Religion As The Driving Wheel For Sex Education

There are not really many reasons that justify the existence of OMG 2, a lengthy lesson on male pleasure. While the movie tackles the need for sex education in India, it seems like the makers didn’t even revisit to understand what ‘Sex Education’ entails. The story follows Vivek who’s suspended from his school after a video of him masturbating in the school washroom goes viral. His father fights a defamation case against the school, against people who sold medicines for enhancing the size of the penis, against pharmacists who sold viagra to children, and lastly, against himself.

Over the course of more than two hours, it feels that the focus is on the right to masturbation by demystifying masturbation as something that is not immoral. As noted in many reviews, it’s mansplaining with a lack of coherent understanding on what actually entails sex education. The movie also had to go through a lot of cuts and suggestions by the Central Board of Film Certification. Major suggestions included modification of portrayal of Shiva by Akshay Kumar into a mere messenger of god, removal of frontal nudity, and the removal of Mood X condom on billboard. CBFC also suggested removal of phrases like Satyam Shivan Sundaram among some other dialogues which might have hurt people’s sentiments. Additionally, one Hindu outfit has offered an amount of 10 lakhs to anyone who would slap Akshay Kumar as they find the movie to be insulting. However, what is hurtful is actually a scene involving the potential overshadowing of Ambedkar’s portrait by a shiv-ling.

While making a movie on sex education is more than welcomed, the movie uses religion as a driving wheel which doesn’t work. We are in a time when the Hindu religion and the idea of Hindutva is connected with violence and regressive thinking, and the movie steps up the religion as something that has been progressive since centuries. The final arguments for the support of sex education evoke scriptures like kamasutra, upanishads, etc. also make irrelevant references marking a woman’s vagina as pure. Another reviewer noted that the film is so hell bent on legitimizing conversations over masturbation that it forgets how the act is steeped in making women uncomfortable in public spaces. They further add on the use of religion as a medium, “The route is so unnecessary, insensitive and frankly dangerous that it makes all conversations about the destination futile.”

Society, Sex and Taboo

One of the rare roles that standout is Doctor Gagan Malviya who actually insists for Kanti (the lead played by Pankaj Tripathi) to be careful with his son because there is a lot of guilt associated with masturbation, and there is nothing wrong with it. On one hand, the ideas of shame and ostracization are crucial to display as they show how the society behaves towards whatever they deem immoral; On the other hand, the ostracization is rooted in disallowing the family to participate in religious ceremonies. Shame is also a theme prominent throughout the movie, yet it is deeply an extension of family’s respect and dignity which holds merit but shame goes much deeper on a personal nature which is left out. There are some scenes that depict how it influences the environment within the house. And during these scenes, when we expect Kanti to be a supportive father, he is cognizant of his son’s condition who tried to commit suicide twice but is mostly busy with worshipping god.

Social Media as the primary cause of causing distress is also a part of the movie but its impact on mental health is never explored to the fullest extent. The movie clearly shows that Vivek, Kanti’s son, is severely depressed due to the events that happened in the school. And yet, there is no case made for the impact on mental health. Kanti only mentions in the court that he is not asking for paying for the damage caused to his son’s dignity, self-respect, and mental health; instead, he asks for specific amounts of money that can be offered to a deity. 

For some reason, the emphasis on scriptures is also followed by shudh hindi and sanskrit language which saw the ideas of pleasure embedded in the idea of beauty. While it makes sense, it is deeply rooted in the politics of language where Hindi has been given a priority. Some scenes also involve chants of har har mahadev in the court before the court proceedings begin which is rooted again in a specific culture. The ideas of feminism which support sex education and comprehensive sexuality education are merely reduced to respecting women, which is depicted by when a sex worker is being questioned and the idea of female pleasure is obstructed by the higher ground for dignity.

School, Home And Sex Education

Another theme that is hinted at in the movie but not explored enough is the bullying that comes at the expense of shaming in schools. Even dumb ideas like the size of hands decides the size of your genitalia, or using words like chota chetan to mock someone’s genitalia etc. can cause significant distress. Especially when Vivek asks for help from the teacher but they refuse to answer his queries, which subsequently becomes an important point – that there needs to be education regarding sex because where else children will know about it? and the other sources simply damage them.

Towards the end, the movie ends up blaming the British destroying the gurukul system which emphasized upon pleasure as well within its curriculum of education. It’s particularly difficult to understand the aim of the movie as it’s peddling a narrative about the progressiveness of a religion rather than preaching about sex education. There are extended scenes of religious celebrations of all kinds, which could have been explorations of intimacy, desire, sex and also its queer forms. There’s a disservice to raising awareness about sexual harassment as a component of sex education by making a case for it in a preachy manner. Yami Gautam as the villain and the woman who hates sex is also a missed chance to talk about female pleasure; instead, all the men mansplain to her, making her the butt of the joke at many instances. 

There are plenty of media that deal with the theme of Sex Education including Netflix’s Sex Education (reviewed by Gaysi here) and a list of Indian series on shows curated by The Indian Express. You can also go through a list of news, reports, reviews and listicles curated by Gaysi on Sex Education and related themes here.