Omkara, the Indian rendition of Shakepeare's play Othello is quite a visual feast with Saif Ali Khan playing a kick-ass Iago or Tyagi as the character is called in the film.

Fab, fab, fab and check out the abs on Ajay Devgan who is Othello or Omkara (also called Omi Bhai). Director Vishal Bhardwaj takes his second stab at taking Shakespeare to the Indus Civilization. His first foray, Maqbool (for Macbeth) is purportedly fantastic, but haven't seen it so no comment. Tassadauq Hussain is the Director of Photography in Omkara and does an amazing job with frame composition and color palette.

Official Website: Omkara

Best (and sexiest) Song: Beedi with Bipashu Basu [right] dancing like pure fire and putting all the Eastern European strippers in Scores, NYC to shame.

Listen to Beedi and Omkara (another good song) at Raaga.com

The only drawback is that the movie is set in Uttar Pardesh so I for one understood barely anything the cast was saying, and then I got bored with Kareena Kapoor's salty looks (Shakepeare is turning in his grave because Desdemona is called Dolly in Omkara). And we all know the end: Omi Bhai smothers Dolly to death because Tayagi is pissed off for not being promoted in the ranks by Omi, and convinces him that Dolly is cheating on Omi. Oops sorry, did I ruin the end? Were you sleeping in your Shakespeare class - you should know this already !

Smothering your lover to death because you're a fool - very bad.
Looking good while smothering your lover - not bad.
Looking hot while convincing your fool of a friend to smother his lover - excellent !

This movie is worth watching just to see Saif Ali Khan play an evil son of a bitch with flair and pure glee.

MadZen Rating :

(Image Courtesy Omkara)

Psst: For a quick and dirty lowdown on Othello, read Spark Notes.