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17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 This version of Othello will blow you awayAug 01, 2007
By nmlhats
This was our favorite Hindi film of 2006 and in fact one of our favorite films ever. Omkara is a compelling adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, with standout acting by all involved. The film is set in rural Uttar Pradesh, almost a modern "wild west" with its depiction of a hardscrabble life ruled by lawlessness and political corruption. Omkara is gripping from beginning to end as you watch Omkara's suspicion grow, fed by Langda's need for revenge. Ajay Devgan is at his smoldering best as Omkara/Othello and you will hardly recognize Saif Ali Khan in the Langda/Iago role; he excels in this villainous part, the kind of thing he does not usually play. Kudos to Kareena Kapoor as Dolly/Desdemona; she shows here what she's truly capable of-- a lot more than smooching at the camera in a romantic comedy. Bipasha Basu makes the most of her limited role in the two item numbers, both fantastic. A fairly violent flick, don't expect your stereotypical Hindi song & dance. Cinematography is magnificent. Superb music by the film's director and screenwriter Vishal Bhardwaj, a triple threat. Soundtrack CD highly recommended.Omkara - CD
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Must SeeOct 27, 2009
By Jennifer Hopfinger
"bollywoodticket"
As was the case with director Vishal Bhardwaj's first Shakespeare adaptation, 'Maqbool' ('Macbeth'), gushing praise of his version of 'Othello' is also unavoidable. He electrifies this classic tale of insidious jealousy, setting it in mob-infested rural India, a place more like the American Wild West than Elizabethan England. The members of the all-star cast give some of the best performances of their careers. Ajay Devgan smolders as Omkara (Othello), a local gang leader who's deeply insecure about his dark skin. Kareena Kapoor plays Dolly (Desdemona), Omkara's fiancé, who's as pure of heart as she is fair of face. Saif Ali Khan is the twisted Langda (Iago), who plants seeds of suspicion about Dolly's fidelity in Omkara's mind. Konkona Sen Sharma portrays Indu (Emilia)--Omkara's sister and Langda's wife--as a smart, sassy feminist in an uber-macho world. The role of Kesu (Cassio) belongs to Vivek Oberoi, who's perfectly cast as the college-educated lover boy caught in Langda's web. Bipasha Basu plays Billo (Bianca), a sexy village entertainer and a worldly woman who nonetheless falls for Kesu's Casanova charm. Shakespeare would have been lucky to have had these performers on his stage. - The Bollywood Ticket: The American guide to Indian movies (Subscribe: The Bollywood Ticket)
Amazing & SpellbindingAug 26, 2011
By Nila K. Sharma
Vishal Bharadwaj is a great storyteller and an amazing Music Director as well. This is one of my Favorite movies of all time and I listen to the Soundtrack almost daily. The Othello story is one of Shakespeare's greatest and Bharadwaj does an amazing job translating it into modern, provincial India.
The acting is all stellar, with Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, and Kareena Kappor being standouts. As others have said this is much more than a Shakespeare retelling, and much more than a gangster movie, and yet it is also great on those levels as well.
Othello with an Indian SoulMar 15, 2011
By G. T. Bysshe
In the special features of this DVD, director Vishal Bhardwaj asserts that Omkara may be an important film because it integrates Indian life into Shakespeare's Othello. And maybe, it's even better than Shakespeare's original! (Whatever ever happened to the contribution of the English language being the reason why Shakespeare is even important at all?? As an artist he was a word-maker...)
The movie does translate the plot to Indians because of the marriage complication of the father and the bride. And in a strange way the adaptation bends the meaning of the original into a Hindi context.
In the original play, Brabantio, Desdemona's father, tell Othello: "Look to her, Moor..if thou hast eyes to see, she has deceived her father, she may thee!" i.e. watch out, she lied to me, she may lie to you..
In Omkara, we have no doubt that Dolly's father has set her up with a man she can never love, and that she would die for Omi. So Dolly's father tells Omi (English subtitle): "She (Dolly) who can deceive her father can never be anyone's to claim." As if because she refused an arranged marriage, she lied, and further, she cannot love or be faithful. It is both a philosophical statement of parenthood and a bitter rebuke.
Dolly's father is the first of the parasites...
Virgil says: "the son who does not smile (up from the crib) will not join the God at the dinner table, nor grace the sleeping cubicle of the Goddess."
A philosophy of parenthood and a constraint upon the future son: EMBRACE YOUR PARENTS IN LIFE, otherwise...the gods will not be with you. Omi has no father... It is this constraint which is turned around in an Indian context and becomes a tragedy for Dolly. Dolly's tragedy, not Omi's.
