**KARA

[aka cheaty! cheaty! ban! ban!]

Somebody decides to capitalise on the mixed reactions to the language in Vishal's Omkara. This "somebody" might go improperly represented, if the 6 news sources^[1] I've read so far are any indication. Three of them (TimesNow, NDTV, Zee News) say his name is "Naeem Khan"; CNN-IBN picks "Naseem Khan" (and IndiaFM agrees) and later settles on "Nasim Khan." Not one to let the general populace forget their coup de vérité with Saat Hindustani and the National Film Awards, DNA chooses the more verbose "Nasim Khan Sajjad Hussain." Pursuant to the tradition of yours-humbly writhing-truly of favouring the 2-letter abbreviation, we will refer to the plaintiff as NK.

His arguments are predictable and only marginally interesting.

In my 18 years of acting, I have not heard such profane language. The profanity in the film will cause grave harm and injury to society and damage young minds beyond repair. Youngsters love to imitate film heroes. It is therefore in the interest of justice that the film be banned. Omkara is a film which is harmful to society at large and the censor certificate must be cancelled.

That's a great example of the cut-up technique at work. These generalisations smack of prudery and only fuel the suspicion that the most likely cause for this protest is nothing but a short-sighted clueless narrow-minded hunger for political mileage.

Should we retort by asking NK if trite simplistic ideas of family, rape, violence and titillating vistas of semi-clad babes are less likely to "cause grave harm and injury to society and damage young minds beyond repair"? Or should we just hope that this mild tremor gets the film some more business?

NK also notes: I was shocked and surprised to hear the most vulgar abuse in a strikingly loud voice, as soon as the National Anthem had ended. I'm not sure I understand this. Do they play the National Anthem at movie theatres? So KANK, which exploited the NRI sentiment to the hilt, was preceded by a song extolling the virtues of a land that scarcely mattered to the film?

As if this was not enough to stir up a dust puppy, NK also believes that the film degrades the word "Omkara", which is backed by the sanctity of religion, respected by all, and defines the highest of all creation. I would be interested in knowing NK's take on the fate of Om in Koi...Mil Gaya. And could he also suggest an alternative for Omkara that would fit into the film, the dialogues, the milieu and the soundtrack? How about mapping Othello to Ataullah? Oh! Now you want my rear for that remark eh? o kaThor!!

Could someone also tell me more about the "50" films that this guy has worked in?

The IndiaFM report seems to relish this move given that it opens with: For all of you who hated the vulgar dialogues in Omkara, you have a reason to celebrate. For those who liked the film, read on.... The report later falters badly though when it says the film is in the Bihari dialect. Wrong! It's the Haryanvi Gujjar dialect and the film is set somewhere near Meerut, UP (although it never, AFAIR, explicitly tells us about the location).

The hearing's been deferred to Wednesday, August 23.

Cheer yourself with Raja Sen's wonderful interview of Deepak "Rajju" Dobriyal. And if you are sick of all those "foul mouth words" (courtesy: IndiaFM), go drool at some Priyanka Chopra photographs.

---

[1] TimesNow | Zee News | CNN-IBN | DNA | IndiaFM | NDTV

---

addendum [august 24, 2006]: City Civil judge A T Vaidya has asked NK to explain what he found objectionable in the film and was also asked to produce materials supporting his allegation. This was on August 23, 2006; things reconvene on August 24, 2006 at some time IST. Meanwhile there's a nice interview with Censor Board Chief Sharmila Tagore (conducted by Subhash K Jha). The extract below shows an appreciation of the creative intent evident in the characters of Omkara and Langda; clearly this seems beyond the puny POV of Shri NK:

The film was depicting a certain section of society that doesn't follow the rules of civil society, the law-breakers, so to speak, in a certain community. The difference between the characters of Omkara and Langda Tyagi was that Omkara was a little nobler among the outlaws. Langda Tyagi is more uncouth.

The director differentiated between the two characters of the hero and the villain through the language. That’s how the two baddies ended up being two different shades of black.

And here's something about the power wielded by some Bollywood biggies:

If producers like Karan Johar, Yash Chopra and Rakeysh Mehra have a problem, they directly ring up the ministry and sort it out. But the same problem for a smaller filmmaker needs to be dealt with by us. There’s no collective wisdom to censorship. If there was a uniform code, things would be a lot easier.

