Reel Reviews: Vishal Bhardwaj's Shakespearian Trilogy; Omkara (2006)

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Reel Reviews

Movie: Omkara

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast: Ajay Devgan as Omkara 'Omi' Shukla, Saif Ali Khan as Ishwar 'Langda' Tyagi, Kareena Kapoor as Dolly Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal as Rajan 'Rajju' Tiwari, Vivek Oberoi as Keshav 'Kesu' Upadhyaya, Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu Tyagi with Bipasha Basu as Billo Chamanbahar and Naseeruddin Shah as Bhaisaab

Genre: Crime/Drama

Score: 9.0/10

Pros:-The film revels in Othello's tragedy encompassing it with intriguing racial, criminal and political commentary of the Hinterlands

          -Themes of loyalty, jealousy, love and psychology invade the script giving it a sense of purpose and depth to the tragic plot

          -Tone of the screenplay is kept to point, never meandering into any melancholy or melodrama. Drama is restrained in the film even in a tense climax 

          -A much more faithful adaptation with only few changes that add extra levels to characters including a Richard III like Iago and Dolly-Omkara's impending marriage adding tension to the film

          -The dialogues are so immersed in the locales it feels like they're felt rather than just written

          -Characters are complex and engaging while adapted perfectly. Standout ideas being race considering caste for Omkara (Othello) and the puppeteer stirring emotions and the motion of the plot in the form of Langda (Iago)

          -Action is shot with dynamic brilliance capturing the grit of the situation. The camera works itself through the setting divulging its murkiness and base color palette with the cinematography juxtaposing darks and lights for important sub text. Shots also pay attention to the claustrophobia of situations.

          -The editing is crisp as it adds a sense of tension to the slow burning drama

          -Bhardwaj well understands the lingo and customs of his setting while molding it into the prowess of Shakespeare's written word. He also extracts surprising performances from all of his cast

          -The whole cast is sublime. Dobriyal leaves a lasting impression with the way he handles the heartbreak and slyness of his character. Oberoi emotionally tugs at you heart with his bad boy attitude and moments of emotional outburst. Sharma starts of slowly building to something remarkable with he striking delivery but more importantly her grasp of emotions on hand

          -Kareena Kapoor exudes the ethereal beauty of a character reflecting it with an innocence and purity captured through her expressions

          -Devgan is stellar as the hard hitting brooding protagonists. He mines the depth of the last few minutes with inspiring turn of emotions while keeping in check the earlier characteristics.

          -But the show is stolen by Saif Ali Khan. From the first scene all we can see is Langda Tyagi, it's a testament to his skill that he takes something unusual to him and turns it into a performance that is equally chilling as it is pitiable as he uses his chameleon like ability to drive the plot forward. His chemisty with Dobriyal, heck with everyone, heck all the male men's chemistries are brilliant.

          -The score has a methodological omnipresence through out the film. Capturing both moments of gleeful romance and tense mind game and psychological breakdowns

          -Despite being item filled, songs carry context of their own in terms of both revealing character and back story

Cons:-The writers don't convincingly portray certain plot points. The film meanders yet never develops the idea of why Dolly loves Omkara or why Omkara is susceptible to Langda's words since it jumps a tab bit with that

           -The films focus on Langda leaves the other characters far underdeveloped 

           -The commentary regarding crime politics and Omkara's caste issues are just scratched on the surface

           -Bhardwaj indulges himself in the world, especially with his music

           -The score takes time to get going, initially being too much masala. Despite great meaning, the songs in the film could have been reduced by one or two. 

Best Scene: Langda deep in regret and anger over Omkara choosing Kesu, smashes his head on his mirror and spreads his blood on his head in a manner as selecting himself as general, a hollow fantasy but the signs to comes of the monster Langda will become

Best Performance: Saif Ali Khan as Ishwar 'Langda' Tyagi 

Best Dialogue: 'Bewakoof aur chutiye mein dhaage bhar ka farak hota haiga bhaiya. Dhage ke ingay bewakoof aur ungay, chutiya. Aur jo dhaaga kheeche lo, to kaund haiga bewakoof aur kaund hai chutiya, carod rupiye ka prasan hai bhaiya.'-Langda Tyagi

(A thin line (or thread) separates the fool from the dumbass. On one end of the line lies the fool and on the other, the dumbass. Upon snapping the line it's a million dollar question as to who's the fool and who's the dumbass, brother.)

