Monday, July 31, 2006

Suspicion-a mental picture thro' an imaginary keyhole



This weekend was a unique one in the story of my life (ok, that was for dramatic effect..)
- This is the first time I ever watched two movies in the first week of their release.

‘Omkara’ and Lady in the Water’ and without further ado I proceed to type my thoughts about the first one.

Vishal Bhardwaj seems to be Bollywood’s answer to the growing public angst of badly-plagiarized-Hollywood movies.
All my fears of Shakespeare turning in his grave were put to rest once I got swept away by this apt adaptation of one of most famous of the Bard’s tragedies.
If you know your Shakespeare, the story wouldn’t be a major surprise. But the setting is.

Replace Venice and Cyprus with rural UP – now this is what interests the eye.
Not to mention the shock element - the profanities in everyday speech by men and women alike.

Saif Ali Khan shines as the Indianised version of Iago –“Langda Tyagi’ , who is definetly going to the join the bandwagon of Bollywood baddies like Gabbar Singh and Mugambo.
Ajay Devgan had nothing much to do except being himself (I am yet to see him change even the way he blinks his eyes)- he has this stereo-typical look of his plastered all over his face. Kareena Kapoor, for a change, tried her best to act; can’t blame her if Vishal thought she would suit as Desdemona .Vivek Oberoi as Cassio was okie-dokie and Bipasha sizzled as Billo. I really hate taking the name of Konkana Sen in the same breath as the aforementioned actors but yes, she made a wonderful Emelia (Indu) and made her presence felt in the few scenes that she had.

But I think the success of this flick lies totally with Mr.Bhardwaj - he knows how to tell a fascinating tale. Now what is to be seen is how the Indian masses accept this one (and here I’m not speaking of all those savvy people who discuss Shakespeare over their Coffee in CafĂ© Coffee Day!)

(While I start rephrasing my sentences on Shyamalan’s ‘Lady in the Water’, do tell me how you liked Omkara.)

10 comments:

Pallavi said...

I have yet to watch this..

Sin said...

I watched it on Friday and I loved it! I'm a big fan of Saif and Ajay amd I liked them both. Kareena as usual was okay! But she's much better in Omkara than she's ever been. I loved the songs too.

Trevor Penn said...

okey, i've only heard good things about this flick... and 'tis been so long since i watched a meaningful hindi film, 'coz there havent been any... i HAVE to catch this soon :)

Crouching Tigress said...

I havent watched the movie but sounds to me like a Romeo+ Juliet ripoff! You know, the Baz Luhrmann movie!

Mr. J said...

:(

I so wanted to watch Omkara and Lady in the water. Now I know why there were no tickets... gggrrr.. Guess I was too late.

Sin said...

Oh btw, I didn't realize until now that Visahl Bharadwaj sang the song 'o saathi re' himself! I have renewed respect for him. He's a genius. :)

Where are you? Are you back in Hyderabad now or still roaming the world? Lucky you!

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

@chris...
translation plz

@pallavi
n i wud await ur verdict of it

@truthfairy
'am glad to see ur pic...
I dun like any of the actors except Konkana and boy! was she amazing or what!
and as to ur query , yup this weekend i'm all set to land at LA and yaa too bad that i'm not gonna be on the East Coast (but perhaps i shall give u a tinkle..)

@seashells
can't expect meaningful and hindi cinema to go hand in hand :))

@c tigress
Othello - a Romeo and Juliet ripoff?? (since I havent watched the Baz Luhrmann movie I can't say much)

@John
as I said this was i think the first time in my life I saw movies in their first week of release (thanx to my friend's contacts in Prasadz)

Crouching Tigress said...

Hahah no that's not what I meant. I was talking about the idea. I don't want to elaborate..you should watch Romeo + Juliet.

Trevor Penn said...

a tag for a tag, i got you back :)

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

@the tigress
okie, one of these days i shall do that

@seashells
bin too busy n wanna blog so much so i shall reserve the tag for some later point of time