Omkara had a fairly good performance at the box office in India and earned critical acclaim all over. The movie grossed $16,466,144 worldwide in its total run at the box office. Even though the movie received rave reviews, the dark theme and strong language kept away family audiences.[13] It was, however, a grand success abroad. The film quickly entered the UK's Top 10 and did very well in Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Omkara The Movie
All the dialogues in the film are delivered in a strong input of the Khariboli dialect other than Hindi, including the use of swear words, generally absent from mainstream Hindi cinema. The movie received an A Certificate from the censor board of India. Critics and audiences were divided in their opinions about the foul language. Many believed that it was not required and would lead to distancing the movie from the family audience,[17] while some applauded it for authentically showing the rustic setting of the story. The language and A certificate narrowed the audience but in turn brought accolades for the creators of the movie for valuing creativity over commercial success.
At some two hours and thirty minutes, the movie is far too long. But where Vishal scores big points, is in the imagination department. Who else would have thought of filming a gruesome action scene to a song?
This is the second movie of the Shakespeare adaptation trilogy directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The first is Maqbool (2003) adapted from Macbeth and the other is Haider (2014) adapted from Hamlet.This movie is adapted from Othello.
Vishal Bhardwaj composed the music while travelling and scouting for the locations and had no time left as casting was done and shooting had to be started soon. Yet the movie's music is considered a masterpiece.
Vishal Bhardwaj used his childhood experience with the then gangster named Tyagi who resided nearby his school. 'Tyagi Hostel' in the movie is named after him. Also the name Langda is named after his schoolmate who was disabled but was a bully.
At Goa film festival, Vishal Bhardwaj presented the script of the movie to Naseeruddin Shah who made fun of him as he considered Othello to be a weakest play and making a movie on it would be a disaster. The next day he literally forced Vishal to cast him as Bhaisahab and noone else would play it after reading the script. He conveyed to Vishal it would be a significant film and he wanted to be a part of it.
Every once in a while there comes a movie which leaves an imprint on you. It takes you away from the daily distractions of life, and puts you in another mental zone altogether. Such movies push you to think of them not just as a mere source of entertainment, but as a detailed and fine craft, which when done perfectly, could leave you spellbound.
Mind you, making these kind of movies is an equally taxing job. A lot goes into making a film, there's no denying that. But apart from these, sometimes we get to watch a few movies which are high on talent and performance. And I can count such movies on my fingertips- Guru, Black, Gangs Of Wasseypur, or the most recent Masaan.
So, today we're going to celebrate one such movie which might not have created box office history, but was definitely a fine piece of cinema. Yes, I am talking about one of the best works of Vishal Bharadwaj till date, Omkara.
That, Vivek Oberoi can act, is not a myth people, trust me! If you go back in time, and care to see his debut movie Company, you'd know the fellow can act. Or could act at one point of time. With Omkara, he proved that he had that acting streak left in him. With very Bengali features, Konkona Sen too managed to nail it as a small town UP woman. Years later I still can't forget the last scene of the movie where she slashes Saif Ali's throat. The rage in her eyes still haunts me.
While Deepak Dobriyal, aka Pappiji of Tanu Weds Manu had done few movies earlier, including Maqbool, it was Omkara which got him the recognition. And although he had a minor role in it, he played it flawlessly well. Didn't I say the ensemble cast was amazing too! In fact, he bagged the Filmfare Special Performance Award that year for his portrayal of Rajju.
As a 90's kid, having watched almost all his movies, I couldn't remember even a single one in which he really stood out. And then comes Omakara in 2006, and I was like, *woooot*! Is this really Saif? And if it really is, then why on Earth wasn't he doing this kind of acting before? Or may be he was just waiting for Langda Tyagi to happen all along! Nevertheless, Saif played such an intensely negative character for the first time in his career span of (then) 14 years, and literally showed us his wow (imagine it in Saif's voice!) factor. In fact, that year he whisked away Filmfare award too for Best Villainous performance.
