When a nastik Paresh Rawal took on religion and its representatives in OMG in 2012, I was taken aback, even back then, that someone had the guts to call out religious hypocrisy. Come 2023 and an India that is as polarised on the basis of religion as it is, OMG 2 was a film I approached with caution, not knowing what to expect. I needn’t have worried. OMG 2 is a worthy successor to the first film with a message that is timely, even though it is not always delivered in the best of ways.

Who would have thought that a mainstream film would champion the need for sex education in schools and have the stamp of approval of god on it? Even if the god in question is the coolest Hindu deity. Not me. The best part is that despite being laugh-out-loud funny, it never wavers from how seriously it takes the subject.

There are similarities with the first film in that it shows a common man who fights a case against society. But OMG 2, directed by Amit Rai, has deftly avoided any religious controversy by making the protagonist, Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi), a devout devotee of Shiva and not taking on religion per say.

As a deeply religious person, Kanti Sharan obviously has the guiding hand of Lord Shiva’s ‘doot’ (we are not fooled for a single second, and Nandi the bull’s appearance every time we see the ‘messenger’ is a particularly nice touch) — a dreadlocked uber cool Akshay Kumar — who appears timely to nudge his bhakt in the right direction. But Kumar’s presence is more of an extended cameo than a co-lead as it was in OMG, and he seems to have a blast playing the role.

When Kanti Sharan’s son Vivek is bullied in school for the size of his penis and is caught on video masturbating in the school bathroom and then asked to leave school, Kanti is initially ashamed and wants to run away to avoid social shame the incident causes. But seeing his son trying to take his life, and some wise words from Kumar, makes him see the error of his ways. He decides to take the school, a snake oil peddler, a so-called doctor and a medicine store owner to court for defamation and manipulating his child’s ignorance.

Going up against him is the posh and sophisticated Kamini Maheshwari (Yami Gautam). One would expect that a film that talks about the importance of sex education would have a girl’s experience as the fulcrum and have a female lawyer fight for the case instead of against it, but it isn’t just girls who are victims of ignorance and not all women are ready to challenge patriarchy.

Kanti Sharan argues that had the school included sex education in its curriculum, his child would have been aware that pills like Viagra and things like snake oil have nothing to do with size and he would not have been so badly affected when all the prescribed remedies fail. And while the place where he masturbated might be wrong, the act itself is not “vulgar” or “wrong” as the defendant’s lawyer tried to say.

The film questions why, though included in the books, the chapter on reproduction is always skipped over, and how not calling a spade a spade causes more damage than it maintains decency. From sanatan dharm to Kamasutra and Khajuraho are brought up as examples of how sex and sex education was never considered a taboo till the British decided to rehaul the education system.

OMG 2 addresses important issues like ignorance about body parts, good touch-bad touch and how it leads to abuse. It asks the question that if India is on the top of the charts in terms of pornography, why can’t it talk about sex in schools. Some might say why do we need a mansplaining about how to treat a woman right, but I for one would be glad if my dad had my back the way Kanti Sharan did.

It helps that most of the dialogues are delivered, sometimes to much hilarity, in shuddh Hindi, something that just rolls off Tripathi’s tongue with practised ease. This provides some levity without taking away from the import of the topic.

Some top-notch acting elevates the well-written script that deftly balances preachiness with levity. Pankaj Tripathi, who plays the honest, god-abiding simple man with ease and carries the film on his able shoulders; Yami Gautam, who is chilling (with or without the evil music) as the woman who just wants to win a case; Akshay Kumar, who perhaps delivers his best performance in some time; and, a personal favourite, Pavan Malhotra as the judge presiding over the case who is as amused by the case as he is surprised and delighted that it draws so much attention.

What OMG 2 surprisingly doesn’t address is the bullying and how making a video of anyone without their permission and circulating it is a crime in itself. And in the end when young people in the #wewantsexeducation camp declare that they too masturbate, there is only one female voice, and it doesn’t say that she does so too, but only that she wants to learn about periods.

Well, one can’t have everything I guess, given that a film that talks about the need for sex education in schools is rated A.