"Othello" in the lawless badlands of Uttar Pradesh.
You know the story of Othello. You have read the play a number of times. You have seen the plays and movies one by Laurence Olivier and anther by Orson Welles a couple of times. You know every move in the plot. Still why is this fascination for the story line? Omkraa (adaptation of Othello) by Vishal Bharadwaj is brilliant. I am one who is averse to stupid idiotic cruel villains of Hindi and Tamil films. But here Langda (Iago) is a fascinating villain. His diabolic plotting of the conspiracy and his clever steps in poisoning the mind of Omkaraa(Othello) is portrayed in such a clever manner, though you hate him yet you wonder his diabolic cleverness. Both Ajay Devgan as Omkaraaa and Saif Ali Khan as Langda were brilliant. In the portrayal of langda-Iago there are no evil smiles no hoarse laughter he just moves his pieces on the chess board with a brilliance of a grand master. . Perhaps his motive was not to hurt Dolly (Desdemona) but to hurt Kesu (Cassius). But he does not mind the collateral damage to Dolly . Kareena Kaporr as Dolly is good but her scope is limited. It is again Konkana Sharma, as Indu (Emilia), langda's wife who has an unconscious pivotal role in the plot, brilliantly brings the feisty girl to her portrayal. Ajay Devgan with his minimal movements was very good in contrast to his wooden acting in "Compnay". But it was Saif Ali Khan who was brilliant as malicious Langda.
Only thing missing is the beautiful poetry of Shakespeare. You don't expect beautiful poetry from the lawless semi educated environment though the director tried to bring in some poetry in the songs and in some pieces of dialogue.
You know the story of Othello. You have read the play a number of times. You have seen the plays and movies one by Laurence Olivier and anther by Orson Welles a couple of times. You know every move in the plot. Still why is this fascination for the story line? Omkraa (adaptation of Othello) by Vishal Bharadwaj is brilliant. I am one who is averse to stupid idiotic cruel villains of Hindi and Tamil films. But here Langda (Iago) is a fascinating villain. His diabolic plotting of the conspiracy and his clever steps in poisoning the mind of Omkaraa(Othello) is portrayed in such a clever manner, though you hate him yet you wonder his diabolic cleverness. Both Ajay Devgan as Omkaraaa and Saif Ali Khan as Langda were brilliant. In the portrayal of langda-Iago there are no evil smiles no hoarse laughter he just moves his pieces on the chess board with a brilliance of a grand master. . Perhaps his motive was not to hurt Dolly (Desdemona) but to hurt Kesu (Cassius). But he does not mind the collateral damage to Dolly . Kareena Kaporr as Dolly is good but her scope is limited. It is again Konkana Sharma, as Indu (Emilia), langda's wife who has an unconscious pivotal role in the plot, brilliantly brings the feisty girl to her portrayal. Ajay Devgan with his minimal movements was very good in contrast to his wooden acting in "Compnay". But it was Saif Ali Khan who was brilliant as malicious Langda.
Only thing missing is the beautiful poetry of Shakespeare. You don't expect beautiful poetry from the lawless semi educated environment though the director tried to bring in some poetry in the songs and in some pieces of dialogue.