Om Ka Hari Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Om Ka Hari is a gently moving family drama held together by wonderful performances from Raghubir Yadav and Anshuman Jha, even when its screenplay does not dig quite as deep as its premise promises.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Genre: Family Drama
Director: Harish Vyas
Cast: Raghubir Yadav, Anshuman Jha, Soni Razdan
Indian fathers are often expected to know everything except how to actually be fathers. They are taught to earn, to protect, to provide, and somewhere along the way, to make sure their children choose the right life.
But nobody really teaches them how to listen, how to show affection, or how to simply tell a child they are proud of them. Om Ka Hari finds its most affecting idea sitting right inside that uncomfortable gap, the space between being a father and actually knowing how to be one.
Directed by Harish Vyas, the film follows Hari Prasad Sharma, played by Raghubir Yadav, a retired astrologer convinced he has only six days left to live after what appears to be a heart attack, though it turns out to be nothing more than a bad case of gas.
Determined to spend his final days in the holy city of Kashi, Hari sets off on the journey with his son Om, played by Anshuman Jha, a young man who has spent years feeling diminished by his father’s constant disapproval.
What starts out as a trip toward death slowly turns into something far more meaningful, an attempt by both men to finally understand a relationship neither of them has ever really known how to fix.
The film’s first half does a solid job establishing just how exhausting this father-son dynamic has become over the years. Hari is the kind of father who can turn almost anything his son does into proof of his own inadequacy.
Om has chosen to run a salon instead of pursuing a government job, a decision Hari simply cannot accept, since to him, a government post represents security, dignity, and a kind of success he can proudly explain to the world.
There is a painful familiarity in how Hari operates throughout the film. He does not see himself as hurting his son. In his mind, he is simply preparing him for life, flattering his own boss in hopes of landing Om a stable job, making decisions on his behalf, and constantly reminding him of what he could have been instead.
What makes the film genuinely work, though, is Anshuman Jha’s performance. Om is angry, wounded, and visibly tired of his father’s constant judgment, yet there remains real respect in how he treats him. Jha plays this contradiction beautifully in quieter moments, letting Om’s irritation soften into genuine concern without ever needing a big emotional speech to sell it.
The film truly finds its heart once the journey to Kashi actually begins. Rather than relying on one big, convenient transformation, Om Ka Hari lets small conversations, silences, and shared moments slowly chip away at years of built-up resentment. This is also where Raghubir Yadav elevates Hari into something far more than just a difficult, overbearing father.
Yadav gives him enough arrogance to be genuinely frustrating, yet enough vulnerability to make him feel deeply human, capturing a generation of men who were never really taught how to express love except through a sense of duty and responsibility.
The chemistry between Yadav and Jha becomes the film’s biggest strength, carrying real warmth even during the relationship’s most bruised moments.
Soni Razdan also brings genuine warmth to her role as Hari’s wife, and the film quietly touches on how women in households like this often absorb the consequences of male stubbornness without much acknowledgment, though this thread could have used deeper exploration.
Where the film stumbles slightly is in its pacing and focus. The first half takes its time without always digging deep enough into the actual wound between father and son, building their conflict through everyday disagreements rather than one clearly defined emotional break. A few side subplots also feel more placed for structure than organically woven into the main story.
Even so, Om Ka Hari understands something quietly profound about fathers and sons, that love can genuinely survive years of criticism and silence, because the hardest part was never loving someone. It was learning how to actually show them.
If you’re deciding what else to catch in theatres this week, our review of Daayra, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor, and our review of Vibe, Kunal Kemmu’s chaotic spy comedy, are both worth checking out.