Moovy Review - Omkara

“Shart ghodon pe rakhe jaate hain…sheron pe nahin” roars Omi to a rival henchman’s sidekick. The unwitting sidekick freezes while the screen glows with the incandescence of Ajay-Omi-Devgan’s presence. Omkara aka Omi, a henchman in the hinterlands of U.P, is next-in-command for Bhai saheb (Naseeruddin Shah). Omi makes Kesu (Viveik Uber khool) his lieutenant while Langda Tyagi (Saif gaali Khan) feels insulted. Langda hatches a scheme to falsely implicate Omi’s love Dolly (Kareena) in a love affair with Kesu.

What unfolds is a saga of love, innocence, loyalty, jealousy, greed and revenge. This adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello is deeply rooted in the Indian milieu sans the hyper hamming of the usual flicks. The genre is trademark Vishal Bhardwaj. The genre is coming of age Indian cinema. From Makdee to Maqbool to Omkara, this guy is upping his creativity bar every time. Trust me, his work is manna for discerning movie buffs.
Body language of the characters speaks realms about the machinations of their mind. Darkness laments about the inevitable. The crystal clear skies and swelling streams talk of love and innocence. Bhardwaj’s control of the medium is simply sooperb. For those of you who have read or staged Othello in high school, the beauty and the difficulty of writing Omkara’s screenplay will be evident.

Langda Tyagi…bahubali! Langda Tyagi bahubali! Saif is first rate with his mannerisms, dialogue delivery, yellow teeth and all that. The moment of truth for Saif’s acting prowess, according to me, is the scene when Kesu is made bahubali. Just watch his expressions ranging from warped loyalty to a benign smile to sinking insult to simmering hatred. All in 5 seconds! Too few actors in contemporary Indian cinema can handle this scene with conviction (sorry Tarun…SRK would lose 4 seconds in keeping his head straight). Langda’s conversation with Raju on the river bank…he wearing the stolen kamar-bandh on his head and giving an eerie laughter…Saif is gonna walk away with lotsa awards and walk into the hearts of zillions of fans.

Ajay Devgan is his usual best. His ability to convey emotions without any dialogues is amazing. Kareena sans make up reminds you of Refugee and Yuva. Viveik should try giving voice over to animation movies. Konkana Sen is a class apart. Has great screen presence. The scene where she confronts Omi about his suspicion on Dolly will form a lump in your throat.

Great movie. Catch it on big screen. You will hear more expletives than you would have heard all your lives  Kudos to censor board. They have started to believe in the maturity of Indian cinegoers. But Amit had a difficult time explaining to Chinti that all those expletives just meant either stupid or fool..hehe.. Vishal, Sid, NaM, Manas n GC were all chipping in with comment tidbits. We had a good time. Now I need to catch some Fin Mgmt. I don’t want SBI to write off my loan as a ‘bad debt’!

All the best for Marketing presentations,
Ganga