Sad movie!. Review on Omkara

To start with, this is not the movie that one would like to see after working for 10-12 hours to have some fun, or after finishing up with college exams. And if you were by any chance planning to see the movie with your family please drop that idea… The reason being the absolutely hard-hitting dialogues, with which Censor board has been quite liberal. There are no beeps in the dialogues, just a ‘A’ certificate! After watching this movie my hindi vocab has been refreshed and added couple of new ones!

Coming to the plot, the movie is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Othello.Bhardwaj's version takes the same players and situations, but sets them in Uttar Pradesh.

Title role is played by Ajay Devgan as Omkara or Omi who heads a gang of outlaws, which include the crafty Langda Tyagi ( Saif Ali Khan ) and the suave Kesu ( Vivek Oberoi ) amongst his chief cohorts. Ajay Devgan is the so called Bahu bali and garners support for the Indore MP – ‘Bhaisahaab’ (played by legendary Mr. Nasseruddin Shah).

The story begins the way the Othello starts, Kareena Kapoor elopes with Omkara. The turning point comes when Kesu/Vivek is appointed chief lieutenant to Omkara, Langda/Saif jealously decides to involve Omkara's fiancee Dolly Mishra (Kareena Kapoor) in an illicit affair with Kesu, with the help of a little insinuation and a great deal of lies. The consequences are, of course, tragic. By the time Omkara realises his mistake, it is too late…

The movie turns out to be really dark by the time it reaches end, and everyone comes out of the theatre with somber face.

Credit goes to the director Vishal Bharadwaj who has also written the screenplay and dialogues, and also composed the music. It is an enormously difficult task, considering his tale of choice has been reworked by many in this century alone. I just hope he could take some tips from Madhur Bhandarkar in showcasing the harsh realities in not so grim manner.

Coming to performances. Salaam Namaste to Saif for coming out of his suave image and portraying a hard hitting negative role with so much conviction. Next in line is Kareena not for performance but for being a vibrant combination of fragility and vulnerable simplicity and is totally endearing throughout without any makeup..

Ajay Devgan is as impactful as were in the title role. Vivek oberoi has not done anything worth mentioning, just a mediocre performance. Bipasha basu plays a nautch girl called Billo with item numbers. She looks far better in her new looks, much slimmer and fairer too, probably took some tips from kajol for the latter!

Overall the movie moves at a fast pace, very slick editing, but lots of dark side shown which actually makes to sad by the movie is over ! :) In the end, what you take away from Omkarais the knowledge that a classic script always has the power to move us, provided it is handled by a director who knows his craft, and actors who understand their job.

Go for it if you wanna a good movie but definitely not as an entertainer...