism, we call it kudumba sneham! Suriya’s Home Production Oh My Dog To Arrive on Amazon Prime Video on April 21.

But before we meet them, the movie first introduces us to the antagonist Fernando (Vinay Rai hamming it up), a flamboyant, narcissistic businessman whose dogs has won some Dog Championship title 6 times in a row. It is quite an OTT characterisation from his garish dressing style to electrocuting kennels to his scolding off a dog for not bearing more puppies. Not to mention telling his two buffoon sidekicks to kill a puppy because it is nearly blind and he didn't want a 'defective' dog to expand its progeny in the outside world. Talk about nasty take on eugenics, never mind we are talking about a foreign breed here!

The opening scene and the hammy villain set up the whole plot of the movie, and it sails towards that conclusion living upto that assured predictability. Anyway, that puppy escapes from his would-be murderers, who for some reason, drive in a canine-decorated van that demands attention despite their nefarious activities. The puppy lands in the care of mischievous little Arjun (Arnav), who names it Simba and brings him home, while hiding the pup from his family.

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Arjun's father Shankar (Arun Vijay) is under heavy loans, while mother (Mahima Nambiar) is a housewife. There is also a grandfather (Vijayakumar) who taunts his son for not paying off the house loans, but has a softer side when the situation demands. How the family warms up to Simba and how Arjun helps the dog in getting its sight is what the rest of the movie is about.

The USP is of course the dog, and be it in the puppy form or in a larger self, Simba is adorable. The narrative plays around this cuteness, focussing on the bond between the boy and the animal, with the boy's friends and family stacking on in. The plot is quite simplistic though I can smell some of the inspirations. There is a very 101 Dalmatians vibe in the whole 'dog-napping' and Fernando subplots, while a chunk of Oh My Dog felt inspired by Bridge, a shot in the Malayalam anthology Kerala Cafe. OTT Releases of the Week: Bob Odenkirk’s Better Call Saul Season 6 on Netflix, Arjun Rampal’s London Files on Voot Select, Arun Vijay’s Oh My Dog on Amazon Prime Video and More.

The actors are decent enough and the movie has its moments - like that scene where Arjun imagines his father to be Wolverine - but treatment feels immature at times, the movie is replete with caricatures and cliches and the plot conflicts are so easily solved even before you are done spelling 'inconvenience'. Including the boy's father having a hidden past that conveniently plays into the plans of his son (Arun Vijay getting room to deliver action chops), or the sudden change in behaviour from the antagonist in the climax of the movie. The third act of Oh My Dog revolves around the dog championship competition, that veers exactly where you expect it to go. There were some potential ideas that I thought the movie might touch upon, like the inhumane treatment meted out to the dogs by their owners to win such contests. No such luck, as the film was rather satisfied with its Booyah moments as Simba jumped his way to a happy ending.

Yay!

- Simba!

Nay!

- A Hackneyed Tale for Simba

Final Thoughts

Oh My Dog is a film that is clearly targeted at kids and could appeal to them. For adults who are dog lovers, you might find Simba cute but it is better to stick watching those dog rescue videos on YouTube. Oh My Dog is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 21, 2022 12:54 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).