Tragedy strikes the point of ripened interest for any movie maker. When the audiences leave the theatre, if they leave with a heavy heart, then there is some kind of satisfaction achieved by the director, as any one feels. The truth is, grief is deeper than happiness. Vishal Bharadwaj having already adapted two other plays from literature in his previous films “Chatri Chor” (from Ruskin Bond’s “The Blue Umbrella”) and “Maqbool” (from Shakespeare’s Macbeth), both of which I need to see yet, comes with his third adaption from Shakespeare’s “Othello”, as “Omkara”.The film’s story is aware to most of the audiences even who are not an avid literature reader. The story which is open to majority of the viewers and to overcome the non-elemental surprise to his movie would have been the challenge Vishal would have faced. There are hiccups for sure but coming out of it successfully is a craft learned by experience. The story essentially boils down in between two characters. Lago in Othello being done as Langda Tyaagi (Saif Ali Khan) and the protagonist Othello as Omkara (Ajay Devgan). The trust and the betrayal are handled in between these two characters.
The film is not about justifying or questioning their action they do for their living, but it is the internal ruined relationships. The beauty of this story is that it can be adapted to any situation and applying it in the place of gang in a remote village of Uttar Pradesh state in India suits even better. Taking off the concept of complete stage set play and adding the nativity and authenticity for the location, the film is a perfect example of how a literature need to be placed rightly and precisely for a modern day world.
Omkara is a man of power. He is been guarded and worshipped by his two trustful men, Langda Tyaagi and Kesu Phirangi (Vivek Oberoi). And at the start of the movie, they do not have any problems except a marble game being won by Langda. Omkara steals the love of Dolly (Kareena Kapoor) and hence gets the wicked words from her father, of a woman who can betray her father can very well betray any one. Those brutal words do lay some bad seed in him. Still he gets it wiped off as soon as he sees the beautiful Dolly. His perplexing mind of whether to believe Langda or his innocent love is killing him. This confusion could have been better enacted by Ajay Devgan but he decided to take the “Company” Mallik face whenever he is in bad mood. When there is a doubt in his acting skills, he comes with a bang in threatening Langda to bring proof and the final sequence of being beaten by his mistakes of suspicion. He redeems his mistakes in the end as Omkara himself.
Langda is man of foul mouth. The power of control does take control of him and makes him do things in the most evil way possible. His machinations are so cleverly crafted and executed that little does naïve Kesu or the blind faith of Omkara will shudder those. He knows his actions are wrong and is beautifully given when he calls himself “serpent” and “chameleon” when his wife Indu (Konkana Sen Sharma) says there is an animal inside him. Saif Ali Khan proves that he can be the anchor of a film. He does not shy away from this down to the bone evil soul of Langda. Langda is confused too and not able to understand the actions of his leader. His immediate anger goes to the new “General”, Kesu whom Omkara elected. He attains consolation out of his machinations. In the end, he too is not sure of the truth and lies. It may be seen as an excuse but it suits well to the downtrodden uneducated Langda who believed everything is Omkara and felt insulted and neglected by him. His obsession is the result of his evil conception to burn down Kesu. It is the role any one would love to do and Saif has played with the same passion to fulfill the character in place.
Kesu is the calm player in this whole game of snake and ladder, unaware of it. He is a flirter, rage filled yet calm college kid who is in a different confusion. He does not understand the anger of Omkara towards him nor does he identifies the pit Langda is continuously ditching him in. This character is the most underplayed and yet projects lot of character. It is too bad that Vivek Oberoi gets minimal time for his Kesu in this movie. Unfortunately there is no evidence of his loyalty or passion towards Omkara. It is plainly said and believed so. It is even stranger that Langda gets enough time to project his disguised trust and loyalty towards Omkara. It is either a depiction of improper balance of characters or a notable art work.
Dolly is the innocence in this whole drama. She is blindly in love with Omkara and waits for the marriage to happen. She gets solace from Indu when she gets dark yet silent tortures from her love. It is not through merely confiding with Indu she gets ease but the happy face of Indu is what keeps her going. Kareena does justice to the role and brings on the required pathos and glamour to the film. While Konkana Sen Sharma brings in the subtle comedies and support to the role of Langda’s wife.
The film is the portrayal of tragedy. A tragedy of how power, misunderstanding, lust and betrayal can occur so powerful. The film top notches with the underlying point of executed and lost souls. The movie while moves at a very slow and cinematic pace at the start do justify those in the final hours. It does build up the momentum slow and steady to be hoisted high up in the air. Still there could have been easy elimination of couple of unnecessary songs. Vishal who also composed the score and songs of the film show cased couple of bad and brilliant pieces. The score during the first encounter of Omkara with his enemies is the worst theme music being used which on other hand could have been a true moment of musical execution. Disappointing in it, he came out with blazing guns and at the same time tears from the strings in the final sequence. Couple of short and smart re runs could have trimmed those bad patches.
Nevertheless, this is a movie stuck so loyal to the play structure and still adding the necessary flavour of art and authenticity of film work to it. “Omkara” is a work of art with solid message of tragedy. While the movie did adapt the best tragedy the literature has produced. It is sheer excruciation of losing innocent beings and that produces the best tragedy. Of course, nothing is more tragic than a loss of an innocent soul.
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