The second of the Shakespeare trilogy by Vishal Bhardwaj; the tragedy of Othello 

Story

Omkara is Vishal Bhardwaj's second film in his Shakespeare Trilogy, based on the tragedy of Othello. Here Omkara (Othello) is a gangster cum politician and general/enforcer for the party run by Tiwari Bhaisaab (Duke of Venice). With the elections on the horizon, Omkara is being promoted and he is to select his successor amongst the loyal Langda Tyagi (Iago) and youth driven Kesu (Cassio). When he selects Kesu, a plan hatches in Langda's mind as he begins a daring game to use Omkara's insecurity against him in realizing that Kesu is having an affair with his soon to be wife Dolly (Desdemona). A game that will produce rivers of blood in the Uttar Pradesh Hinterlands.

From an adaptation stand point, this is Vishal Bhardwaj's most faithful. It takes the simplistic nature of Othello's tragedy and delves into the themes of the play in a thoughtful manner with deep insight into the characters that take part in the play.

One of those themes of course relate to its title character. In the original, Othello is often depicted as a man of different race as such his ascension to power always cut against the color of his skin. Here's where a lot of the narrative falters, when it comes to being fair in its depth to characterize Omkara.

 

In the earlier plays Othello was designated as a man of a different race, in this movie it becomes a Caste issue

We learn that the racial change is a change of Caste, making Othello the son of a Brahmin father and a lower caste mother hence a Half-caste. Dialogues from characters all round point at his half caste heritage, but the writers rarely ever divulge into that aspect further. It's a hot button topic and a sly commentary that caste is a replacement for race (since in India we all are of the same race but our religious beliefs put some people down and some people up). Yet Bhardwaj's and his writers tread carefully thus simply dropping the plot point after poking at it on the surface.

It's one of the issues of this film that there are multiple plot threads running across the script, despite how overlong it is. The script just stands there for much of its second act, relying on a lot of repetitive conversation about the upcoming elections and songs.

There's a lot of plot points then left under developed, most importantly is the incident that gets the ball rolling; Omkara and Dolly's love story. We never really get a hint as to why Dolly really falls for Omkara, sure there are moments where they're canoodling and a song (Naina)supposedly revealing their love story but it never shines through despite the actors efforts. This is because it has an awkward narration attached to it.

Another rushed point is the jarring point between Langda's slow burn turn from mischief to devil and then finally convincing Omkara that Dolly and Kesu are having an affair. It's not that bad, after all the Iago here in the form of Langda is given scope to realize his hatred for Omkara's choices and more, but the way that whole arc transitions to the one scene where he hints at the affair doesn't make sense. This is because Omkara is quick to believe him, both characters arcs are severely diluted in that one moment and some restrained in writing could have helped expand this moment better.

Still as I've mentioned this is a faithful piece with some amazing writing by Bhardwaj, Abhishek Chaubey and Robin Bhatt.

There's tons of themes the screenplay is fitted with, some even from the play. The writers really edge around the idea of Othello-Iago's relationship, which forms the core for this plot as mentioned being unfocused everywhere else.

In this the theme of Loyalty really works its way into Iago's character, who authorities persist is as important as Othello in Bard's play. Langda here is for all purposes the unspoken second man to Omkara, he is Ishwar Tyagi known as Langda (A man with a hitch in his leg) because he was injured serving his general. In those ways including his physical deformation such as rotten teeth, he is more like Richard III.

It comes as no surprise that Langda is the character that drives the film and his idea of his loyalty that fuels the fire of the plot. Langda never shows any signs of ambition in the beginning, just a sense of mischief as noted by him telling Rajju (Rodrigo) to stop Omkara (his own general) from kidnapping Dolly, to see the fun result of this.