ST notes the difference between the censor board and a body of law and order. She even notes how much litigation her office has to deal with, thanks, perhaps, to people like NK. Imagine Paheli, our Oscar entry, being accused of endorsing superstition (instead of being a profound font of ennui):

We're inundated with litigations. One of our office bearers is constantly in court. It's such a drain on our limited resources. We need to take a good look at censorship. If the film industry provides entertainment, it should be allowed the freedom of expression. When we, as an enabling body, find something objectionable we cut a few scenes. Otherwise we just give a certificate. Vishal Bhardwaj preferred an 'A' certificate rather than a 'U/A' certificate for Omkara even though it meant limiting his audience. That was his artistic freedom.

addendum: [august 29, 2006]: The Sessions Court has refused to ban the film. Hope NK's got his thrills for now.

addendum: [september 02, 2006]: The fun never stops. Now there's a hydra-headed petition afoot that requests the cancellation of the censor certificate issued to the film (isn't it time the CBFC got a disclaimer saying "goods once sold will not be taken back"?) as well as the cancellation of the tax-free status recently conferred on the film in Uttar Pradesh. And we must not forget the evidence of a regressive biscuit tin intellect at work: Mr. [Prem Chandra] Sharma [Hindu Personal Law Board secretary] has contended the Censor Board should not have passed the film with an 'A' certificate, since it was named after a Hindu deity. Sudarshan dropped a comment here about the religious angle; his comment, although in jest, might stand in well for the sick workings of the mind of Mr. Sharma.

addendum: [september 11, 2006]: and now we have a PIL filed by a local lawyer against the film for its "abusive" language that is against the interest of society. Clearly, we have a lot of time on our hands.

kaThor prudery

Despite good notes, Vishal's Omkara only managed what trade pundits seem happy to call a decent opening. The film had a big budget, and the opening in India wasn't as great as predictions would have had it to be; yet we're not in Mangal zone yet. Everyone's so eager to blame the "failure" of the film on the dialogue: the dialect and the cussing.

Family audiences can't go and watch this because of the cussing; oh yes, it has an A certificate, by the way. I don't really recall a time in my movie-viewing past where the implications of a certificate issued by the atavistic censor board were enforced by cinema hall owners. I remember hearing about group of friends being asked to leave a screening of Cliffhanger, but I also remember finding out that Parinda had an A certificate only after I had taken a good seat in the cinema hall.

It was a welcome wonder that RGV's Satya made it to the screens with the cuss words intact; The censor board then seemed to go through a phase of mental regression with the outrageous judgement it passed (no pun intended) on Anurag Kashyap's Paanch. And now in 2006, except for the small matter of the petticoat, Omkara hit the screens sounding as real as it could get (arguably) as far as the dialogue was concerned.

Everywhere else, though, it would seem that a Bollywood film needs to be accessible to a family audience in order to click. No Entry, last year's biggest hit, was the perfect family entertainer laced with irritating songs, risqué dances, and a not-so-funny remedy for the n-year itch. See also: Garam Masala, Kya Kool Hain Hum, Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya, Shaadi No. 1.

Mayank Shekhar does a nice job^[1] discussing this prudish behaviour exhibited by the audience; he also notes how contextual some of these cuss words have actually become. Unfortunately, this is all we really have: a short article, and films like Bandit Queen and Omkara.

Saibal Chatterjee explores similar concerns in an article in today's Hindustan Times:

So what if families are staying away from Omkara. By no means should that be an indication of how good or bad the film is. The quality of a film lies within it, not in external factors like mass appeal and commercial performance.

Even on the latter score, Bhardwaj's wonderfully well-crafted film is an achievement that is way out of the ordinary, especially when compared to the welter of mediocrity that Bollywood usually wallows in.

I try not to use the "better than the rest of Bollywood" argument, because I think it limits my ability to appreciate or denounce a film. The first argument, however, rings true but also seems destined to become a truism, because you will often find people, who, thanks to the media machinery and Bollywood, have equated quality and box office success.

Why do we suddenly have issues with the language? Haven't we been strengthened by a slew of hit films covering all sorts of "family-friendly" items like rape, murder, vigilante violence, seduction, polygamy, jingoism, revenge, lechery and the like. And if you're still so sensitive about the kind of films we watch, why can't you do a bit of research before venturing out to watch a damn flick? Sure, you'll miss the strange first day first show thrill, but at least you won't be wasting your time and ours by blaming the film for your ignorance. Of course, some people won't even take good advice. I've seen people who've insisted on watching Zinda even after I had told them about Old Boy and that Sanjay Gupta's rip-off was not exactly the regular comfortable candy-floss entertainer that demands only one brain cell. Several minutes later, people were squirming and looking away (and ignoring the fact that they were bored out of their wits as well).

