First week of its release and I sent a guy from my work place to fetch some tickets for Omkara.
He couldn’t get them and so he returned empty handed. A couple of days passed by, and i received a sms from a dear friend...."Hey u were lucky dude that u cudnt get the tickets...this movie is screwed!"
This dear friend of mine has a very keen sense of observation and a real good eye for movies...esp Hindi. So I went with his decision to not to see this movie. After all its just an adaptation. Chances are quite minimal that Vishal Bhardwaj would be able to do justice to Shakespeare.
But after so many weeks, tonite I took a bold step....to watch this movie on DVD.
Like the opening dialogues of the film, "Bewakoof mein ek dhaage jitna antar hai"
I was a Bewakoof (a Fool) to miss this movie on the big screeen.
The casting is great. Ajay Devgan at his intense best...Saif.....*phewwww* ...I had never imagined this level of maturity in his work ever before! His performance stands out amongst the whole casting and I am sure this one performance will be remembered for quite some time.
Konkana Sen was apt for this role...Kareeena too was passable! (and yes it is an achievement for her!) I would have loved to see Naseer ji more but he was solid as it is.
Music, Fantastic! Cinematography, Flawless! Dialogues, they really got me in the ’heartland’ of our country...Uttar Pradesh!
And Vishal ji...I kept Maqbool as the benchmark of my expectations. And yet I was surprised. Although I would still rate Maqbool as a better movie.
The intensity of every character, their role, how they were weaved together to give this film its shape...Yes I guess its one of the best movies of recent times.
This movie has disturbed me, as it has the rest of the viewers, but theres a very thin line of difference in that disturbance. There are movies who disturb you mentally and there are movies that disturb you emotionally. This film belongs to the latter category. ( Although I shouldnt be naming other directors, or films in this review, a HIYOOOOOOGE budget film was released few days after Omkara, with the biggest star cast of our times. Now that is one film that has disturbed me mentally!)
I really do like the fact that thesedays Indian Cinema is changing rapidly. We got directors getting new ideas, new concepts, new style...I would certainly applaud Vishal ji for his efforts and wish him luck for his next venture. Hope they are even more intense, more intruguing than his last ones :)