Coming of Age. Review on Omkara

There have been times when some of us wished that cinema as in 'Cinema' arrives finally in Bollywood. There have been numerous attempts and the efforts taken in the late 70's and through the 80's, which somehow seemed to have ground out by the more loud fanfare that came to be believed as cinema. This is no way discounting the commercial motives of movies or their strength to entairtain people. But there is always the higher level that one looks forward to. The next level of cinema which though is not far removed from the masses that pay hard earned money for 3 hours of audio visual teleportation to another world, a world which though they are not part of but can relate to, yet enthuses with the craft and wizardry which only a good cinema can evoke . The year 2006 has been one such year when both the commoner and the connoisseur have been treated with much respect by one of the the biggest film industires in the world following the release of the movies like Rang De Basanti, Omkara etc .

Omkara proves that the marriage between commerce and common sense has been reached, though it needs to be perfected. Adapting something like Othello, which has been read and reread by some , and of course claimed to have been read by almost everybody since it is not difficult to drop names of the characters and get a general idea of the plot from school and college textbooks, is not easy. But to adapt it and that too with a high level of acceptance and without much of irritation or hitch in the plot or distrction in the flow of the story requires guts, commitment and a thorough knowledge of Shakespeare. Shakespeare seems to have become the famous muse of Vishal as he seamlesly moves from a good adaptation of Macbeth to an almost picture perfect adaptation of Othello. If some one were to watch Omkara without ever having been exposed to Othello, who of course would constitute most of the people in the hindi heartland, one can't say that it has been derived from a much different background or circumstances. The way the movie has been projected just feels like it is conceived to cater to the masses, yet sculpted in such a way that the wary eye of a connoissuer doesn't get a chance, except maybe the lack of grip in the climax.

Though every character has chipped in its best, Saif stands out as Langda Tyagi, except in the end where Omkara (Ajay Devgan) finds out that it was Langda who hatched the plot and somewhere suddenly the character seems to falter and becomes ambiguous. But it is not Saif's fault as the director choses a different ending for his Iago, and somewhere there he times the hit to the chisel wrongly.

Apart from that, the rather subdued performance has been great from everyone. Naseer, of course, still has that prescence and charm to make even the smallest of appearance be felt throughout the movie. But we have seen better performance from this master. Maybe he did this just for Vishal but the soul seems to be missing.

Though the songs were very good, and sometimes very relevant to the plot, the background score could have been more effective. Kesu and Billo are made to look like fringe characters, but I guess there ar some liberties one has to take when managing a large character base and yet finich the movie less thant 3 hours.

The language of the movie is something which Vishal has to be credited for. After a long time a language which people understand (I am not counting those who have the means to watch it in multiplexes) can be heard. A sound to which the poeple can relate to, something they use everyday. Given my urban upbringing, I was left clue lss at times, but the front stalls and even the upper stalls seem to enjoy watching their language finally on the screen, while I was happy fuguring out how Vishal had visualised this scene, this shot. If some people find all the Gaali garoj a little too much to handle, I suggest they tape their own conversations and listen to it carefully. It would sound nastier that the dialogues in Omkara. But c'mon people, that is how we talk and that is how the movies should talk.

The best thing about Omkara is that it doesn't pretend to be what it cannot be and yet doesn't hold back from being what it is ought to be. That is the strength of the movie and that is a bloody good reason to watch it...once more.