And that brings us to the issue of the dialect. Vishal responded to criticism against the film in Mumbai Mirror^[2] interview. The most relevant extract follows:

The language used in Omkara is very difficult for the audiences to understand. Don't you think if you had used Hindi instead, it would have worked better?

I think the language of cinema is more important that[sic] the actual dialect used in a film. We do appreciate international and regional films which have rich cinematic content, don't we? I think it's unfair to say that the language has created problems in understanding the film. I am told that that people are understanding the jokes and reacting to the scenes.

I can confirm this. I was in a theatre in Atlanta, GA surrounded by desiis of various confusions and places of birth. I didn't hear complaints about the dialogue; I could hear people laughing at all the jokes; (I was also impressed at how quiet the hall went during the final sequence); I too, not being familiar with the dialect at all, could follow what was happening. It seems like this inaccessibility comes not from the film itself but from the audience.

The only variety I see in the list of factors affecting the film's performance at the box office comes courtesy Prakash Jha, who's handling the distribution of the film in Bihar: the film is rich in technique and employs light and shadow and a lot of silhouettes. Small towns do not have the projectors to show it with clarity. If anyone's listening, it's time to ape the west and get some multiplexes out to the remote areas -- even though we can't (and don't seem to want to) address unimportant issues like education, poverty, water and electricity, we've managed to sharpen our multiplex-building skills; we might as well put them to good use.

It's bad enough that a lot of critical hosannas miss noting just how effective Vishal's transplantation of the Moor's Worst Gaffe to not just the Indian milieu but also the Bollywood ethic has been. People have been cribbing about the twist in Omkara and how it seems to lose the power of the original in the play. They seem to forget that in Maqbool, which they loved as an adaptation, Vishal had "twisted" Shakespeare's original text in a crucial manner: Lady Macbeth was Macbeth's wife (duh!) but Nimmi could never graduate from being Maqbool's mistress.

Vishal's efforts pale before Karan Johar's "daring" attempt at tackling the failure of the modern Indian marriage in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna aka KANK. In her NYTimes article Anupama Chopra discusses this forthcoming flick and Rajat Kapoor's Mixed Doubles (a non-mainstream film that I haven't finished watching, but have enjoyed every minute of so far). The article ends with a Shobha Dé quote that also serves as a juicy example of just how bad things have become: 'Mixed Doubles' is art house. We think, 'It's not about us, it's about them.’ But a Karan Johar film is definitely about us. The closing rejoinder in Uma's post (which is where I found a pointer to the Chopra article) says it all.

KANK hits cinema halls on Friday, August 11. Omkara has till then to run up some more box office numbers; once the Johar opus plays its pipes, only a few of us lame kids are going to be left behind.

Time to go listen to BC sutta again.

[1] it's a Mumbai Mirror URL, so life expectancy is nil; if you have problems accessing the page, drop a comment on this post and I'll find a way out.

[2] yes, Mumbai Mirror once again, if you have a problem getting to the page, drop me a comment.

addendum: [august 06, 2006]: The fun doesn't end. Another goulash of trade shock appears online. It even picks paraphrases portions from the review by Tenacious Trademaster Taran (aka the Reviewer From Hell): 'Omkara' is dark and disturbing. The generous use of the cuss words gives the viewer cold sweat. The writers could have toned down the expletives in the film. Also, the tense moments get too heavy after a point and would work only for those who appreciate realistic cinema. T3's review also had the gem certain dark scenes could've been better lit, which makes me wonder if he was on the censor board when they did the number on Paanch.

addendum: [august 06, 2006]: More fireworks. A DNA article notes that Devgan, Kumar Mangat and Vishal are upset about rumours that the film is a flop. Mangat notes that the film did Rs. 31 crores worth of business worldwide in just seven days. I wonder if that really reflects a gain, because there's no mention of the distribution costs and agreements for this film in India and overseas. It's unforunate to see things come to this. IBOSNetwork hasn't published any figures for Omkara yet. Meanwhile, the aforementioned article contains no quotes from Vishal, who is contributing time at Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods International.

addendum: [august 08, 2006]: (warning: this article references a plot element that many might regard as a spoiler) Subhash K Jha asks Vishal the same questions and Vishal has candid responses:

The graphic Hindustani expletives have embarrassed and put off a lot of people, specially women and children.

I don't see why. It's the characters mouthing those words, not me. I'm not the censor chief. The censors understood my intentions as an artist. My characters don't use forbidden words to play to the galleries. I'm trying to create a reality.

The abuses are done in a cheerful not in a malicious way. The censor board has exercised its democratic right by allowing the cuss-words. They very kindly gave me the choice of either erasing the expletives and giving me a 'U' certificate or retaining the expletives with 'A' certificate.

