Psst - This section contains some inside trivia about the film
Quotes - Good One Liners from the movie
Oops - Goofs from the movie
Director – Vishal Bharadwaj
Screenplay – William Shakespeare, Vishal Bharadwaj, Robin Bhatt & Abhishek Chaudhary.
Omkara(Ajay Devgan) is a low cast outlaw chieftain gangster who runs a gang under the command of local Don cum aspiring Lok-Shabha(House of Commons) Politician, Bhaijee(Naseeruddin Shah). His trusted aides are the Sly, Langda Tyagi(Saif Ali Khan) and the young Keshu(Vivek Oberoi). Omkara kidnaps his love, Dolly(Kareena Kapoor) when she is getting married to another guy. The complexity starts when Omakra is announced as the candidate to stand in the elections for Legislative Assembly and he appoints Keshu instead of the much experienced Langda Tyagi as the Bahubali(Lieutenant). This makes Tyagi Jealous and he poisons Omakara’s mind into thinking that Keshu is having an illict affair with his soon-to-be-wife Dolly. The downfall of Omakara’s relationship starts when Tyagi frames Keshu in all possible ways so it would seem he is really having an affair with Dolly. Brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Othello. After Maqbool(which was another one adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth) Vishal Bharadwaj has proved that adaptation of classic literature will always have an impact on students of Cinema. Good Score by Vishal himself and good lyrics by his mentor Gulzar. Needless to say that Ajay Devgan has given yet another brilliant performance after Aparhan and proves to be one of the finest actors of Hindi Cinema. Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu is outstanding as well. The Rest of the cast have acted very well but the most dynamic role has been given to Saif Ali Khan. In my books, he is a sure shot contender for the best supporting actor role. A must see.
Psst -
1) Saif Ali Khan was not to keen to play the role of Tyagi as it was in a supporting role and also meant that he had to go bald for the movie. But On the day of Id he called up Vishal Bharadwaj and said he was ready for the role.
2) Desdemona had very long hair in Shakespeare’s Othello and to get in to the skin of the character, Kareena Kapoor had to be given a long period of time just to grow her hair. In the movie, she is not wearing any wig and that’s her real hair.
3) Vivek Oberoi had to learn to play guitar for the movie and when he plays to the song, “I’ve just call to say, I love you”, that’s really him playing. He had taken a month’s training for that and he was so obsessed with the instrument that he continued to train himself even after the movie was completed. He got ample guidance from Saif Ali Khan who is not only a hard core guitarist but has also performed with the Rock Group, Parikrama, in a rock concert in New Delhi Last Year.
4) It was Ajay Devgan who recommended Vicek Oberoi for the role of Kehu.
5) Like Vishal Baharadwaj, His mentor and the film Lyricist, Gulzar had also adapted a Shakespeare’s A comedy of errors in Angoor way back in 1982.
6) In the scene where Keshu is crowned as Bahubali, it was shot on the banks of the river Ganga with more then 10, 000 people on location. Vishal Bharadwaj wanted only 2000 people for the shoot but the star stuck villagers came by dozens and eventually he had to shoot amongst the large unexpected yet co-operative crowd.
7) Principal shooting was done in Wai, Maharashtra and an entire set worth Rs 20.5 Million was constructed to give the film, an authentic look. Like, Aparahan in 2005, the shooting took place in Wai rather then Locales of Uttar Pradesh was due to security reasons.
8) A common misconception is that Othello is a book written By William Shakespeare when it was actually a play.
9) Although Othello was about a Moor, this would not have been prevalent to an Indian Audience thats why Vishal Bharadwaj made Omkara as a person of a low cast. As a reference to Othello, Vishal Baharadwaj had a dialogue in the movie(in a light vein) which makes fun of a Dark skinned Omkara marrying a much fair Dolly.
10) THIS IS A SPOLIER, READ IT AT YOUR OWN RISK In Othello, Lago(The character of tyagi Played by Saif Ali Khan) kills Emilia(The charcter of Indu Played by Konkona Sen Sharma). This was reversed in Omakara.
11) Othello has been remade/adapted 11 times for Movies/TV Movies/TV Series.
Quotes
1) “To maar na, mainey kya teri g pakad rakhi hai.”
2) “Kal Subah tere maathey pe c likha hoga. Bada Bada.”
3) “Jo ladki apney baap ko thagey, who kisi aur ki sagi kya hogi?”
4) “Kamar bal kidhar hai?”
Oops-
1) Although the dialect that the actor’s speak is right, it does not belong to any area in Uttar Pradesh. The Dialect that they speak at times is actually that of Rajasthan.