Eventually sparks ignite in the anger and shame that Rajju harbors at losing his woman, and eventually one that Langda builds over time. The question of Loyalty rears its ugly head a tad bit before Kesu's ascension, Rajju overhearing Omkara's promotion on the news believes then that Langda is up for Omkara's vacated spot. 

 

It's Rajjus own passion for Dolly and nagging of Tyagi's lost manhood that gets Langda moving his devilish schemes. He even includes Rajju as a scapegoat in his plans. 

He runs to Langda and excites him on this possible news, shattering his dreams when it doesn't happen. The metaphor of vulnerability as played in Maqbool also takes seed here, when a lazy (non-ambitious) shirtless (like with Maqbool against Nimmi's protests to kill Abbaji) Langda is given this news.  

This drives Langda's ambition to want to be general, put down when Omkara chooses Kesu cause of his student connections, in the temple. They write the scene with an impeccable understanding, teasing them with the improbable (as Omkara hands Langda the plate of red dye, which is spread on the next general) and then hitting hard with the inevitable (as the red dye is spread across Kesu's head).

Bhardwaj and his writers clearly revel the torture their pen puts Langda in and the transformation it produces, as the film is littered heavy with scenes breaking into the psyche of this monster.

A powerful scene is after the selection when Langda looks desperately at a mirror. He smashes it and spreads the blood on his head to accentuate the idea of him selecting himself like Omkara did Kesu.

This is powerful because it first gives hints of the heartbreak (mirror shattering) that Langda feels at Omi's betrayal. Secondly the blood symbolises his efforts put in for Omkara and how it has wasted away as it simply lies on his forehead but with no meaning.

Finally his stare into the mirror, is him trying to find the rural uncultured animal they (Omkara and the others) realize he is as compared to the sophisticated Kesu. So he decides there that he will be the animal they thinks he is inside but from a facial value as with the mirror he will reflect the outward personality of honest virtue.

It's a sort of juxtapose the script picks up on between Langda and Kesu that helps flesh out Kesu's personality, more than the simple English speaking womanizer he is.

Other scenes are when Langda is privy to moments of character revelation. As a character he is constantly holding a sort of long distance rifle and in one case; a camera. This symbolizes his method to foresee schemes he can concoct and his distance from situations but his hawk like eyesight on everything. 

One such scene is where Rajju watches from his shoulder as Dolly and Omkara share a loving moment, from his shoulder Langda sees that and Rajju as well.  Thus indicating his distances to the situation but his insight to the secrets and desires of these characters so as he can play devil in manipulating them to do his deeds and accomplish his goals.

Another such scene is Langda taking pictures at his son's party. The camera providing a way for him to foresee his next path while giving him a distance view from the actual occurrence of the situation as he sees Dolly feeding Kesu a cake happily. A plan hatching in his mind.

Moments of conversation between Langda and Rajju also give way for information on the man's psyche forcing him to be the monster and his ruthlessness in getting his goal. The great thing the writers also do is have a layer of ambiguity to his endgame, the what will he get at the end of this is a question mark?

Is Langda set to try and becoming general or cause Omkara to come spiraling down to the monstrous and animalistic level, that he was forced to be place on. It ties well into the core of the relationship between not just both men, but all three of them and as well as the theme of man's setting creating man's nature.

Apart from however, no other character in the script engages you that way. The supporting characters of Rajju (Rodrigo), Indu (Emilia), Kesu (Cassio) and Billo (Bianca) are all just there to play puppet to the puppeteer (Langda). They're all adapted well, but nothing more.

As aforementioned, a lot of plot threads are left hanging and underdeveloped as such Omkara's character suffers a lot. There's no real barrier between the caste issue and Omkara's rise, yet moments shine through particularly when Langda and Omkara are paired together. Omkara's insecurities are captured well, especially as the script flits between his rage and inner loss of confidence and love for the purity that Dolly shines with. 