Othello is described by C.J. Sisson in 1953 as a character of some heroic nature, though not a noble, who circulates as common men and women do. He is honest, innocent and thus defenseless when his trusted cohorts sweetly deceive him. "But Shakespeare brings Othello at times too near the common man for such a tragic perspective (as we may contemplate of Kings in their elevation). There are moments in this play when the very naturalism of Shakespeare's art conflicts with his tragic purpose... [Some] passions resist tragic treatment..and jealousy is [a] "cause" insufficient to our souls."
Sisson says that the original source was a brutal and vulgar story which Shakespeare sought to transform through dramatic and language art into a tragedy that would reconcile [even] Aristotle to its theme.
Here, Omkara not only challenges the audience's received definition and appreciation of what is tragic, but also switches it off its original purpose.
The film is wonderfully cast and directed , and also some quality music (and lyric by Gulzar) for which Bhardwaj can rightfully feel proud. The effect on screen is very taught and, fortunately or maybe ironcally, stained, constrainted, with the typical Shakespearian gravitas.
I found it diffcult to sympathise with any of the male characters...Dolly's father's crocodile tears and bitterness...Omi's non-heroic, non-innocent, gratuitous violence, Langda's intensely taught, but pathetic complaint, and Dolly's overthrown groom who yearns for her, an innocent who is bathed in uncertainty, incapable of real violence, coming to know only a consumptive shame for his participation in the plots against Dolly.
On the other hand Dolly, who has given up everything to cross over from her father's house to Omi's house, a leap across a gorge, and then after successive attacks against her, willingly, lovingly, gives her consent for Omi to kill her to maintain her innocence, this is her tragedy.
Kokona Sen Sharma (Indu), Langda's wife and Dolly's aid, is the bright spot, a totally non-Shakespearean Indian movie character, though speaking as Shakespearian a line as any in the original English, even though she holds the secret of the plot. Indu, in the end, is struck by the betrayal of "this helmless ship of humanity", and is momentarily transformed into a fierce avatar of Kali the destroyer, and as quickly still, returning to human form recognizable to any Shakespearian audience, the woman of intense grief, wailing into a dark well. Curtain.
Very entertaining for us Westerners with interests in Indian cinema.
Omkara has cooled to its supposed purpose, and warmed to new tragedy- a tragedy for women. This may be the only time this has been pointed out. Maybe Othello has always been a brutal and vulgar story or men, but a tragedy for its women.
Omkara: A thousand year old Shiva linga in Kashi; Omkara, the "Syllable Om" consisting of five separate shrines, one for each part of the mystical sound; Omkara is the supreme wisdom, worshipped five-fold, the bestower of liberation,(redemption); the temple complex standing on the large inland lake called the Matsyodari Tirtha (crossing). Today only by persistent inquiry can one find the Omkara, not exactly hidden in the maze of Kashi's narrow lanes, but on a little hillock; simply not known today, located in a predominately Muslim neighborhood which few Hindus visit; its lapse is attributed to the Muslim conquest and occupation of what became known as the Adampura quarter of the city, the lake having been drained, the quarter wears an aspect of decay. ( see: Banaras: City of Light, Diana L. Eck)
Handsomely Dark, if you will forgive the punMar 04, 2011
By Nathaniel Craig
"The Neutral Christ"
I am relatively new to Indian films so, I have to take my friends' word for it that tragedies are still rare, and that that is why the film did not do as well as it could have financially. Great films do not always score well at the box office.
Really, though, what bad things can you say about a film with three leading men each putting in a powerful performance? The story is eternal, but Vishal Bhardwaj's directing and screenwriting was original and fresh, keeping the story clearly Indian while being faithful to Shakespeare's Othello.
As other reviews have pointed out, though, Saif Ali Khan as Langda (Iago from Othello) is a stand-out. Having a handsome leading man shave his head does not hide the charisma in his eyes, but it does give him a harder edge that works well for the spurned best friend come worst enemy.
--By the way I have also enjoyed Saif Ali Khan in the dark period piece/love story Parineeta Parineeta Parineeta (one of several films based on the book of which this is the newest), though the English subtitles were not the best--
There are apparently at least 2 different DVD releases of the film but I am not sure how they are different. Omkara (New Hindi Film / Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema / Hindi Film / DVD) Omkara Amazon has the "actors of the film" links different on them, but they are the same movie. I bought the one with the cover showing the faces of the three men on it only because the cover looked more like the cover of Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool Maqbool DVD 2004 Maqbool (Indian Cinema / Bollywood Movie / Hndi Film / DVD) (which I also bought and loved); the production quality was very good (including a decorative cover box around a regular dvd case), the subtitles were well translated and easy to read, and it includes the making of special feature.
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