Sunday, August 06, 2006

Movie Review: Omkara

Shakespeare rocks! nose grin I haven't read or don't remember reading any work of Shakespeare's. I just know he was "the dude" of his time and story-craved directors of today use his stories to get themselves a hit. I haven't seen any movie of Vishal Bharadwaj, the director of Omkara and went in to see the movie without knowing the storyline or the ability of the director.

There was a movie in Malayalam called Kaliyattam, for which Suresh Gopi got the national award for best actor, which was also based on "Othello". So, folks who came with me to see Omkara had seen this mallu film and knew what the outcome of the story was to be. I sat there till the very end waiting for the next scene to unveil itself. Lucky me! nose smile

The movie is set in UP, where the law of the land is still subdued by the strength of the arm. Omkara(Ajay Devgan) is the right hand man of a powerful politician and a famed goon by his own means. His main lieutenants are Langda Tyagi(Saif Ali Khan) and Keshu Firangi(Viveik Oberoi). The lady love of Omkara, Dolly(Kareena Kapoor) is solved in the first 15 minutes of the movie. She goes against the wishes of her parents and by choice becomes Omkaras gonna be wife. In the meantime, the honour of being the right hand man of the politician is up for grabs as Omkara is looking into entering the public life. Against expectations of most, Omkara chooses Keshu to be the "Bahubali" instead of Tyagi. This sows the seeds of jealously in Tyagis mind and he sets forth on his mission.

Tyagi is in wait for the right time to show Keshu down and don the title of "Bahubali". He uses a family heirloom, a belly chain presented by Omkara to Dolly to be his weapon of mass destruction. Dolly misplaces it to be picked up by Tyagis wife(Konkana Sen). Tyagi then plays the double role of poisoning Omkaras ears about Dolly and Keshu having an affair and at the same time somehow coaxes Keshu to presenting the belly chain to his girl friend Billo (Bipasha Basu). With the stage set, and Omkara getting suspicious on Dolly by the day, Tyagi waits for Omkara to make a move on Keshu. But to his surprise, Omkara expects Tyagi to give him proof of the alleged affair. Tyagi rather easily manages the same using the missing belly chain as his main weapon. Omkara orders Tyagi to kill Keshu and he himself in a fit of rage kills Dolly. With the knowledge that his job is done, Tyagi celebrates. Not having taken his wife into confidence, the beans are spilt on how she got the belly chain. In anger, Tyagis wife kills Tyagi and Omkara in remorse kills himself.

There you go... the whole story. Is it enough to keep somebody glued for the better part of 3 hours? I didnt think so. Was it well made though? Yes, it was. Vishal could have done without a couple of songs and rather spent more time in glorifying the persona of Omkara and probably using a better plot to decide the fate of the movie, rather than a stolen belly chain. There was too much killing towards the end, but thats what shakespeare wrote, so can't blame the director. Ajay Devgan did well but nothing spectacular. A deglamourised Saif was the standout, while Viveik co-stars in another good movie with very little to do(like Yuva). Everybody knows Konkana can act and she did, very few expected Kareena to act and she did, and even few expected Bipasha to do anything and she didnt. wink nose All in all a decent movie, with a predictable ending with no twists. I would give it a 7.5/10.

Next movie to look forward to? None actually. I don't fancy the Chopra/Johar/Barjatya type of movies, so KANK is out of question. I am torn between Sentinel and Cars, or maybe RGV's Shiva... . I think I will go with Sentinel as I can trust Dimpy to buy the DVD for Cars. wink big nose

Categorized As:

No comments: