奥姆卡拉

这部电影是VishalBharadwaj对莎士比亚经典《奥赛罗》的全新演绎。《Omkara》在精神上忠于《奥赛罗》的中心主题，而在结局上则按照现代印度故事的设置，利用民间传说和民族魅力使得莎士比亚笔下的角色们更具人性化。故事背景设置在北方邦(UttarPradesh)内部政治冲突的大环境下，一个男人因为对他的女人的狂热的爱情而坠入了妒忌的深渊，最后鬼迷心窍地、盲目地摧毁了这份爱情。爱情是盲目的，可是妒忌更盲目，而且能撕裂最强壮、最勇敢的勇士－－在《Omkara》中就是这样。对印度电影知之甚少。所以以下皆为摘录。Ramachandran, Naman, Omkara. Sight & Sound, 00374806, Oct2006, Vol. 16, Issue 10.Extract from the Original Text:About Adaptation:Any adaptation of Othello that has the Cassio character (in this case, political protégé Kesu) teaching Desdemona (Dolly, the fiancée of the former's mentor, Omkara) how to sing 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' is bound to be unusual and vastly entertaining, and Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara is exactly that. In this, the director's second Shakespeare adaptation after Maqbool (2003), which relocated Macbeth to the Mumbai underworld, Bhardwaj transposes the Moor to the political badlands of north India, where armed criminals are politicians and vice versa. This is a land where policemen are frisked before being led into the august presence of Omkara, a brutal but fair general to his boss, the political bigwig Bhaisaab, who thinks nothing of conducting business from jail on his mobile phone. Omkara's wily and scruffy lieutenant, Langda (the lago role), has a nifty line in invective, while his other deputy, Kesu, is the vacuous charmer whose prowess in the English language has earned him the nickname "Firangi" ("foreigner" in Hindi and Urdu), and whose skills on the acoustic guitar and familiarity with Stevie Wonder songs make him an easy target for Langda. Bianca is transformed into Billo, a nautch girl (or courtesan) whose slightest shimmy can make hardened criminals break into raucous, fevered dance and shoot guns into the air in frustrated release.Though the setting may be very different from what the Bard imagined, Omkara is relatively faithful to its source in its plotting and even in some of the dialogue. The major departure is in the figure of the Moor himself. Bhardwaj (who also co-wrote the film with Robin Bhatt and Abhishek Chaubey) has chosen to make Omkara a "half-caste", someone who is one half high-caste Brahmin, in the north Indian context, with Dolly, Bhaisaab and even Kesu and Langda all fully fledged Brahmins, Omkara's half-caste origin could be an issue of powder-keg sensitivity. But Bhardwaj chooses to skate over this issue, thereby depriving the film of some degree of dramatic depth.About Casting:The writer-director also falters in the casting of Omkara. On paper, Ajay Devgan, known for his broody underplaying in films such as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Raincoat (2004), may have seemed the perfect choice. But when he is not standing around striking perfectly framed poses, Devgan's performance is so understated that his character's innate jealousy and possessiveness are visible only sporadically. This is Othello as wallpaper. In sharp contrast, Saif Ali Khan as Langda makes the most of the meatiest role and completes his transition from pretty boy romantic hero to mature actor, a process initiated when he played ruthless, cold blooded criminals in the gritty Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and Being Cyrus (2006). The limping Khan, with shorn tresses, yellowed teeth and resolutely non-designer stubble, inhabits the part completely, spitting venom and chewing any available scenery. He is aided by debutant Tassaduq Hussain's luminous cinematography, his attention to detail and carefully colour coded palettes (green for Langda, red for Omkara shifting to black) elevating the film way beyond the usual Hollywood riot of colours.Omkara opens with Sergio Leone-style vistas, but effects a seamless transition to the claustrophobic, chamber-piece atmosphere that is the essence of Othello. The multitalented Bhardwaj, who began his Hollywood career as music director on films such as Maachis (1996) and Satya (1998), also composed the music, and layers the film with tunes ranging from raunchy dance numbers to love songs to lullabies. The lullaby is used alternately for tender (Omkara and Dolly in post-coital bliss) and chilling (Omkara singing to Dolly's lifeless body) effect. With Omkara this remarkable film-maker, whose repertoire also includes children's films such as Makdee (2002) and The Blue Umbrella (2005), has finally ushered contemporary Bollywood into the realm of world-class cinema. Having said that, it's worth mentioning that the definitive Indian adaptation of Othello remains the Malayalam-language film Kaliyattam (1997). Kalipattam's director, Jayaraaj, set that movie in a remote village in the south Indian state of Kerala and used the traditional ritual dance form 'Theyyam', in which practitioners don fierce-looking masks. It will take Bollywood some years yet to surpass the phantasmagoria that Jayaraaj created.Synopsis:North India, the present. Militant political fixer Omkara 'Omi' Shukla elopes with local beauty Dolly Mishra, angering her father. Omkara's political guru, local MP Bhaisaab, resolves the matter amicably. When Bhaisaab decides to grant Omkara a ticket to contest the state assembly elections, Omkara appoints his cohort Kesu 'Firangi' Upadhaya as his successor, causing his other lieutenant, Langda Tyagi, to become jealous. Aided by Dolly's former suitor, Rajju, the dancer Billo and, unwittingly, by his own wife, Indu, Langda spins a web of insinuations that leads Omkara to think that Dolly is having an affair with Kesu. Matters come to a head on the day of Omkara and Dolly's wedding. Omkara kills Dolly only to find out from Indu that Langda was lying all along. Omkara kills himself. Indu kills Langda and contemplates suicide.March 1, 2008