‘Ohh My Dog’ (2026) Movie Review - Dogs Save a Generic Thriller From Its Own Weaknesses

You might have heard the phrase "the dog is man's best friend." If you have ever wondered just how good a friend they are, Amit Rai has got you covered. In Ohh My Dog, Rai introduces a fiercely loyal canine named Oscar, who investigates the case of his missing owner/friend, Prince (Nikhil Kumar), by first alerting his human companions and then following Prince's scent. Sherlock Holmes should probably have kept a dog like Oscar as his pet. The furry animal, after all, single-handedly discovers the location of the kidnapper's house and performs stunts like jumping across rooftops and summoning his doggy mates for a chase sequence. Prince might be a poor construction worker, but he gets his "royal status" from having a pet like Oscar. This pooch is certainly a keeper.

Rai, however, doesn't showcase this relationship from just one angle. He often cuts away from Prince and Oscar, who live in Bihar, to display the plight of Momo and his friend Apu (Maahi Rai), who live in Assam. There, the movie becomes a story about dog-meat trafficking, so it's Apu who does the investigative work. If Oscar has his nose and, when needed, his canine companions, then Apu has his technological knowledge and his private tutor (Sulakhyana Baruah). The villains in both cases are corrupt cops who not only allow the crime to flourish but also profit from all the illicit business. It's a simple story told in simple terms. Ohh My Dog's primary strength is its investigative portions, which deal with CCTVs, IMEI numbers, petrol-pump bills, and logical deductions. Apu, for instance, uses a stopwatch to figure out how much time the culprit took to enter and exit a shop. As a mystery thriller, it's well done. The clues are gradually and sensibly disclosed. It's quite pleasing to watch this game of manhunt—or, more accurately, dog hunt.

But at the same time, it's also true that Rai isn't saying anything we don't already know. By claiming that dogs are worth loving and are very loyal, he is merely preaching to the choir. In an early scene in Ohh My Dog, when Apu and his mother (Geeta Agrawal Sharma) return from the police station, they come across the sight of chicken meat being cut and sold in the market. Rai could have extended the meaning of this visual to make a larger point about how greedy humans consume all kinds of animal meat for their blind, egoic satisfaction. Alas, Rai's myopic vision doesn't extend beyond his rigid intentions. He simply treats the scene as a moment of realization for Apu, who is terrified upon comprehending that Momo would meet the same fate as these poor chickens. Rai's sympathies, in other words, are narrow. According to him, dogs are worth rescuing because the love they share with humans is mutual. Does this care not exist for other animals? What does this say about not only Rai but human beings in general? If the traffickers are bad for smuggling dog meat, why is no criticism directed towards the butchers selling chicken meat openly in shops and markets?

Rai, of course, can take the easy way out by claiming that he just wanted to make a movie about dogs, but that market scene, either intentionally or unintentionally, exposes his selectiveness. Also, if you look more carefully, you will realize that Rai deploys dogs as some sort of USP to mask his ineptness at writing rich characters, dialogue, and situations. He overly relies on cute sentimentality to move the audience. Ohh My Dog is further lacking in good humor, and some of the scenes, like Apu arguing with his tutor's uncle (Pawan Malhotra), have a scattershot tone that uneasily moves between comedy and drama.

The movie does have a poignant idea at its center—the dogs being taken away from their own families to complete those of humans. But the narrative woven around this idea settles for the label "serviceable." This extraordinary story needed an extraordinary filmmaker, and Rai, who underutilizes Pankaj Tripathi's presence as an actor, doesn't come across as a wise choice for this project. Replace one dog with a mass hero and the other with a hero's dear friend or brother, and Ohh My Dog will look like a generic thriller. Then again, it's generic all right. It's just that the dogs distract you from the director's lack of ambition. If the movie ends up receiving a lot of love, then Rai can thank the canine creatures. They largely save his skin, after all. If nothing else, the four-legged woofers at least turn out to be this man's best friend.