I chose the latter option because I knew in any case that the film isn't suitable for kids, with or without expletives. Sidhartha of "Rang De Basanti" called to tell me kids in the theatre while watching it were in splits at the expletives. I don't know how they got in.

And as for women, I think men in the audience feel self-conscious in women's presence. Women are quite comfortable watching the expletives in groups of their own. In any case, the language wasn't dictated by who'll be shocked and who'll not. The characters spoke as they should. I've never made a film keeping audiences' sensitivities in mind.

And if audiences are so offended by the language how come the film is doing so well everywhere? I'm going to my hometown Meerut right now. It's a sensational hit there.

addendum: [august 09, 2006] Uma tears up Tenacious Trademaster Taran's review of the film.

I will a round unvarnished tale deliver ... what conjuration and what mighty magic

[being notes on Omkara, the best hindi film of 2006]

A slightly modified version of this appears on Naachgaana.com

The same modified version appears on Desicritics.org

the short version: Do yourself a favour and go watch it.

After the wonderful Maqbool, Vishal scores with Omkara, his adaptatation of William Shakespeare's Othello (as the first opening credit proclaims). Vishal digs deep into Leone territory and the trappings of a Bollywood film to craft an expansive saga of love, betrayal, jealousy, strife and violence. A second viewing is called for in order to appreciate the intricate weave of the tapestry, but some scattered notes and hosannas should suffice for now.

the cast: I have had doubts about the cast, and I still nurse a gnawing "what if" scenario with actors instead of box office magnets (for what they're worth). Devgan fits the vision of Om Shukla/Othello, but he brings nothing much physically to it that hasn't already been seen before (most importantly in Company). This déjà vu threatens to hamper the viewing, but not so critically.

Kareena Kapoor does not grate. This alone is an achievement. The much touted "erotic" scene becomes a truly aesthetic element of a mural of dissolves and fades. She even manages the the naïveté of Dolly/Desdemona and is definitely sincere in her efforts for the role; yet the "what if someone else had played this part" feeling didn't quite go away. Yet, as with Devgan, Vishal seems to have used her presence and iconography well.

Viveik Oberoi fits Kesu Firangi/Cassio well enough not to get on your nerves; and kudos to him for taking the effort to get the chords right for I just called to say I love you (and to Saif who helped him).

Konkona Sen reportedly couldn't relate to her role, but her wonderful performance as Indu/Emilia is a testimony to her calibre as an actress.

Saif gets the best part in the play and he does a great job as Langda Tyagi/Iago. After being reluctant to get his hair cut, he's gone to the look of delicious evil and does well on the dialogues too. If there's any doubt about this man's ability to turn in a good performance given the right material and director, watch the shots of his face as Om Shukla appoints Kesu as the new baahubalii. Vishal wanted Langda Tyagi to look like Gabbar Singh and Langda becomes a favourite just like people loved Amjad's classic villain despite his evil deeds. Saif goes the long way with tarnishing his physicality and even though the limp seems to change through the film, this is a wonderful turn. In Maqbool, Pankaj Kapur walked away with the extended part that Vishal created while adding more detail to the backstory of the film; Saif does the same here, but this time both Bard and Bhardwaj are on his side.

With everyone going ugly or without make-up, Bipasha Basu gets the best deal: she looks beautiful, is photographed well (didn't notice the squint) and even gets the best name of the year -- Billo Chaman Bahar.

Deepak Dobriyal seems to have missed out on media attention despite an earnest wonderful turn as Rajju/Roderigo.

As with Maqbool, Naseeruddin Shah's brief turn as Tiwari Bhaisaahab/The Duke is bound to worry a few; yet, once again, Vishal chooses the actor wisely to infuse a small part with the most life for what it's worth.

A special note for the old lady who gets the most authentic lines in the film and delivers them with crowd-pleasing aplomb.

The technical crew

* Tassaduq Hussain's a great D/P. The wonderful long shots (e.g. Tyagi walking away after tossing Rajju into the river), the close-ups of the boots, the textures and tones of the earth, the green lighting for Saif (especially in the final confrontation) underscoring the theme of jealousy; and that wonderful sequence in the rain outside the train.

* Dolly Ahluwalia's costumes (not to mention the banner bearing the remnants of her cameo as Auntyji); more about the colour coding will be clear after a second viewing

* Meghana Manchanda's editing which aids Vishal's desire to stop short at the right time before moments in the film can devolve into the morass of standard assembly-line Bollywood. There's a nice cut where Rajju's look as he arrives in a vehicle matches a look in the next scene. Coincidence or accident?