There's also the heroic stance the writers take in displaying Omkara's brooding manner with his ability to lead his men with a firm hand. It's right on the money with the character from the play.

Dolly on the other hand is an intriguing perfect to the source character, that is simply excitingly changed due to circumstances the plot takes outside of Othello. For example, the best thing the writers do is have Dolly opt to go with Omkara yet not marry him straight away. It lets the characters purity shine through, yet keeps that certain sexual edge to the plot between the two characters. Heck for a moment (when Dolly makes love to Omkara and afterwards wakes up and asks him to forgive Kesu, remember at this moment Omkara suspects her and Kesu of having an affair) she makes you question whether Langda is lying or not.

It's that little tick of will they, wont they, that adds a palpable tone of tension to the heavy drama through the film. The ticking bomb blasts in a fashion of well engaged Shakespearean drama in the climax as all hell breaks loose.  One of the most wonderfully written scenes in the movie.

It's those moments of character interaction rather than the character that add the drama, levity, passion and tension that make the writing work and the plot going when it really needs to. It helps that Bhardwaj spices these confrontations with some amazing dialogue. He adapts a Khariboli dialect, adding the rustic flavor that the visuals intend. There's tons of swear words occasionally mouthed by Langda and the others, but more to that there's vibes of lust and passion produced from the words. There's also moments that foreshadow certain events, provide irony whenever somebody judges Langda wrongly and true meaning to the revenge saga that Langda takes up.

Overall the script isn't without blemishes. The script could have done with water tight focus on the main plot, since it seems to want to do that. However it tries too make too much commentary on too many things, without touching upon any point deeply. The films focus could have gone to all its characters, yet there's no denying that focusing on Langda makes for a hell of an entertaining and psychologically powerful film.

Score: 8.7/10

Direction

There's something vivacious about the film that Vishal captures through the lens of the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh. His direction is far more assured than it was in Maqbool, that he is willing to take things he does previously to a whole other level and add new things to the mix.

Firstly his work with the actors is one of the most admirable things about Bhardwaj, he is the quintessential actors director and has literally pulled out some of the finest performance of their careers from those he directs. Whether it be Pankaj Kapur in Maqbool or Shahid Kapur in Haider, he tends to extract the finest causing his actors to peer into their souls and provide a shining performance.

No better film is an example to back this up then Omkara, each actor here is at a top notch level and Bhardwaj is clearly responsible for this. It's no wonder that he focuses on Langda as much as Omkara, cause he invests himself in the character; through confidence in the actor, to the music and assured writing. This all in turn makes his job as a director, a cakewalk.

Despite the script meandering, he never fears to place his camera in a conversation for long where mostly expletives are of key. He does this constantly with Saif's Langda and Dobriyal's Rajju. It's a hallmark of a great director when he can trust his actors to engage the audience.

He also doesn’t shy from vividly focusing on his villain, providing for detailed and semi-controversial subtext. There's an effeminate quality he adds to Langda by making the character and Saif do and wear certain things, from the nail polish to the dot on the head. It all helps in alluding to Langda's unhealthy obsession over Omkara.

Yet there's moments where he clearly fails or seems captured by an all star cast. In efforts to divide moments, Bhardwaj spends too much time with his first love; his music. There's too many moments where either Bhardwaj or his editor could have learned to realize that too much time is spent ogling at Bipasha's body rather than making a point.

Despite that the editing is quite crisp, keeping an under the surface tense atmosphere to the feature. There's always a flow to proceeding the editing keeps, it really works its way around the lives of characters while plotting with Langda on his schemes.

An example of clearly defined editing that well explores the subtext is during the end of the song 'O Saathi Re'. After a passionate night we see Omkara and Dolly lying together, her body glowing ethereal as a sense of highlighting her purity while the scene quickly cuts to both Langda and Indu having their own fun revolving around Langda's quest to get the heirloom from Indu. Indu is then seen lying on Langda's stomach and both sweating and panting for air, their sweat showing that they have gone through an ordeal and the darkness of the room capturing the sin Indu has committed in helping her husband and Langda's own wickedness.

