OG movie review: Pawan Kalyan delivers entertaining film for hardcore fans, made by a hardcore fan

A similar challenge beckons to writer-director Sujeeth, who doubles down on risk by working with Pawan Kalyan right after his forgettable stint with Prabhas in Saaho (2019). If the task of backing up the mammoth success of the Baahubali series for Prabhas bogged Sujeeth down a few years ago, the assignment of making the Powerstar the Original Gangster in his latest, They Call Him OG, feels no trivial matter either. Pawan Kalyan’s last few outings, combined with his dedicated time and focus on politics, have left his millions of fans yearning, and the proposition of seeing him in his OG action element couldn’t be expected to be taken lightly by them.

Emraan Hashmi in They Call Him OG. (Source: X/@DVVMovies)

Well, to their luck, Sujeeth delivers on the tall promise, albeit riding a wave of cliches and seen-befores. In They Call Him OG, he manages to combine his lead actor’s famed martial arts proficiency (which one hadn’t witnessed on screen for many years) with a perfunctory yet gritty setting of the 1990s Mumbai to create a concoction that is as heady as it is formulaic. Drugs, ammunition, territorial wars, terrorism and familial ties are dotted across the nearly three-hour loopy runtime that throws an action sequence, pauses briefly for sentimentality, and throws another action sequence. Thaman’s background score is the mainstay all along, revving things up very effectively with his blaring electronica and not letting the generic writing get in the way.

Pawan Kalyan plays Ojas Gambheera, a samurai born and trained in post-war Japan who returns home to India to be the protector of businessman/people’s benefactor Satya Dada (Prakash Raj). Gambheera can slice up and tear across bodies like a man possessed with his katana, but his moral compass has also allowed him to be Dada’s voice of reason over the years. Breathing down Dada’s neck is his former mate and now-big-time politician Mirajkar (Tej Sapru), who, along with his two evil sons Omi (Emraan Hashmi) and Jimmy (Sudev Nair), wants to control the Bombay port for reasons that only villains can justify. What happens when a personal conflict separates Dada and Gambheera, and the latter goes into obscurity to eventually find himself a loving family? Will he return to old warrior ways to help his surrogate father? Or does he prefer his exile over everything else?

There would probably be no marks for guessing what Gambheera would do, but for Sujeeth, the approach isn’t as plain as it seems on paper. He is more interested in creating a tapestry that is apparently inspired by a range of sources, including Indian movie classics as well as popular action lore from Japan and the rest of the world. His film is a melange of largely peripheral elements. The entire samurai angle isn’t really of the essence to the story, but it is important that he lends a sense of mystique to his hero to have fun with the proceedings. The dynamics of the Satya Dada household – involving brothers, a murder, and a vengeful son – don’t make the story’s central purpose any different or more exciting, but they still help add some girth to the plot.

You see Prashanth Neel, Lokesh Kanagaraj and many other top-drawer filmmakers operating on similar lines, in that their storytelling contains tangents in the form of side developments that do not allow it to digress, but linger a little longer. Sriya Reddy as Geetha and Arjun Das as Arjun are two such characters whose presence isn’t imperative, but they are included just so that the fan service doesn’t become overwhelming.

And They Call Him OG is unashamedly fan service, with Sujeeth opting not to attempt much outside the box. He adopts a screenplay that works as a series of setups for the first hour or so, in that several ancillary threads are introduced just to hype up Gambheera in third person. There’s an intro scene in Japan that introduces the hero’s mythos. A scene on the Bombay port recounts one of his most ghastly runs with the sword. A cop somewhere far in Tamil Nadu does the same to his colleagues, and we see this pattern continuing throughout the film. That seems to be the toughest part of making a superstar vehicle today – you cannot, any longer, introduce them with a bang and let the story take over completely; instead, you must reintroduce them at every turn and let the story ride along if it wants to.

Emraan Hashmi as Omi is passable, but the screenplay doesn’t allow him to be as imposing as required. Sudev Nair, who was very impressive in the Malayalam films Bheeshma Parvam and Thuramukham, is given a staid role. Although the film ushers in a new lot of antagonists in the second half to raise the stakes against Gambheera, there is little that Omi is able to offer the haphazard narrative. The problem lies not just in how Sujeeth imagines the film around his hero, but also in the economy of his screenplay: for instance, Priyanka Arul Mohan as Kanmani is introduced prematurely into the plot, and she overstays her welcome. Had the film been wiser in using her, the emotional heft would have risen considerably, and Gambheera’s much-needed vulnerable side could have come to the fore. Here, the hero is a bit too infallible from the start, and that’s not the best character trait if you want the audience to be emotionally invested for long.

Watch They Call Him OG movie trailer here:

Yet, They Call Him OG turns out to be a delectably fun experience simply because of the ‘other’ kind of clarity Sujeeth boasts: he is simply in awe of Pawan Kalyan, and for that, he executes the film with a lot of finesse. With the help of a noteworthy cinematographer like Ravi K. Chandran (and Manoj K. Paramahamsa for additional work), the film sizzles with an unavoidable energy, and equal kudos must be handed to the production design team. Each frame oozes thought and painstaking effort, and following the lacklustre visual canvas of Hari Hara Veera Mallu (2025), it is heartening to see Pawan Kalyan on the stage of a modern spectacle.

The actor, too, with his distinctive styling, struts across the screen with his vintage charisma and looks very comfortable in a performance that is a blend of a few quirks and some showmanship. It also helps that he wields the sword with confidence, and the use of a body-double (if any) during the fight sequences feels minimal in the film.

They Call Him OG is an entertaining film made for hardcore fans, by a hardcore fan himself. Yet, in that pursuit, Sujeeth forgoes the opportunity to take a few risks, and he only goes so far as charming us with his (and his team’s) technical brilliance. The fear of losing audience attention at the expense of substance looms large among India’s big filmmakers today, and Sujeeth is no exception. His latest could have broken the mould of this sub-genre of mind-melt crowd pleasers, but at least it gives us a groovy remix version of ‘Travelling Soldier’ from Thammudu (1999). That seems enough for now.

OG movie cast: Pawan Kalyan, Emraan Hashmi, Prakash Raj, Tej Sapru, Sudev Nair, Sriya Reddy, Arjun Das
OG movie director: Sujeeth
OG movie rating: 3 stars