Mappings Vishal handles the mappings well. The handkerchief becomes a family heirloom (a cummerbund); whispers and overheard conversations translate to cell phones; and in a brilliantly ingenious move, he leaves Om and Dolly unmarried, waiting for a suitable muhuurat. The twist in the tail that he adds to the narrative gets Konkona her big moment of expression; the change fits in reasonably well, and extends the crescendo of the tragic events of the climax. All this, however, didn't resonate with the ingenuity of the mappings in Maqbool (the 3 witches and "when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane"). The comparison is unfair since there's little one can do about the source material; yet the novelty and the cast of Maqbool score higher than this painstaking labour of love. Vishal also tends to skim over a set of sequences as the narrative proceeds and people might feel cheated with how little time and space are devoted the Omi/Dolly dynamic, the political angle in the goings-on and such, Omkara's power as a leader; yet there seems to be some merit in the effectiveness of the unsaid. Yet, both films achieve different goals for Vishal and Omkara marks a strong step forward for him creatively (when was the last time you had a film this big where one person shared screenwriting credit, wrote the dialogue, composed the songs for the film, even sang one of them and directed the damn thing to top it all?). One eagerly awaits the release of The Blue Umbrella and wishes Vishal the very best for his next venture.

Nibbles

* The presence of authentic instruments during the item songs adding to their diegetic flavour

* Dialogue transcending scene boundaries across cuts

* Vishal tinkers with the songs to overlay dialogue over the interludes (o saathii re, bii.Dii), to cut straight to the scene (the opening of namak), to fit the visuals (the modified extended interlude on o saathii re); he even adjusts the lengths so that the songs never end up being the conventional Bollywood toilet break indicators; Suresh Wadkar's jag jaa appears twice: once in a not-on-the-soundtrack-release a cappella version and the second time in the place it was meant to be (if you've read Othello you know what I mean)

* That audacious single shot in the opening of o saathii re

* The crackling dialogue, the fresh wit, the bawdy jokes

* The fate of the railway train carrying Bhaisaahab, Omi and Langda

* Langda painting his nails as Indu consoles Kesu: just another indicator of Vishal's attention to detail

* Was the sequence when Ajay Devgan gets a rinse from the water pump at the end of the duel underscored by the title track a tip to the end of the godown fight in Deewar?

Trivia: Diegetic music included Preeti Sagar singing my heart is beating. Also noted the copy of Godaan in Naseeruddin's prison "residence." Great product placement for Dainik Jagran too. Did anyone notice the phone number for the Billo Chaman Bahar Orchestra? And Tyagi Hospital Hostel (thanks Arun) has to be one of the best subtle references in the film.

Excisions: What happened to the college sequences at the University? The flashback fragment features in the film but I don't remember Ajay riding a bike (clearly, as Manish notes, they mixed up Viveik and Ajay) or even the campaigning.

The grand scheme of things: Vishal seems to have served himself a Catch-22 situation. The choice of stars seems to have been motivated by the desire to reach a wider audience and also to be able to snag the funds to make a film on a larger canvas. While having succeeded on the budgetary front, Vishal's creatively admirable and satisfying desire to remain faithful to the dialect might alienate the very audiences that he has tried to attract. Not to mention the language that the censor board has been prudent enough to leave intact.

Anticlimax: The film, reportedly, isn't doing too well. Disappointing.

Vishal just wanted "the film to make enough money to let me make another film the way I want to." Here's hoping we see many more films from him.

Elsewhere: Baradwaj Rangan's nicely written take on the film | JR's notes | Masalafied's take on the film (added: august 08, 2006)

addendum: [august 02, 2006]: Despite reports about a discouraging opening ("The film opens to a very poor response all over. The trade has labelled the film a big flop already because of the high prices. The turnout in some theatres in Delhi and Punjab was as low as 10% and that is a shocker for a big star cast film."), there's hope for Vishal's labour of love yet. It's doing well in the UK and has grossed Rs. 14.2 million in various PVR complexes in Delhi in the last four days. Prakash Jha, who's handling the distribution of the film in Bihar, also notes a favourable response. Wonder what Salim Khan, who's distributing the film in Central India, has to say. I hope the film truly is here to stay. Vishal's got another weekend and some days before KANK hits the fan. Things are tight.

addendum: [august 05, 2006]: The box office report now reflects the favourable responses noted earlier: Managed to pick up Mumbai, Delhi and Pune but struggling at most places. Looks set to lose in many circuits apart from Mumbai where it may recover costs. Heavy loser in East Punjab, CPCI, Rajasthan, Bihar and Nizam. First week business is around 12.50 crore.. We're still among the sharks, but hope ain't dyin' yet.

addendum: [august 13, 2006]: Updated reports don't offer a very promising picture. KANK's had a "historic opening" and has even taken over some screening zones^[1]; this means that there's not much hope of a miracle in the short term: Managed to sustain very well in Delhi/NCR but fell heavily elsewhere. After two weeks business, the only circuit which will make money is Delhi/UP due to good business in Delhi/NCR. Surprisingly the UP/Bihar belt is weak.