The cinematography is one of the most brilliant pieces in this film. The camera navigates through the dusky and rustic area the characters occupy, constantly placing itself in claustrophobic situations such that it captures the depths of their minds, hearts and soul. The color palette of browns used is wonderfully and matches the idea of color the costume department adds to the film. 

 

At the center of the film is Langda Tyagi, green with envy. Played by Saif Ali Khan. The two smartest moves Vishal made with this film

Speaking of costumes, they are fitted to the area the characters live in and specific to the characters themselves. Color is an important tool that Dolly Ahluwalia and Vishal Bhardwaj work on, the three main characters providing an understanding of them through what they wear.

Dolly is mostly clad in white depicting her innocence and her purity in her love for Omkara. Omkara is constantly wearing black as an indication of his dark heart and easily or possibly already poisoned mind in his love for Dolly. Langda predominantly wears green as a sign of his envy over Omkara and those he favors.

Another aspect that Vishal improves upon from Maqbool, is the action. He really adds a touch of masala to the scenes of action, their as frantic pace to how the camera flits around the screen as Omkara and his men fight while Langda tensely tries to fire at the right person. Another scene is when Omkara chases a political rival from a train through housing areas in the dark. It's gritty and grime but its fast paced keeping the viewer on edge, despite the repercussion less event to the main plot.

While despite his need to over indulge, Vishal proves that he understands the world of Shakespeare and in turn the world he creates in this film, thus making for one of the most visually engaging experiences under his direction. 

Score: 9.1/10 

Performances

In terms of all out cast, this is some of the best work in Bhardwaj's films. Every single actor performs at a top notch level, never faltering for once. Unlike Maqbool and Haider (the third film in the trilogy) however none of the cast members reach the level each performer individually does without the chemistry of each other, apart from Saif Ali Khan of course.

As I said, it's chemistry that matters in the film specifically with the four main male actors in the film. First of all let's talk about Deepak Dobriyal, dubbed as his debut (despite being a part of Maqbool) this is Dobriyals first taste of a big role. Dobriyal takes it with both hands and runs with it, creating a sniveling conniving individual tied to Langda as Rajju. His chemistry with Saif is brilliant, but it's his snake like delivery that reeks of the lecher type of a man Rajju is and the unwavering passion he has for Dolly.

Bipasha as Billo and Naseeruddin Shah as Bhaisaab are equally effective in their extended cameos.

Vivek stumble a bit, to really grasp the emotional complexities of his character as he really overdoes the Casanova bit. However when paired with Ajay Devgan's raging Omkara he somehow turns his performance around and makes you feel for the lost soul Kesu is in this dark and bloody world.

Kareena Kapoor for much of the time sinks into the ethereal quality of her character, but she also says a lot with her silences as much as she does with capturing the characters spirit. There's a sense that the character could be a failed Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but Kareena has the ability to turn such a character around and give a performance of enlightened depth by her expressions of such a character.

Konkona takes time to hit her stride, a conflicting feel to the type of double meaning dialogue she initially has to give but once she is allowed to capture the motherly feeling Indu provides her delivery of necessarily repeat dialogues and body language just click. She's sublime in the climax, really wrenching the tension out of the melodrama and shocking with her screen presence, in fact outshining her co-stars in that moment of violence.

A lot of people tend to forget that most of Shakespeare's protagonists in their initial period are brooding soldier like figures, this is clearly more evident with Othello than even Mabeth and Hamlet. It's disheartening to see when people forget that the actor in question has to be understated, as both Irrfan (Maqbool) and Shahid (Haider) were for their respective films. This is amplified when too add meat to the film, the first act is relatively stretched as is the case with all three movies.

