Omkara Movie - a review

I dedicate this post to Ramdev Baba. Thanks baba for giving me inspiration to review a movie. Well if you, a self professed celibate, can comment on sex to a national audience , I sure can write a review of a movie.

Guys I have more shirts in my closet than I watch movies per year ( which isn’t much by the way). So I cannot exactly claim to be a connoisseur.

But in the last six months two movies hit me hard. One was this movie Omkara and another was Dev D. I can see a perceptible change in the way movies are being made. So just felt like adding my two pence on this

Both the movies have the director's signature. Both are iconclasts. they have no respect for reputations and both are hard hitting , in your face kind of breed. Both are extremely talented.

Imagine taking a classic. Shakespeare’s Othello in this case. Ripping the story apart and rebuilding it in a very ghetto milieu and still retaining the flavour.

The narration is raw. It blinds you with its crudeness and hurts your sensibilities. The vulgarity kind of stuns you. There is no pretence of sophistication. And yet it leaves you spell bound.

The one complaint I always have with Indian cinema is the length. And yet , there I was glassy eyed , well past midnight, not wanting the movie to end.

The story has a remarkable flow. Very gripping

Its simply a tale of blindness. Blind faith and blind jealousy.

Faith of Omkara in his deputy believing he would understand the master stroke of making vivek oberoi , the bahubali so they can garner the college goers votes. He is blind in his faith that Langda will understand.

And Blind jealousy of Langda who feels he’s been short changed. All he thinks of is revenge.

The writer has constructed each character with remarkable dexterity and he has been supported well by the dialogue writer and with power packed performances. The director hit a stroke of genius by choosing Saif as Langda. This performance has raised him to another level. Well done Vishal Bharadwaj.

Ajay Devgan as the intense , brooding Omkara is tailor made. Vivek Oberoi is excellent.

The Indian audience has failed to recognize the genius of Naseeruddin Shah. He has has once again shown his versatility. Observe how he gets into the skin of the wily politician. Just one word. Brilliant.

The music is good and the rusticity has been captured brilliantly in the songs.

The only weak point I felt was the female characters. The writer seems to have spent all his energies in giving meat to all the male characters. All the female characters are pretty diluted. The actors, moreover, failed to do justice to whatever they got. They almost sleep walk through the negligible role they have.

Only Konkana Sen sparkles.

Kareena just manages to scrape through .

Bipasha Basu is the weakest character. She looks too posh for that role. I would have preferred someone more rustic say a Rakhee Sawant. But perhaps it may be her box office appeal which may have drawn the director. I can imagine the bawdy ‘ beedi jalay le’ must be a super hit with the hormones charged young generation.

Apart from the acting the dialogues are outstanding. Like Kareena’s father warning Omkara to be careful. ‘ Jo Ladki apne baap ki nahi ho saki who kisi aur ki kya hoyegi’ Brilliant!

This movie may not be suitable for family viewing for the rather offensive language.

However give the credit where it is due.I am sure Shakespeare would be proud of this adaptation.

I read somewhere that he got inspiration of writing this story when he was in the tub.

I can almost imagine him standing naked and applauding in his tub. My Kodak moment!