[1] The primary hall in Atlanta, Galaxy Cinema, has decided to devote all its halls and shows to the film; no more Omkara until the DVD hits the market

addendum: [august 16, 2006]: While describing the great business KANK is doing abroad, Arthur J Pais also notes how well Omkara did abroad:

While KANK is hogging all the limelight, let us not forget the resilient Omkara, which stole $170,000 in North America, almost reaching $1 million while across the Atlantic, it has grossed an impressive $500,000 in three weeks. The riveting performance by Saif Ali Khan, who has built a solid fan base overseas in the past three years, is one reason why Omkara is having a profitable run abroad. Its steady overseas box-office performance has surprised the box-office pundits in India.

addendum: [august 17, 2006] The film's been granted a 3-month entertainment tax exemption in UP because the state government believes that the film "spreads the message of checking rising crime among youth." Here's to some better business at the box office there.

addendum: [august 22, 2006]: The updated (august 19, 2006 : 1500 IST) reports have a verdict. The film is a flop: Falls heavily in third week and is struggling to cover costs in Mumbai and Delhi/UP now. FLOP

a review and some interesting regional notes

[last post in the Omkara thread]

Manish has a nice take on Gulzar's lyrical explorations in Omkara. It would also be unfair not to mention JR's detailed review (with footnotes). The updated post now also contains a reference to Manish's post. Watch that space. Watch this space. Go watch the film when it hits the theatres.

addendum: Manish posts an addendum about the dialect and ends with a note that all this attempt at being true to the milieu of the film's events is likely to hurt the commercial prospects of the film. Sad times are upon us if an attention to detail is at strict odds with commercial success. The Reign Of The Nose only underscores this concern.

elsewhere hereabouts: the music review

extracts from the book about the making of OMKARA

[last post in thread]

A coffee table book about the making of the film (and loaded, in all likelihood, with eye candy) was released in May 2006 at Cannes. Two extracts have made their way online. Something to savour before I get my hands on the book:

...
I set the story in the political mafia of Uttar Pradesh... a strife ridden political melt pot in North India... I spent my childhood in the small town of Meerut in UP... This interpretation of Othello as my characters populate a place and language that I have known closely... Somewhere they have left their Shakespeare roots far behind and surrendered to me... For example I based the character of the central antagonist, Langda Tyagi, on a childhood friend whose growth as a gangster had happened in front of my eyes.
...
When it came down the look I am a big fan of the "wild west" genre of Hollywood films. I reworked Othello and his gang, on page, into a band of outlaws from the great outback. The workings of the gang would be rooted in reality. But the mood of the film was deliberately chosen to resemble the dusty westerns of the 60s.
...
[some more]

...
Discussions during this phase also led to some of the film's grammar such as ending sequences at extreme wide shots and jumping the axis at various points to embellish the narrative.

Tassaduq made Vishal see Roman Polanski's Chinatown as a template for the lensing of the film. They decided to go for a lot of 25-30 lenses even for the extreme wides. It was also decided to shoot on super 35 with Cooke lenses which added that extra amount of detailing to the wides.
...
[all this and more]

In a Mumbai Mirror interview, Vishal offered some more interesting tidbits about his vision for Omkara. MM is notorious for generating and using dud URLs that don't survive more than a few several hours; so, it's a mercy to find the contents on Naachgaana.com:

...
In the original, Iago overhears Othello's conversation, but in my film I have adapted this and used mobile phones and speaker phones instead. It retains the essence of the play and also brings in technology to make it contemporary. If Shakespeare had written Othello in today's time, I am sure he would have also used mobile phones and spy cameras.
...

OMKARA rocks

(last post in thread)

[July 05, 2006] A slightly modified version of this appears on Naachgaana.com

[July 05, 2006] The same modified version appears on Desicritics.org

Aah. Sheer bliss this. Worth every nano-ounce of the wait. Gulzar's way with words, Vishal's sense of sound and the flavour of the region where the movie's events transpire come together in a delicious aural offering. I don't remember sitting back like this with a smile on my face since ... Maqbool.

The title song OMkaaraa opens with an infectious plucked-string riff that situates the song in its locale. Sukhwinder's voice is accompanied by more rustic percussion (the pattern's the same as the one on City Don't Cry from No Quarter), a swirling sound sample, and an enthusiastic multi-part chorus. There's even a riff from the strings that's as addictively dissonant as the central riff on David Bowie's The Hearts Filthy Lesson. Gulzar's lyrics mix onomatopoeia and dialect and metaphors that only he is capable of.

Up next, Vishal steps up to the microphone and joins a restrained dulcet Shreya Ghoshal on o saathii re. The jaw drops as he begins to sing. This man is (to borrow cricket metaphor that's not so inappropriate for triviamongers) an all-rounder. So far, he has written lyrics, composed music, scripted and directed films. All that is left is an acting turn. The lovely second interlude played out the guitar is a reward for people like me who love listening to songs on headphones. It's a wonderful split across the ears... and I'd love to see how it was done. Lovely segue from the mukha.Daa to the a.ntaraa sans interlude. With wonderful lines (aa chal din ko roke.n / dhuup ke piichhe dau.De.n / chhaa.Nv chhue naa) Gulzar also gets away with more than murder (terii merii aTTii-baTTii / daa.Nt se kaaTii kaTTii). This man never loses his power to amaze.

With her effortless impassioned performance on bii.Dii, Sunidhi Chauhan's going to have a tough time shaking off her image as an "item song specialist." Sukhwinder Singh, Nachiketa Chakraborty and Clinton trade turns as Gulzar goes on a wild rhyming spree (naa Gilaaf naa lihaaf / Tha.nDhii hawaa bhii Kilaaf). There's a receptive chorus complete with harmonies and then smack in the middle there's a segue to the harmonium. A minute later, the harmonium and the tabalaa take over for about 10 seconds or so.

When was the last time a lorii began with the words jag jaa? The bouncy interlude featuring the flute and the string section (the Chennai String Orchestra) doesn't help matters much. The irony is absent in the calming rendition from Wadkar or in the short first flute interlude. And lines like halkaa-saa kosaa, subah kaa bosaa help. Stay tuned for a reference to king dasharath's promise.

Rekha's first song on the album finds me still at sea about just how talented she is. namak, with its earthy flavour, percussion, the harmonium, the occasional tinkling piano, able support from Rakesh Pandit, and a host of supporting singers is a revelation.

The first thing naiNaa does is give me a far far better idea of what Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is capable of than man kii lagan had in Paap. Toss in a rippling electronic riff, a motif on the guitar and a swirling heady trance mix. The eyes have been a familiar object of Gulzar's poetic interpretation (juuThe nainaa bole, juuThe tere nain) and their fickle intent receives a fresh salvo here: bhalaa ma.ndaa dekhe Naa paraayaa Naa sagaa re / naiNo.n ko to Dasane kaa chaskaa lagaa re / naiNo.n kaa zahar nashiilaa re.

laaka.D is Rekha's second song on the album. It opens with the sound of oars hitting water before Rekha's voice breaks in against a 14-beat cycle. Vishal's uncomplicated melody includes a wonderfully expressive touch when Rekha sings the word khaak the first time. The arrangements mix multitracked echoes and reverbs, acoustic and electric guitar riffs and rich sweeps lending a general feeling of suspension to the lyrics: laaka.D jal ke koyalaa hoye jaaye / koyalaa hoye jaaye khaak / jiyaa jale to kuchh naa hoye re / naa dhuaa.N naa raakh / jiyaa naa jalaiyo re.

the tragedie of omkara rounds up the album; it's the sole instrumental cue on the soundtrack release. Carmina Burana-esque with a portentous crescendo fraught with despair.

This is the best Hindi film soundtrack of the year.

once upon a time in the east

[more OMKARA] {last post in thread}

That's how the flash promo on the film's website begins. The font, the brush stroke finish to the shots in the montage, the earthy textures are all dead giveaways of the Sergio Leone influence, especially Once Upon A Time In the West (if you haven't already seen this film, do yourself a gigantic favour and watch it; and feel free to scream Sholay when we come to the killing of the McBain family).

The pages are decently laid out, except the prominent absence of a "Back" button in the "Crew" section.

The music has only made me even more eager to get my hands on the soundtrack (tentative release date on Eros Music: July 3, 2006). So far it sounds like an aural winner for Vishal. It's nice to see Sunidhi return (was Paanch their last collaboration?). Rakesh Pandit returns after two tracks on Maqbool. Nachiketa Chakravorty, JR suspects, is the same Nachiketa on A R Rahman's soundtrack for Shyam Benegal's Bose. Suresh Wadkar returns after Mulaqaat. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan makes for an interesting addition. Rekha snags two songs on this soundtrack. And Vishal also makes his singing début. Hmm. No Lata (cool!), no Asha (nice!), but unfortunately no Sanjeev Abhyankar (recently heard wasting his talent in that terrible title track from The Nose for Banaras). A track listing follows.

