Omkara (2006)

Shakespeare's masterpiece "Othello" set in modern India. A politically-minded enforcer's misguided trust in his lieutenant leads him to suspect his wife of infidelity.

Director:

Vishal Bhardwaj

Writers:

Vishal Bhardwaj (screenplay), Robin Bhatt (screenplay),

Stars:

Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan

14 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ajay Devgn	...	Omkara 'Omi' Shukla
Kareena Kapoor	...	Dolly Mishra
Saif Ali Khan	...	Ishwar 'Langda' Tyagi
Konkona Sen Sharma	...	Indu
Vivek Oberoi	...	Keshav 'Kesu Firangi' Upadhyay (as Viveik Oberoi)
Bipasha Basu	...	Chamanbahar 'Billo'
Naseeruddin Shah	...	Bhaisaab
Deepak Dobriyal	...	Rajoh Tiwari
Manav Kaushik	...	Surendra Kaptaan
Kamal Tiwari	...	Advocate Raghunath Mishra
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chetana Das
Rahul Kumar	...	Langda Tyagi's Son
Niraj Sah	...	Police Inspector
Pankaj Tripathy	...	Kichlu

Storyline

Advocate Raghunath Mishra has arranged the marriage of his daughter, Dolly, with Rajan, knowing fully well that Dolly loves Omkara Shukla. Before the marriage could take place, the groom's party is attacked, they flee, and Dolly is reportedly abducted. Raghunath is able to trace Dolly to Omkara, a criminal and hit-man, a verbal confrontation ensues until Politician Bhaisaab telephonically intervenes, and a crestfallen Raghunath faces the reality that Dolly was not abducted but is here with Omkara by her own free will. He warns Omkara, and departs. Shortly thereafter, Bhaisaab is shot at and wounded, announces that Omkara should stand in the next election, and as a result, Omkara appoints one of his lieutenants', Keshav Upadhyay in his place as the 'Bahubali". Omkara realizes that he may have blundered in having Keshav succeed him, as Keshav is unable to control his temper when under the influence of alcohol, which puts him in the bad books of Omkara. Then Omkara suspects that Keshav ...

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Plot Keywords:

marriage | jealousy | shakespeare's othello | train | dancer | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

28 July 2006 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$294,988 (USA) (4 August 2006)

Gross:

£207,386 (UK) (4 August 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Big Screen Entertainment, Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

155 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title of the film, "Omkara", was decided by a contest that was open to the public. Three names were shortlisted for the title and the general public voted in by SMS to choose their favorite. The selected names included "Omkara", "O Saathi Re" and "Issak" (the western UP pronunciation of the word "Ishq"). The public voted overwhelmingly in favor of "Omkara". However, all three of the possible titles are songs on the soundtrack ("Issak" being another name for the song "Namak").

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Goofs

During the first scene of dressing up the bridegroom for marriage, Omkara is wearing a garland made from 1000 rupee notes. However, during the marriage, he is wearing a 500 rupee notes garland.

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Quotes

Langda Tyagi: [Opening monologue] A thin line separates a fool from a fucker. On one end of the line lies the fool and on the other, the fucker. Snap the line then who's the fool and who's the fucker that's the million dollar question, my friend. Let's just see the pretty groom. I'll be damned. You are a fool, right?

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Connections

Featured in Aa Dekhen Zara (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Beedi"
Written by Gulzar
Composed by Vishal Bhardwaj
Rhythm by Hafeez, Musharraf, Roshan, Bhagwan and Aslam
Performed by Sunidhi Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Nachiketa Chakravorty and Clinton Cerejo
Courtesy of EROS Music

User Reviews

If you have not seen an Indian movie in a long time, this is the one to break your hiatus with.

I took only the masterline from Othello and sketched it from there on my own. I almost felt as if I had written it …only 400 years ago.- Vishal Bharadwaj

Haughty comment of a wannabe or simplistic fascination of an artist? A fairly new and art-house director with a star-cast to challenge any Yash Chopra production and an eight-figure production budget is not just a rarity in Indian cinema, but unheard of. What Vishal ends up delivering is highly-intelligent cinema with all the accessibility of any major commercial release (akin to a Batman Begins as a summer movie). I can't resist quoting from my review of Maqbool: Give Vishal Bharadwaj a solid pat on the back, and sit back waiting for his next movie. This man seethes brilliance in his film-making. His dialogues, his script, his music, and his direction - all are top-notch. This movie proves that Makdee was no fluke.

Omkara (Ajay Devgan) is a gang-leader in the semi-lawless state of UP. Bhaisaab's (Naseer's) election win promotes Omi, leaving his "Youth Leader" seat empty. In a logical political move, Omi selects Kesu Firangi (Vivek Oberoi) as his successor ignoring his loyal right-hand-man Langda Tyagi (Saif). Green with envy, Langda slowly poisons Omkara's mind against Kesu leading him down a path too dark for anyone's good. Kareena, Konkona & Bipasha play Omi, Langda & Kesu's love interests respectively.

The movie starts in the middle of an attempted wedding of a girl and carries on until she gets married. The events that transpire inbetween, the turns that different people take to affect her life and the eventual effect is Vishal Bharadwaj's unique Omkara. The title of his second Shakespearean movie went through a few changes before finally resting on his Othello equivalent. But this movie could easily have also been called "Dolly Mishra" or "Langda Tyagi". These three characters equally occupy our minds with their unpredictable fates and yet it is the triumph of Saif Ali Khan's powerfully vile performance that his limp Tyagi towers head and shoulders above anybody around him.

Vishal writes the Screenplay & Dialogues, composes music, sings and directs in just his fourth movie yet which only strengthens the silent promise his is making to his fans of greater things to come. Missing are the escapist dream sequences and melodramatic dialogues that Hindi movies are generally associated with. He instead roots the movie in realism with even the song-and-dance sequences being what are existent in a real-world Indian lifestyle.

Anyone who has followed Indian cinema since the 70s will note the clear influence in Vishal's work-style from his previous two movies. It does help to have this influence (Gulzar) as the lyricist of the movie and (my guess) a quiet adviser too. The most clear indication of this is in the dialogues and the style of sparsely sprinkled humour.

My only gripe with the movie was the language spoken by the characters. It is a mix of Hindi & Bhojpuri - something that is indeed spoken in U.P. But this gripe is more to do with my short-coming in not understanding the language rather than a flaw in the movie.

If you have not seen an Indian movie in a long time, this is the one to break your hiatus with.

My Rating --> 4 of 5

P.S: Vishal Bharadwaj has directed, in order, Makdee (original story), Maqbool(Shakespeare's Macbeth), Chatri Chor(Ruskin Bond's Blue Umbrella) and Omkara(Shakespeare's Othello). Chatri Chor remains unreleased although it has been shown in a few festivals around Europe.