One can understand the exuberance of Vishal Bharadwaj and the ones who (mis)managed the publicity for Omkara that caused them to play up the Othello angle.
Mismanaged because by simply calling Omkara an adaptation of Othello, they are doing a great disservice to the multi-talented Mr Bharadwaj. Yes, it is a great juxtaposition of that great Shakespearean tragedy into the rough and tumble of politics in Western UP. One appreciates the cleverness of the character names - so that Othello becomes Omkara, Desdemona transforms into Dolly and so on.
But what this over-emphasis on Othello does is to totally undersell the ability of a great director to interweave every possible element of a masala Hindi movie into a gripping, blink-and-you-miss-something narrative. The music (by Vishal Bharadwaj himself) is epic in its own right, and Gulzar's lyrics are brilliant as always. The dark light effects, the sweeping panoramas, and the mercilessly coarse and blistering dialogues all contribute to the making of one of the great Hindi movies of our generation. Bipasha Basu's beautiful cameo with Beedi Jalaile ranks along with Aishwarya Rai's Kajra Re from Bunty aur Babli and Rekha's Kaisi Paheli Zindagani (Parineeta) as one of the great "item numbers" in Hindi movies.
Kareena Kapoor is adequate as Dolly, Viveik Oberoi looks his part (though his histrionic limitations come forth in the more dramatic scenes, of which there are many), but the 3 I would pay to see again and again are Ajay Devgun as Omkara (and to think that the first time I went to see a movie starring this worthy - Jigar - I actually walked out 45 minutes into the film), Saif Ali Khan in the much-appreciated role of Langda Tyagi and Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu Tyagi.
Superb movie - and not surprisingly not a great success at the Box Office. I am sure in the years to come, like Guru Dutt's Kagaz Ke Phool, Omkara will be pulled up for reference as one of the great movies in Bollywood history.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Nagesh Kukunoor's "Dor"
Over the past 3-4 weeks, I ended up seeing 4 Hindi movies from 2006 that really shook me out of my ennui in their own unique ways and left me appreciating one of the most wonderful year's in Bollywood cinema.
One Rang De Basanti would have sufficed to make 2006 memorable, the year saw other movies vie for the sublime - Omkara, Dor, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Gangster are the 4 I have had the pleasure of viewing thus far - and I have not even seen the big box office grossers such as Fanaa, Krrish and Dhoom 2 nor other acclaimed ones like Khosla Ka Ghosla and Pyar Ke Side Effects.
Nagesh Kukunoor's journey into the Hindi film industry is itself worth a movie one day. How many of us engineers had the courage of conviction, and the passion, to chuck it all and get back to following one's heart. Where Nagesh Kukunoor's heart has taken him is to the very apex of Hindi filmdom. I always thought having Subhash Ghai produce a movie (Iqbal) would be difficult to top. I liked Iqbal a lot, as much as I have liked every movie made by Nagesh from his first Hyderabad Blues. "Dor" is something in a league of its own. A must-watch movie if ever there was one.
The three central characters, Gul Panag, Ayesha Takia and Shreyas Talpade, have together delivered one of the most plausible, lilting and uplifting human dramas in Indian cinemas since Ketan Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai (with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in key roles!). Not once does Dor degenerate into the maudlin, and not once does the cerebral director ever let his intellect come in the way of a simple and straightforward narrative.
Girish Karnad as Ayesha's decadent father-in-law is a classic case where the director could have been tempted to put more meat into a character. By leaving this under-developed, the focus stays squarely on the interplay of emotions and attitudes between Ayesha and Gul Panag. The story of "Dor" is that of these two young women, diametrically opposite in temperament, upbringing and experience, joined together by sheer destiny. In their very tragedy is the triumph of human spirit and attitude. Gul's stately and measured approach to life is brought to its knees when confronted with the otherwise demure and waif-like Ayesha's unexpected intransigence.
Salim-Sulaiman's outstanding music, Shreyas Talpade brilliant cameo as the bahuroopiya who takes Gul Panag to her destination, and everything else fades into the background as the riveting evolution of the personalities of Ayesha's Meera and Gul's Zeenat occupies centerstage in this outstanding movie from one of the great years in Hindi Cinema.
I doubt whether we will ever see better performances from either Ms Takia or Ms Panag than this. I hope I am wrong though - there is so much inner steel in the petite Ayesha Takia's histrionic ability that she could easily emerge as the Shabana Azmi of this generation of actresses. Likewise, I cannot think of too many contemporary actressses who could have essayed the character of Zeenat without giving in to the temptation to overact - that she could do so in what is only her second movie to date is a real tribute to Gul Panag.
Above all, this marks the high-point in the continuing evolution of Nagesh Kukunoor, the film-maker. He has stayed true to his intellectual roots by not sacrificing the plausible at the altar of expedience. Can't wait to see what he has up his sleeves for 2007!
One Rang De Basanti would have sufficed to make 2006 memorable, the year saw other movies vie for the sublime - Omkara, Dor, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Gangster are the 4 I have had the pleasure of viewing thus far - and I have not even seen the big box office grossers such as Fanaa, Krrish and Dhoom 2 nor other acclaimed ones like Khosla Ka Ghosla and Pyar Ke Side Effects.
Nagesh Kukunoor's journey into the Hindi film industry is itself worth a movie one day. How many of us engineers had the courage of conviction, and the passion, to chuck it all and get back to following one's heart. Where Nagesh Kukunoor's heart has taken him is to the very apex of Hindi filmdom. I always thought having Subhash Ghai produce a movie (Iqbal) would be difficult to top. I liked Iqbal a lot, as much as I have liked every movie made by Nagesh from his first Hyderabad Blues. "Dor" is something in a league of its own. A must-watch movie if ever there was one.
The three central characters, Gul Panag, Ayesha Takia and Shreyas Talpade, have together delivered one of the most plausible, lilting and uplifting human dramas in Indian cinemas since Ketan Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai (with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in key roles!). Not once does Dor degenerate into the maudlin, and not once does the cerebral director ever let his intellect come in the way of a simple and straightforward narrative.
Girish Karnad as Ayesha's decadent father-in-law is a classic case where the director could have been tempted to put more meat into a character. By leaving this under-developed, the focus stays squarely on the interplay of emotions and attitudes between Ayesha and Gul Panag. The story of "Dor" is that of these two young women, diametrically opposite in temperament, upbringing and experience, joined together by sheer destiny. In their very tragedy is the triumph of human spirit and attitude. Gul's stately and measured approach to life is brought to its knees when confronted with the otherwise demure and waif-like Ayesha's unexpected intransigence.
Salim-Sulaiman's outstanding music, Shreyas Talpade brilliant cameo as the bahuroopiya who takes Gul Panag to her destination, and everything else fades into the background as the riveting evolution of the personalities of Ayesha's Meera and Gul's Zeenat occupies centerstage in this outstanding movie from one of the great years in Hindi Cinema.
I doubt whether we will ever see better performances from either Ms Takia or Ms Panag than this. I hope I am wrong though - there is so much inner steel in the petite Ayesha Takia's histrionic ability that she could easily emerge as the Shabana Azmi of this generation of actresses. Likewise, I cannot think of too many contemporary actressses who could have essayed the character of Zeenat without giving in to the temptation to overact - that she could do so in what is only her second movie to date is a real tribute to Gul Panag.
Above all, this marks the high-point in the continuing evolution of Nagesh Kukunoor, the film-maker. He has stayed true to his intellectual roots by not sacrificing the plausible at the altar of expedience. Can't wait to see what he has up his sleeves for 2007!
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