* OMkaaraa / sukhvinder singh

* o saathii re / shreya ghoshal, vishal bhardwaj

* bii.Dii / sunidhi chauhan. sukhvinder singh, nachiketa chakravorty, clinton cerejo

* jag jaa / suresh wadkar

* namak / rekha bhardwaj, rakesh pandit

* nainaa / rahat fateh ali khan

* laakaD / rekha bhardwaj

* the tragedie of omkara

Excuse me while I go and relish the trailers.

omkara: the official site is up

Not much there yet except for a poster. The first words that come to mind: Sergio Leone. That's a good thing. The casting has had me worried , but my hopes and wishes are with the film. Here's hoping Vishal pulls off another flourish after Maqbool.

bash a bias up

Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper! call up all my people!
This accident is not unlike my dream:
Belief of it oppresses me already.
Light, I say! light!

Vishal seems to be taking his experiments too seriously. The latest to join the motley crew (Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sensharma, Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi) on his adaptation of the Moor's tale is the shabby meretricious lass with a squint and absolutely no acting smarts, Ms Bipasha Basu.

On the plus side, Naseeruddin Shah joins the group, and despite a smaller role, he is conducting a workshop for the cast (just like he did in Maqbool).

I honestly hope this turns out to be a good effort. I would be pleasantly surprised to get an opportunity to laud the acting smarts of most of the people in that list. After all, with some many stars that just live up to the Hyderabad Blues principle of "all f**t no s**t", we could do with some more actors, couldn't we?

patellar tendon reflex: what's goin' on?

Shortly after having stumped me with his casting on Mr. Mehta and Mrs. Singh, Vishal Bhardwaj comes up with another knock to the ulnar nerve. He's revisiting Shakespeare territory. After the wonderful Maqbool, which adapted Macbeth to the Bombay underworld (and it seemed so appropriate you wondered why no one else had attempted this in ... um ... Bollywood), it's now the turn of Othello. The film's going to be produced by Devgan Entertainment, which means that Ajay Devgan is going to star as O___, the equivalent of Othello. The other names for casting being bandied about aren't all that encouraging either. I'm not as excited as I was when I heard the first newsbit about Maqbool.

I can look at this as (a) Vishal is making Shakespeare adaptations his equivalent to RGV's gangster flicks (b) Vishal is doing what Gulzar did in the 70s and later in 1999 -- getting non-actors to act. This is not to say that Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan are necessarily bad actors. Saif's got a good sense of comedy, but that doesn't quite cut him some slack for the character of Iago (who wasn't joking about in the play anyway!). I'd have loved to see a gamble with Arshad Warsi instead ("not a star; not saleable, " screams the voice inside my head ... why would this voice speak up as far as Vishal was concerned?). And Devgan's managed to rake up a lot of acclaim for his "acting" simply by looking morose and serious, holding a cigarette in pretty much the same way and puffing galore, and leaving his former mainstream self behind (breaking into a sequence of bad dance steps, executing some fine action moves that his father taught him, mouthing bombast ... you know the drill). Both are better candidates than Suni(e)l Shetty [ref: Hu Tu Tu]. Which means that this might be watchable as an experiment, if not anything else. There's also the hope of a good soundtrack.

What troubles me is the ambiguity: Vishal and another writer have scripted the film. Who's the other guy? Gimme Abbas Tyrewala or even Anurag Kashyap.

And I'd love to get my hands on the abandoned screenplay for Barf.

Meanwhile, as Saurabh Usha Narang (he that helmed the RGV camp sleeper [literally!] Vaastu Shastra) works on a book about his mentor, RGV tosses another googly by announcing his intention to remake James (music notes may be found here). Wonder what Rohit Jugraj might think about all this. Mehboob Khan did it to himself with Aurat/Mother India. Hitchcock did it with The Man Who Knew Too Much. At least RGV has company (no pun intended).

[Update] [October 14, 2005] Admittedly, Rohit Jugraj, who helmed James, ain't too pleased with RGV's decision to remake the film. He then joined Randeep Hooda in the (hopefully not growing) exodus from RGV's camp after dropping the bomb: Shiv (the proposed RGV remake) is not a remake of James, but a remake of RGV's old film Shiva with Nagarjuna! {source}