In this case it's the same for Ajay Devgan's Omkara, and no one does brooding the best then Devgan. He banks on his smoldering looks and vacant but emotionally tuned eyes to express the simmering rage, haunting past and piercing insecurities within. He pulls off the character with aplomb, really riveting in the action sequences but capturing the tragic nature of the character. His scenes with Dolly reflect a tenderness that Devgan does so well with his physical performance, the last scene especially as he kills Dolly and rues her.

He shares great chemistry with his cast specifically Vivek, Kareena but more importantly Saif. 

 

Saif's performance as Langda Tyagi dominates the film (as it does my blog) allowing for one of the finest modern villain in Hindi cinema. 

Speaking of which. From the first scene he appears in to the last, there's no sign of Saif Ali Khan in the film. Instead what it feels like is that the audience is actually watching Langda Tyagi, I know it's a cliché to say that but it's true. Shedding his ultra urban boy look for this Desi grungy ugly despicable character, Khan really mines to the depths of his ability to provide his finest performance.

At the point the film came, Khan was on a roll after a decade of toiling away. He had just won the National Award the previous year, but he was still doing roles his image fit to. Here though, everything changes. Saif carries Langda with a vigor, he plays off the early mischievousness of his character brilliantly.

The scene that really does it is when Omkara select Kesu as the next general, the camera scans Langda's face and the vivid and swift expressions Saif dolls out are a reflection of each thought process the character goes through. His wicked smile captures you, his rough delivery engages and his body language embodies both a scheming rat and a terrifying wolf.

He also works well on the feminine qualities Bhardwaj places on Langda, constantly shining with the peering eyes and the stuff he adorns himself with. A key scene being when he wears Omkara's family heirloom on his head and laughs, it's equally enticing as it is chilling.

A powerful scene is after the selection of Kesu when Langda looks desperately at a mirror. He smashes it and spreads the blood on his head to accentuate the idea of him selecting himself like Omkara did Kesu.

This is powerful because it first gives hints of the heartbreak (mirror shattering) that Langda feels at Omi's betrayal. Secondly the blood symbolizes his efforts put in for Omkara and how it has wasted away as it simply lies on his forehead but with no meaning.

Finally his stare into the mirror, is him trying to find the dehati uncultured animal they realize he is as compared to the sophisticated Kesu. So he decides there that he will be the animal they thinks he is inside but from a facial value as with the mirror he will reflect the outward personality of honest virtue. 

Saif with his slight British twang even gets that accent and dialect pitch perfect, better than any of the other actors.

Each step is perfectly captured by this mesmerizing performance Saif Ali Khan, and a valid reason as to why Bhardwaj was smart to focus the film on Langda. Never has deep dark ugliness looked so amazing and never has evil been this good to watch.

Initially Aamir Khan was up for this role, if it had gone as planned then modern Bollywood history would not be the same and Saif's brilliance would not have shined through.

Overall it's ironic that a whole cast gives performances that rarely falter if at all, yet they can still be outshined by miles by one single performance. Saif Ali Khan leaves you awestruck, amidst a bunch of performances that will go underrated because of this.

Score: 9.7/10

Score/Soundtrack

Bhardwaj's forte though is music and it works here better than it did in Maqbool, yet you get the sense that there's to much music and an A-List cast demands to be backed by some music and scores the droves of audiences can sing and hum to.

There's meaning to the item songs than usual, I know I hate item songs and it does show a lack of material by the director but it works. The songs help in moving Langda's schemes briskly.

Even then there's one to many songs for no reason other than to titillate or just cover space in the film, even one important song really fails to capture what makes Dolly's love for Omkara plausible.

As I said though their hummable.

The score also takes time to get going. Despite the tune for Omkara really defining the character, it blares on the screen as if it comes from some Masala film. Though once the plot really gets moving, the score is subtle and moving in peeling layers of the psychological frames of the characters especially the devilish mind of Langda.

Overall music is a brilliant part in any Bhardwaj film and is magnificently works here, despite some shortcomings.

Score: 8.5/10

Up next is the review for the last installment in Vishal Bhardwaj's magnificent trilogy based on the Bard's plays, the tragedy of Hamlet AKA Haider!

'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia