Alright, I watched "Omkara," a few days ago (a Bollywood Adaptation of Othello) and I've been gathering my thoughts on it ever since. Here's a quick rundown of my thoughts on it.
First, I thought it was very well done and it was a really interesting (and very long) movie.
Something you must understand about Bollywood movies is that there actors are heavily type-casted. They play the same sort of roll every time. I'm not an expert on Ajay Devgan (the Indian equivalent of Othello) but I looked at his awards list and there were many "best actor" and "best villain" nominations and a few "best comedian" nominations. Knowing that the movie is obviously not a comedy the "best comedian" suit doesn't fit. Which leads me to believe that he was being cast as a villain. Interesting. Why is Othello, not Iago being cast as the villain? I'm afraid I don't have an answer yet.
Okay, so he's Othello and deemed a villain based off of casting. Then there's Kareena Kapoor who is basically the Princess of Bollywood. She's pretty, she can dance, and she has fair skin. She is the beloved Desdemona...aka Dolly. This also says something about how they perceive Desdemona. Kareena is typically flirtatious and sassy, a stronger character. She's confident, and it shows in her acting. She isn't portrayed as being weak in the movie due to her nature but because of her circumstances. It is her position that disables her from defending herself and getting the story straight, and it doesn't help that she doesn't actually know what's going on.
Okay, now for the technical stuff.
Costuming: I loved the costumes because they were so true to the culture in which the film was presented. They mostly stuck to traditional Indian attire - Sarees, Chudidars, etc. and I loved the belt/handkerchief replacement and how it applied more to Indian culture.
Casting: I talked about this already up above but I felt like Kareena Kapoor was a great choice as the beloved Desdemona because she is so well-liked among film-goers. I'm not sure why Ajay Devgan was caste as Othello because I don't see him as a villain per-say but more as a lost man. I thought he made a great Othello I'm just not sure why his type-cast fit the bill. Saif Ali Khan made a great/creepy Iago. He successfully fooled Othello by being a great friend on one hand and a traitor on the other, he was really believable.
Language: I must admit that reading the subtitles was an interesting experience. The material of Othello was translated into Hindi and I was reading the Hindi translation of its main ideas back to English, which helped me look at what they valued. It took a little bit away from the experience not hearing the Shakespearean language but it functioned to highlight the themes.
First, I thought it was very well done and it was a really interesting (and very long) movie.
Something you must understand about Bollywood movies is that there actors are heavily type-casted. They play the same sort of roll every time. I'm not an expert on Ajay Devgan (the Indian equivalent of Othello) but I looked at his awards list and there were many "best actor" and "best villain" nominations and a few "best comedian" nominations. Knowing that the movie is obviously not a comedy the "best comedian" suit doesn't fit. Which leads me to believe that he was being cast as a villain. Interesting. Why is Othello, not Iago being cast as the villain? I'm afraid I don't have an answer yet.
Okay, so he's Othello and deemed a villain based off of casting. Then there's Kareena Kapoor who is basically the Princess of Bollywood. She's pretty, she can dance, and she has fair skin. She is the beloved Desdemona...aka Dolly. This also says something about how they perceive Desdemona. Kareena is typically flirtatious and sassy, a stronger character. She's confident, and it shows in her acting. She isn't portrayed as being weak in the movie due to her nature but because of her circumstances. It is her position that disables her from defending herself and getting the story straight, and it doesn't help that she doesn't actually know what's going on.
The last scene of the movie ends with Omakra and Dolly both dead. Dolly is swinging on a sort of rocking bed/bench and Omi is dead on the floor. The screen goes dark and cuts to the credits with the sound of the creaking bed in the background.
There were several Indian elements in the movie. The handkerchief was a belt (which in India is a piece of jewelry, my husband and I looked at a gold one and it ran upwards of 10,000 USD ). There were bad omens and arranged marriages. That's how the whole thing started, by Dolly going against her father's arrangement. And there were trains, palaces, and bright sarees. The conflict between Dolly and Omi didn't occur after their marriage but before all the ceremonies took place.
Why Othello? As I watched the movie I felt like without knowing the context it could have been any other Bollywood movie where everybody dies in the end, or there is a great tragedy, or it ends on a rough note and everyone walks away okay. When I was in India I felt they weren't as concerned with the ending as they were with the message. I remember one day going to see a movie with a group of Indians. It was a great movie until it reached the end. The two characters who were in love with each other the whole time (the best friend kind) simply couldn't depart from the ones they were dating in order to have true love. They ended up with the wrong person, but it ended as if that were a decent resolution to a happy ending. What? Me and my American friends hated it. We hated the movie because of the ending. Our Indian friends love it. "Oh it is better that she should be with him, it is more sensible, more reasonable, people would ask questions if the two best friends got married." They were not concerned with the ending, the were pleased that they had been friends and were now married to other people. Because that was sensible. I saw another Bollywood movie where there were two girls and one married the others love, leaving the lonely girl to think her lover was dead (long story) and that was a fine ending. Indians don't need happy endings. The themes of revenge, loyalty, family, and marital happiness contained in Othello are what I believe drew the Indians to the play or the play to them. Everybody is betraying each other right and left and that is normal for them, that is normal for them to see in their media. This just furthered my idea that society studies the Shakespeare that reinforces what they already know, and that no matter the context, we seek to organize great literature into our lives in some satisfactory way.
Okay, now for the technical stuff.
Costuming: I loved the costumes because they were so true to the culture in which the film was presented. They mostly stuck to traditional Indian attire - Sarees, Chudidars, etc. and I loved the belt/handkerchief replacement and how it applied more to Indian culture.
Casting: I talked about this already up above but I felt like Kareena Kapoor was a great choice as the beloved Desdemona because she is so well-liked among film-goers. I'm not sure why Ajay Devgan was caste as Othello because I don't see him as a villain per-say but more as a lost man. I thought he made a great Othello I'm just not sure why his type-cast fit the bill. Saif Ali Khan made a great/creepy Iago. He successfully fooled Othello by being a great friend on one hand and a traitor on the other, he was really believable.
Language: I must admit that reading the subtitles was an interesting experience. The material of Othello was translated into Hindi and I was reading the Hindi translation of its main ideas back to English, which helped me look at what they valued. It took a little bit away from the experience not hearing the Shakespearean language but it functioned to highlight the themes.
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