Omkara - Bollywood Movie Review

Starring
Ajay Devgan    .... Omkara
Saif Ali Khan    .... Langda Tyagi
Kareena Kapoor    .... Dolly
Vivek Oberoi    .... Kesu
Konkana Sen    .... Indu
Bipasha Basu    .... Billo Chaman Bahar (special appearance)
Naseeruddin Shah.... Bhaisaab

Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist : Gulzar
Musician : Vishal Bhardwaj

Omkara is Vishal Bhardwaj's interpretation of William Shakespeare’s classic, Othello – a play that has been made four times in Hollywood but is being brought to life for the first time in a mainstream Hindi film in a commercial format.

Kareena Kapoor plays Omkara’s lover Dolly.

The movie has an extravagant treatment and every aspect from costumes to sets and dialect to music has been designed to near exactness. The beginning takes you straight into the heartland of India where politics and power equations are bread and butter of the inhabitants. The color of muscle-power, sex and jealously makes perfect ingredients for a Bollywood potboiler.

Vivek Oberoi plays the dynamic Kesu

Omkara is Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan limps as Langda Tyagi. Viveik Oberoi is naive Kesu Firangi. Kareena Kapoor makes a perfect Dolly. For the first time, she impresses in a movie. Naseeruddin Shah, as flawless as ever, plays the local clout touting politician and the God Father of Omkara.

But the viewer’s delight is not the havoc langda Tyagi wreck in Omkara ’s life or Dolly’s unconditional love or her grave sacrifice. Or Langda Tyagi ’s betrayal fuelled by his ambition and jealousy. The viewer’s delight is the craft of Vishal Bhardwaj, the manner in which he adapted the Shakespearean tragedy into an eastern epic and pictured it in the dusty, rustic locales of the rural India, the way he got his actors act like true characters and the way in which Langda Tyagi blurts out vernacular and his mannerism reminding us of the great Gabbar Singh. But there is more to Omkara.

Saif Ali Khan plays the crafty Langda Tyagi

It has Konkana Sen Sharma, playing Indu , the wife of Langda Tyagi . If Saif steals the show as Langda Tyagi , Indu is no less. She plays her character with such spontaneity that you tend to forget that she is a Bengali girl who played a Tamil woman in Mr. & Mrs. Iyyer and a page 3 journo in Page 3.

The talented Konkana Sen plays Indu

Omkara should well be appreciated for its technical brilliance. With bulk of shooting at Wai and Lonavala in Maharashtra, it would have been a real big challenge to structure an authentic North Indian village. The cinematography was sheer pleasure and many shots were so aesthetic that it felt like watching mesmeric work of art in motion. The frames were large and the theme of boisterous merrymaking was captured with meticulous vividness.

Bipasha Basu makes a special appearance as Billo Chaman Bahar

The script is just right and director do not waste any reels on explaining irrelevant details. Though large hearted shower of local offensive words can get jarring for some audience. Music did not have much to do in this tight screenplay and the director could have done better without couple of songs. Although "Jag Ja Ri Gudia" composition sung by Suresh Wadkar is a pure melody and the veteran made his presence felt in crop of new singers. The song has special relevance with the storyline and thus goes along well.

Omkara follows one man's descent into sexual jealousy

Vishal Bhardwaj has made a laudable attempt at adapting a literary work that was written around 400 years ago. But seen apart from Shakespeare, the movie is an average flick that tells a story which many can relate to, but may not be impressed by.

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