Omkara looks, feels and smells authentic. When gang wars break out on the rusty roads of a small town in Uttar Pradesh among Omkara (Ajay Devgn), his mentor Bhaisaab (Naseeruddin Shah) and Omkara's two favourite disciples Kesu Firangi (Vivek Oberoi) and Langda Tyagi (Saif Ali Khan) and their opponents, you're no longer watching the characters, you're looking at a world where Shakespeare must sound like a spear that shakes. Delving deep into the bowels of north Indian politics, Vishal Bharadwaj comes up with a gallery of virile characters who jump out of their literary antecedents and do a dance of crime-driven dynamics on the nozzle of their country-made guns.
Vivek Oberoi on Omkara’s re-release in theatres, “I feel so much gratitude to be a part of such a classic” Besides the fact that he has cast superstars as characters, Vishal's biggest achievement is the irony that underlines the murky goings-on in the hellish political cauldron of the cow-belt: these are boorish guys driven by a literary background of which they are clueless. Shakespeare is as alien to Vishal's characters as a creative compromise would be to this filmmaker. Vishal hits you hard and long with his political parable.
The most interesting exchanges among the characters are the ones that describe the dynamics of gender and politics in a world where laws are made to be broken. Vivek Oberoi, who got to sink his teeth in his role of the desi Cassio, relives the experience. Vivek, your performance in Omkar.
