Kathmandu :

Omkara (Drama)

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Konkona Sen, Bipasha Basu, Naseeruddin Shah

Direction: Vishal Bhardwaj

Showing at Jai Nepal

It’s quite useless to make comparisons and variations and it wouldn’t be fair, especially bearing in mind the sweat it might have cost Vishal Bhardwaj to take the formidable task of dabbling with something of the Shakespearean scale. We agree it’s no mean feat, but does Bollywood really come of age, as we get to mull over one more bowdlerised version of the world’s greatest bard’s epic? That still is not very easy to answer.

Given that the director remains faithful to the creative shades and the subtleties of the Shakespearean style, to an extent, he even executes it with exquisite éclat. In contrast, the corners that the director cut to fit Othello into the Indian social milieu, steals from it the masterstroke that made the other a phenomenal work of art.

However, Omkara not only bowls us over with the first Bollywood version of Othello, but also brings us closer to the backwaters of Bihar, the ideal setting for the green-eyed monster to sow its seeds of malice.

Despite the brilliant pace at which the story moves and the artistic swiftness, there are moments of desolate dreariness that are beautifully elegiac. The major hitch in the entire enterprise sadly is Omkara himself.

Omkara (Ajay Devgan) fails to blow a kiss of life to his character, which wobbles both as Dolly’s gallant himbo and quavers as he plays the heroic henchman to Bhaisaab (Naseeruddin Shah). After so many years in the industry, he should have known better that to run riot with a hangdog expression to play the chivalrous hero.

The movie, however, scores with the disgruntled Langda Tyagi (Saif Ali Khan), who emerges the real hero of the enterprise with his vicious villainy. You can’t help yourself from loving him after he settles his scores with the final scheming stroke. In fact, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that Saif wins all the accolades for shouldering the major brunt of the enterprise.

Dolly (Kareena Kapoor) as the whimpering wife of Omkara is neither able to etch the beauty of the dazzling Desdemona nor represent the poignant pathos of a beleaguered belle. Indu (Konkona Sen), as the wife of Tyagi, is in a far better form and fairly complements the character of Saif. Billo (Bipasha) plays her part well and provides the requisite oomph that Omkara is mostly bereft of.

Go for it cause Shakespeare doesn’t show up often in celluloid.