Omkara (2006 film)

Omkara
Theatrical release poster
Directed byVishal Bhardwaj
Screenplay byVishal Bhardwaj
Robin Bhatt
Abhishek Chaubey
Based onOthello
by William Shakespeare
Produced byKumar Mangat Pathak
StarringAjay Devgn
Kareena Kapoor
Saif Ali Khan
Konkona Sen Sharma
Vivek Oberoi
Bipasha Basu
CinematographyTassaduq Hussain
Edited byMeghna Manchanda Sen
Music byVishal Bhardwaj
Production
company
Distributed byEros International
Big Screen Entertainers
Release date
  • 28 July 2006 (2006-07-28)
Running time
155 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box office₹42 crore[1]

Omkara is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's Othello, co-written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.[2][3][4] It stars an ensemble cast of Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu in lead roles. The director Vishal Bhardwaj himself composed the entire music for the film, including the background score, with lyrics by Gulzar.[5] The film is set in Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh.[6] It is the second film in Bhardwaj's trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations, which began with Maqbool (2003) and was completed with Haider (2014).

Omkara released on 28 July 2006, and proved to be a commercial failure at the box office, due to its dark theme and strong language which kept away family audiences. However, it received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its direction, story, screenplay, dialogues, soundtrack and performances of the ensemble cast, with particular praise directed towards Devgn, Kapoor, Khan, Oberoi, and Sharma's performances.

At the 54th National Film Awards, Omkara won 3 awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Sen Sharma). At the 52nd Filmfare Awards, the film received 19 nominations, including Best Director (Bhardwaj) and Best Actress (Kapoor), and won a leading 9 awards, including Best Actress (Critics) (Kapoor), Best Supporting Actress (Sen Sharma) and Best Villain (Khan),

Omkara was showcased in the Marché du Film section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival along with a book on the making of the film.[7][8] It was also selected to be screened at the Cairo International Film Festival, where Bhardwaj was awarded for Best Artistic Contribution in Cinema of a Director, in addition to winning 3 awards at the Kara Film Festival,[9] and an award at the Asian Festival of First Films.

  1. ^ "Omkara". Box Office India. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  2. ^ Levenson, Jill L.; Ormsby, Robert (27 March 2017). The Shakespearean World. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317696193.
  3. ^ Dionne, C.; Kapadia, P. (27 March 2014). Bollywood Shakespeares. Springer. ISBN 9781137375568.
  4. ^ Ramesh, Randeep (29 July 2006). "A matter of caste as Bollywood embraces the Bard". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  5. ^ Ramesh, Randeep (29 July 2006). "A matter of caste as Bollywood embraces the Bard: Big budget remake of Othello — with song and dance — starts new trend". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  6. ^ "Moor of Meerut".
  7. ^ "A book on the making of Omkara to be released at Cannes". Bollywood Hungama. 17 May 2006. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Omkara arrives at Cannes too". Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  9. ^ "'Omkara' shines in Cairo and Karachi". Apun Ka Choice. Retrieved 26 December 2006.