Wonderful!!! My wife and I just returned from the theater after watching this movie and frankly, I was impressed. We had both seen Golmaal Unlimited last fortnight and I came away a trifle disappointed with Devgan’s attempt at urbane humour... Omkara more than put paid to this.
First of all the plot - I think Vishal Bharadwaj has adapted what was essentially a Shakespearan tragedy to appeal to the Indian viewer - both discerning and the casual film goer. Let us for a moment forget sophistication in dress sense, forget the absence of an urban setting, forget the lack of fast cars and faster women, forget the lack of instant teleporting to the beaches of majorca or san tropez for woeful songs and so on. This movie more than makes up for it in several other areas - like the superlative screenplay that ensures the central theme is not lost against the backdrop of "political machinations" or the all too familiar "don-in-jail" who runs his business from behind bars", the acting by each of the central characters, each as powerful as the character they were intended to portray, the locale in which the film was shot and so on... for plot and adaptation, I would give this a 7/10.
Coming to cast performance, like I mentioned above, acting that was only just as powerful as the characters the sript was intending to portray. No fuss, no muss. Every single central character right from Omkara through Kesu through Langda Tyagi through Dolly through Indu, the performances were extremely fulfilling. Naseerudin Shah as Bhaisaab supports the cast adequately. No overdone histrionics, every dialogue delivery just oh-so right. However, to my mind, Saif Ali Khan just stole the show with a superlative bit of acting as the crippled Tyagi. I believe his gradual metamorphosis from Salaam Namaste through Being Cyrus to Tyagi in Omkara was simply a treat to watch. He is fast scaling the ranks among my list of favorite actors, western or otherwise. I would rate cast performance 8/10 (1 point knocked off for my perennial chip on the shoulder - Bipasha Basu, she did not convey the character of a rustic courtesan convincingly. Too much upper class accented Hindi in her dialogue delivery).
The soundtrack was a new experience for me. First up, I think Vishal Bharadwaj went the Quentin Tarantino way. Tarantino personally handpicked the songs on the OST for Pulp Fiction and supposedly went though a bazillion songs, sorry probably a 1000 or so before he settled for the ones we heard. I remember watching Pulp Fiction and then a Tarantino interview where he speaks about how he had to choose each song to fit the screenplay and the underlying emotion captured there. Bharadwaj has most likely done the same and the result is quite refreshing to hear. Soundtrack gets 9 points out of 10!!!
Lastly, cinematography. Very well modulated and very well shot. Each sequence has beautifully dovetailed into the other without any semblance of a cut or something jarring that just creeps up onscreen before the earlier sequence is adequately complete. I would give this 8 out of 10 again, lopping off a point because of the fact that the dialogue and script were in rustic Hindi that I could not adequately understand.
And before I forget - the central theme of this movie is not about a foul mouthed cripple or a battle for power or a Shakespearan classic to suit Indian sense and sensibility. To me, this movie had two powerful messages. Firstly, the cornerstone of any relationship, rural or urban is trust. In the absence of trust, we would do well to remember that we are not yet ready to accept responsibilities for the lives of another. Secondly, I am again reminded in a direct manner of the adage, "Never believe anything you hear and probably only half of what you see."
Watch this movie. Its worth your time and patience.
Cheers
Sumanth