To understand Omkara well here’s a bit from the original story of ‘Othello’.
Othello begins with Iago and Roderigo(rejected suitor of Desdemona). Roderigo is upset because Desdemona has eloped with Othello and Iago is upset because instead of him, Cassio has been promoted.
Omkara also begins on a similar note with Tyagi calling out to the baraat (Dolly and Rajju’s marriage)not to venture further.
Omkara is Othello( Ajay Debgan) who is bahubali or the right hand man of polititian Naseeruddin Shah. When the polititian wins the election Omi or Omkara gets promoted but instead of making the ace shooter and ruthless Langra Tyagi (Saif Khan) as bahubali, he chooses the ‘Angrez Keshu’ (Bibeik Oberoi). So there you get Saif as Iago and Bibeik as Cassio.
Rajju or Roderigo has a role here which even more defines the evil lurking in Tyagi. The taunting scene on top of a dam like structure and the eventual abandoning of Rajju in the water by Tyagi has also been captured with a wide canvas. Even at times you will feel like identifying with Tyagi’s predicament. Hasn’t been times when you have deserved something yet lost due to some very bad judgement ? Tyagi’s loss of position translates into a greater loss for Omi or Omkara. Omi loses his head, his love and his life.
The other crucial dimension of the story is the fair beautiful Desdemona or Dolly played by, strangely looking a bit aged Kareena Kapur. Brabantio or her father in Omkara is a lawyer who haplessly accepts the fact that his daughter has made up her mind to marry Othello(Omkara). The movie is set in UP/ Bihar context with the crime lords and politicians hovering for power. The parallel is very apt but there are some serious elements in the movie which fail to convince like
Why did the educated sweet Dolly fall for the ruthless Omkara?
Cassio or Keshu (Bibeik) is shown to be a smooth talking suave non alcoholic English speaking and singing romeo who falls for the cheap Bipasha.
The disgusting at times item numbers of Bipasha breaking the rhythm of the movie are no match for the Shakespearean comic relief.
Omkara’s reason to kill Dolly too shallow and the final tragedy does not reach heroic heights. There is no sense of crushing misery.
Konkona Sen Sharma’s performance I liked too much. This girl has proved her mettle again in such a short role. She also, along with Saif have succeeded in mastering the UP dialect to a large extent. But her reaction at the end is again puzzling. Why does she kill Saif with one lethal blow? Why did she steal the kamarbandh from Kareena? Why did she look so intently at the lovey dovey couple of Omkara and Dolly? Was she unsatisfied in her own marriage?
But the performance of the day is Saif Saif and Saif !!!
This guy is no match for anyone in this movie. In his gait, emoting, smile, accent he’s perfect. He made me fall for the satanic Iago. If you have read Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, remember the Beelzebub Satan conversations, the brain washings. Vishal Bharadaj’s Tyagi is even more evil and smooth than the real Iago. Like the real Iago we never find him expressing his misery explicitly to any confidante. Tyagi manipulates everyone around showing that he’s charismatic than anyone else.
Omkara fails as a gangster and a lover. His perfect world ironically comes crashing down when in the wedding night he kills his young red clad wife Dolly. We should have known not every goonda has a heart of gold. He chokes her dead with a pillow, leaving the bit out of the real Othello story when the dying Desdemona shields the crime of her husband from Emilia( Konkona). That’s another flaw the climactic scene in Omkara.
The ‘cruel’ word is echoed in the movie with the word ‘Kathor’. The script is gross at times but entertains. Compare and contrast is used with precision sometimes through characterisation sometimes through scenes. Omkara/ Dolly love making scenes are serene compared to the implicit lovemaking of Indu/Tyagi when Indu comments that Tyagi has a jaanwaar within. Omkara kills Dolly and Indu kills Tyagi.
Kesu losing his head after drinking and Tyagi’s composure. The sweet sober Dolly and the mischievous candid Indu.
The idiotic Rajju and the grim Tyagi.
Some of the most powerful dialogues in Omkara is mouthed by Indu(Emilia) played by Konkona. Though this was a cameo, we find that this character has depth in the final retribution scene and the way she speaks.
"I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee. No way but this/Killing myself, to die upon a kiss."This original dialogue of Othello is true to the feelings of the miserable Othello but its here where Omkara fails.