CinemaClown Omkara is Vishal Bhardwaj's "Wild West" version of William Shakespeare's 17th century classic, "Othello", where the action is set against the milieu of political warfare in the interiors of Uttar Pradesh. It is a classic theme of love, deception, jealousy and passion.Omkara (Ajay Devgan) is a gifted chieftain who heads a gang of outlaws, including the crafty Langda Tyagi(Saif Ali Khan) and the dynamic Kesu(Viveik Oberoi) amongst his chief cohorts. Langda's pride is slighted when Omi appoints Kesu as his chief lieutenant. Raging with envy, he hatches a plot to falsely implicate Omi's beautiful fiancé Dolly (Kareena Kapoor), in an illicit affair with Omi's 'favourite lieutenant' Kesu. Using petty insinuations and lies, Langda keeps poisoning Omi's mind till one day he snaps and goes amok tearing up his secure world, leading up to a horrific tragedy.Vishal Bhardwaj creates the perfect setting for the film with a combination of great music, wonderful cinematography and a relentlessly dark atmosphere. This is a director who knows what he is doing and is a master at it. Maqbool(his previous directional feature) was brilliant, no doubt about that, but with Omkara, Vishal cements his place among the bests in directing world.Dark theme, strong language, taut script, brilliantly executed drama sequences and its cast.. that's Omkara. Ajay Devgan & Kareena Kapoor deliver one of their finest performances. Viveik Oberoi didn't have much screen time but he still justified his character pretty well. Konkona Sen Sharma was stunning as Indu and her performance was surprisingly even better than Ajay and Kareena, in my opinion.But, the best part of Omkara is Saif Ali Khan, who delivers the most smashing performance of his film career, as Langda Tyagi. Show-stealer in every scene, the rawness in his quotes and evil in his looks are sure to leave you speechless. It's one of the greatest performances of all time and Langda Tyagi do ranks as, possibly, the finest villain ever in Hindi film industry. You just cant hate this performance even if you want to.. its that good.One of the finest Hindi movies of its decade, Omkara is an exquisite work of art, with each person putting in their best. It is a classic, setting new standards, in storytelling and film-making in Indian film industry. Watch it for Saif if you can't for someone else. This is a performance of a lifetime. And movies like Omkara are made once in years. So better don't miss it.

Afzal Shaikh The first thing that deserves mention in Omkara is its authentic, carefully cultivated sense of place, as it relishes its location in rural Uttar Pradesh (UP), a dry, dusty land, distant from the first world civilisation that can be found in Delhi, UP's state capital. And Omkara's characters are suited to live on the land, wild and gauche, but also revealing depth and colour, modern in their own way, and speaking a mixture of Hindi with the local dialect, so much so it is hard to understand what they are saying half of the time (so for once even most Indians would probably benefit from subtitles). It is almost a place forgotten by time, and yet pockets like this still exist in the vastness of India.The superb location is telling for Vishal Bharadwaj's reworking of Othello, Shakespeare's famous Elizabethan play with its heady thematic mix of racism, illicit sex and power. Omkara retains the illicit sex and power, and cleverly adapts European racism towards African into India's residual but still rigid caste system, itself a racial system- after all the Sanskrit word for Caste is Varna, which means colour.The plot of Omkara concerns an extended family of dacoits, or bandits, headed by Omkara 'Omi' Shukla, played by Ajay Devgan, a half-caste who now heads the family by default as his father had no full-caste heirs. Omkara is a man of substance. True, he is a bandit who leads a gang of dacoits, but this being India, where there exists a nexus between politics and crime, he is a man of high local standing, and he is staunch allies with Baaisaab, a local politician (Naseeruddin Shah). But in India caste can still matter a great deal, and when Omkara marries the daughter of a powerful and proud local family of high caste, an explosive situation is narrowly avoided. Still, as the wedding is organised and an election nears, the situation is ripe for exploitation by Saif Ali Khan's Langda, the reprised Iago, a deceivingly simple lieutenant of the gang unhappy with his position.It should be clear that Omkara is not a traditional 'Bollywood' film. It is earthy, even grizzly, and shocking in its off-centre depiction of India. However it reintegrates distinctive 'Bollywood' elements by cleverly and imaginatively reworking them into the film. For instance, a brilliant 'Bollywood' song and dance- though refracted through a mujra club night.Moreover, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu and Kareena Kapoor are mainstream stars and all are skillfully used, along with parallel cinema (India's Independent cinema) regular Shah. The cast as a whole give strong performances. However, Saif Ali Khan deserves special mention for rising to his role with such relish, matched with a deep insight into his character, the insidious, canny, deeply flawed but always charismatic Langda. My only problem with Omkara is that it seems to want to have its cake and eat it too. While it undoubtedly contains an Indian reality overlooked in mainstream Indian films, this gritty, though vibrant realism sits oddly with Omkara's visual indulgence, and the script's sense of doomed tragedy fails, in this one aspect, to modernise the original play, and makes Omkara seem almost fey and old fashioned. Combined, these elements of the film risk upsetting the modern viewer's willingness to suspend his or her sense of disbelief. Still, Omkara is a vibrant and original reworking of Othello in Modern India which signals the advancement of mainstream Indian Cinema.

alkarania I always appreciate it when Indian directors try to make films that aren't just another tired Bollywood musical. There's nothing inherently wrong with musicals, but does every Indian film have to be one? That said, the whole premise of Omkara didn't quite work for me. Othello was a noble character - a soldier, a hero. You could understand why Desdemona would love him. Omkara was not noble - he was a gangster. Why did Dolly love him?It was harder to empathise with Omkara and his downfall after you see him being a thug. You wonder what the delicate and sheltered Dolly would possibly have in common with him.

chirag_shah775 This film is VERY good....It is of international standards...But then it makes you wonder why isn't it popular among the non-Indian people. The acting in the film is amazing. The cinematography and direction is brilliant. This film is of International standards among films like Black Friday and Eklavya. Shakespeare would be proud if he was to see this Hindi adaptation of Othello. But the question is why do the Western people still think of Indian films as cheesy love stories. Why do films like kkkg, Kal Ho Na Ho and Bride and Prejudice become known among the western audience while films like these are ignored? Bollywood, start marketing better! Saif Ali Khan is brilliant Langda Tyagi (Iago)...he is a natural in this films. Ajay Devgan is Amazing as Omkara (Othello). Quality Indian films are being ignored while commercial films starring Amitabh and Shahrukh become hits. People need to realize it's not about the star cast but about the story. This films, Omkara, Black Friday, Eklavya, and Rang de Basanthi (Kind of) are good films. Even Small budget films like Dor and Khosla ka Ghosla are good! This film along with those deserve much more recognition among the Indian and Western American and British audience. People think of bollywood films as cheesy musicals( Don't get me wrong, thy are fun to watch..) but the stereotype needs to end and people need to know about the quality films that bollywood produces. Omkara is one such films!