Vishal Bharadwaj's Othello adaptation to the hindi movie screen stands out as a fine piece of moviemaking. For the average Indian moviegoer this film will be a bit hard to swallow. However, for cinema lovers, the adaptation stands shoulder to shoulder with other productions of Othello.
Set in the north-Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the movie showcases the Brahmin dominated landscape of western UP and the violent politics of that region. But, in essence the movie is faithful to the bard's play and interprets most of the story accurately. Without comparing to Othello, the movie on its own shows how jealousy and rage can break havoc in people's lives.
As for acting is concerned, Saif Ali Khan stands out as "Langda" Tyagi (Iago), Konkona Sen Sharma (Indu/Emilia) is very good, as usual, Ajay Devgan (Omkara/Othello) is sufficiently good, Kareena Kapoor (Dolly Mishra/Desdemona) gives a clean performance (laudable for a commercial Bollywood actress), Naseeruddin Shah sleepwalks through his role (nothing challenging for him), Bipasha Basu (Billo/Bianca) & Vivek Oberoi (Keshu Firangi/Cassio) are all right in their small roles.
Vishal is getting better with each movie, Tassaduq Hussain's first movie as cinematographer stands out as a fine piece of work, the editing is ok (Meghna Manchanda), the music (Vishal) & lyrics (Gulzar) are fantastic .... overall the movie is good, however the ending is rather abrupt and could have been stretched a little longer instead of the slower (dragging) middle part of the movie.
Way to go Vishal!!!
Posts
