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Join UsStar Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Emraan Hashmi, Priyanka Mohan, Arjun Das, Prakash Raj, Sriya Reddy
Director: Sujeeth
What’s Good: There’s not a dull moment here.
What’s Bad: The more vital second half is too hurried yet surprisingly labored.
Loo Break: You can miss the occasional bloodbath.
Watch or Not?: Pawan Kalyan fans, please head for the next show!
Language: Telugu (Dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada).
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 154 Minutes
User Rating:
Another ‘pan-Indian’ Telugu release, They Call Him OG, follows a regular action-from-South-Indian-cinema template where the action and violence get more graphic each time. The threadbare plot comprises Satya Dada (Prakash Raj), who owns the Mumbai port, and a vicious villain, Mirajkar (Tej Sapru), who was once his friend and wants to rule over Mumbai.
The bone of contention is a shipment of RDX sent by Omi (Emraan Hashmi) to blow up Mumbai at the instance of a Dubai don. Once this goes missing, a battle of ‘hits’ rather than wits ensues with bodies spread in a quantum reminiscent of the recent but real The Bengal Files.
Our hero, also named Gambheera apart from OG or Ojas (Pawan Kalyan), has been obliged to Satya Dada in the past. However, after an accident of sorts in Satya’s family, he chooses to move away from them. However, he is their go-to person when in trouble. In the end, we are not clear whether he is a gangster or a mere professional samurai entangled in wicked plots and savage people.
And so altercations blaze through the film as more and more characters get mentally blocked in their personal motives, which are mainly about greed, vendetta, and more. Finally, it’s OG time to return, and naturally, good will win over evil, but evil thinks it can resurface in a possible sequel.
They Call Him OG Movie Review: Script Analysis
Written by Sujeeth (whose last pan-Indian film, Saaho, lost out on its home ground but is said to have worked in Bihar!), the script is an orgy of sauce…Oops! I mean blood spilling, and one could go dizzy counting the clothes and skin (of both the living and the corpses) as well as objects, including walls, splattered with red, and decapitated heads rolling like unchecked marbles on screen.
For relief, there is the family angle of Dr. Kanmani (Priyanka Mohan), who loves our hero, marries him, and gives birth to a cute daughter. They relocate (an absurd premise) so that they can be at peace after our hero is attacked by Japanese men during his Aikido (martial arts) classes and Kanmani is pregnant. But that makes no difference.
There is a fiery woman, Geetha (Sriya Reddy), Satya Dada’s sister-on-law, who valiantly combats the baddies. Several other characters are thrown in, and we have the villain’s son, Jimmy (Sudev Nair), an obnoxious animal, if one, who makes merry with his bloody excesses for a while. Not to speak of a massive misunderstanding that Geetha’s Arjun (Arjun Das) has about the hero.
A side-plot of explosives being placed in crucial Mumbai venues in 1993 (the real-time Mumbai was hit) and each one being neutralized in time gives a ‘fake reality’ feel to the pre-climax.
They Call Him OG Movie Review: Star Performance
Pawan Kalyan becomes a different kind of hero from most of the other South Indian icons. Firstly, his expressions are quite limited for a star, his action is largely weaponry-based (guns, swords, etc.), and lastly, he could have put more efforts to make the agility look genuine.
Prakash Raj and Arjun Das have sympathetic roles and score in places. Sriya Reddy and Sudev Nair (who looks eerily like a member of Hindi villain Ajit’s family!) fare better. Tej Sapru is alright. Priyanka Mohan gets no scope, and even her cute daughter does better. Jackie Shroff has a blink-and-miss role, and Upendra Limaye is wasted. Abhimanyu Singh passes muster.
Finally, Emraan Hashmi as the cool villain is impressive in parts, though I preferred him in Tiger 3.
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They Call Him OG Movie Review: Direction, Music
Sujeeth goes all out for masala and does not bother to be innovative or even original. There is over-reliance on splendid technicians like DOPs Ravi K. Chandran and Manoj Paramahamsa, and editor Navin Nooli (who himself could have been more alert in the second half), and of course, the action directors and VFX team.
Thaman S’ songs just come and go, but he makes his background score sound almost as fury-laden and violent as the film!
They Call Him OG Movie Review: The Last Word
Relentless in its action mode, this one’s a feast for Pawan Kalyan’s fans. For the rest, it is typical template-driven fare.
Two and a half stars!
They Call Him OG Trailer
They Call Him OG released on September 25, 2025.
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