A film to watch this week

I have always liked the performances of Ajay Devgan in realistic (read as—films different from Karan Johar style mushy romantic tearjerkers and Bhatt camp's cinematic concoction of love, lust, action, and music) films like Yuva, Gangaajal, and Apaharan.

A film that I am looking forward to watch this week is music composer Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara; an adaptation of, The Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare's Othello.

The film is set in the Hindi heartland of north-central (U.P., if I'm not mistaken) India and has an impressive starcast that features Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan among others.

Ajay Devgan plays the role of Othello and is shown as a leader of a gang of outlaws in rural India, Kareena portrays the role of the beautiful Desdemona, Saif Ali Khan is Iago the villain that instigates Othello against Cassio played by Vivek Oberoi; Konkona Sen is Iago's wife Aemilia, and Bipasha Basu as Billo adds sensuality to the setting with an item song.

Omkara is Vishal Bharadwaj's third film as a Director. He has also composed chartbusting popular music for films like Maachis and Satya. Omkara comes two years after Maqbool, which was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth and had fabulous performances by Irrfan Khan and Pankaj Kapur. Omkara is Shakespeare's Othello that comes alive in the rural, violent, and political hinterland of Uttar Pradesh in North India.

More later over the weekend after watching the film.

I like films with realistic dialogues and that rustic, and if I may say natural and typical, North Indian (U.P-Bihar) feel to its screenplay.

Related link: Read William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.