While this may not be a reason per se as to why this movie was a genius, but the fact that it won numerous international accolades goes on to prove that what an epic little piece of cinema it was! In fact, it won awards even in Pakistan! That itself says a lot about the film, right! It won awards at Kara Film Festival (Karachi), Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), and at Asia Festival Of First Films. While the Indian family audiences chose to stay away from the movie, owing to the use of cuss words, Omkara was a huge success in countries like UK, South Africa, Australia, and US.
In Meghna Gulzar's Raazi, Alia Bhatt plays a young Kashmiri woman who married into a Pakistani Army family in 1971 - the year of Bangladesh's liberation - and relayed military secrets back home. The critically acclaimed spy thriller is based on a true story in Harinder Sikka's 2008 novel Calling Sehmat. Even this movie did well at the box office and was hit with the audience. People loved the performances of Alia and Vicky Kaushal.
The best thing I like about your reviews is that you do not rate your movies. I think the star/rating system of film critics is the worst thing they can do, because people tend to decide whether they want to see a movie, only because of the number of starts their favorite reviewer gives.
Omkara is a dark, slow movie with fierce emotions with the violence present as a backdrop. The film had a poor opening at the box office in India. The dark theme and strong language failed to appeal to audiences. The language used in the film is a dialect of Hindi and abounds in curse words. Of course, Othello also has some moments of coarseness, mostly from Iago. Omkara relocates Othello to India and therefore can be used as an example of the ease of cultural borrowings in the twenty first century. With its cast of major Bollywood stars Omkara indicates that Shakespeare no longer functions as a colonial text for transculturation or just as a cultural icon but as a universal resource in global entertainment.
Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj loves the colour grey. And he has made it more than evident over the years in the films he has either penned, directed or been associated with. Right from his days as a composer for movies like Maachis (1996), Satya (1998), Godmother, Hu Tu Tu (1999), Paanch (2003) to writing, producing or directing films like Maqbool (2003), Omkara (2006), No Smoking, Nishabd (2007), Kaminey (2009), Ishqiya (2010), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), Dedh Ishqiya (2014) and his recently released film Haider, Mr Bhardwaj loves the anti-hero, and rightfully so.
In a world where nothing is black or white, right or wrong, one can't really blame him for seeing order in chaos and perfection in imperfection. Mr Bhardwaj is more of a realist than a romantic or perhaps a realistic romantic which reflects in the movies he makes or the characters he pens (or adapts).
Even Ajay Devgn, who plays the titular role in this movie, is flawed but most of his sacrifices and bad choices are for the greater good of his gang and his people. He is trusting and gullible but at the same time fearless and a man with a good heart. And as Omkara, one can't help but either sympathise with him or feel bad for him.
With Shahid portraying a double role in his and Mr Bhadwaj's first outing together, this caper thriller was perhaps one of the first contemporary commercial films which made flaws look cute. The story is about a day in the life of a pair of twins Charlie and Guddu, one with a lisp and the other with a stutter respectively. Born and brought up on the streets of Mumbai, the movie glorifies shortcuts, frauds and double crossing in the name of money, and how no matter how good or bad your life's choices may be, what matters is what your materialist gain is in the end and how well do you play your cards.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or jilted in love. 7 Khoon Maaf is perhaps the only movie to have come out the Bhardwaj camp with a female anti-hero who decides to take the idea of sexual liberation to a whole new level. Based on Ruskin Bond's famous story, Susanna's Seven Husbands, (albeit with a twist) the movie is the story of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes and her constant strife to find the perfect man. The only bummer is, her search never leads to anything meaningful and rather than following the logical route of filing for a divorce every time she wants out of her bad marriages, Susanna chooses the path of elimination by murder, and subsequent substitution. In the end, of course, she finds true love in the arms of the lord. Some consolation, that was. 2ff7e9595c
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