The UP - Bihar Mafia concept
It would be quite interesting to see how Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara, releasing this week, will fare at the box office. Will he pull it off? Will we like his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello? Will the Indian public, in general, be able to digest and enjoy it?
The one thing I’ve never enjoyed about Bhardwaj’s previous products is the pace. They tend to be too slow to hold my attention. (It doesn’t help either that I have a short attention span). So even though the previews, trailers and the music videos of Omkara are playing at jet speed on all possible desi channels, it needs to be seen if that happens to be the actual pace in the movie.
But the intriguing element, which could be the USP of the movie, would be its UP – Bihar mafia backdrop. The Bombay mafia ideas in a story have gone stale. There was a spark in the way the Delhi mafia was in Ek Hasina Thi.
Prakash Jha has shown the Bihar ganglands in his products, minus the zing. The one movie which in recent times has gone deep into the inner workings of the UP Mafia was Sehar. Writer/Director Kabeer Kaushik’s take on the UP mafia bosses was quite interesting and honestly, gripping in many parts.
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Another one that came a few years ago, was Haasil. Irrfan’s first major hit. The student politics in UP naturally transitioning into local dons of the town was quite transparently handled by director Tigmanshu Dhulia. It’s difficult to point your finger on the best elements of the movie - Dhulia’s presentation of the UP Gangs? Or Irrfan’s sharp act in playing the local student leader/mafia don. Ofcourse we ended up completely overlooking the subtleness in Jimmy Shergill’s performance.
As always, Shergill seems to be one of the talented yet unlucky guys in the movie industry. No surprise. I know. Cause Shergill and I were born on the same day. (Not that I’m discreetly patting my back here. Comeon - he’s Jimmy Shergill whereas me, a mere oz).
So even though we may have seem umpteen UP/Bihar style dons mouthing the UP/Bihar dialect, the backdrop most often has been the Bombay mafia.
There is still freshness in the UP/Bihar mafia backdrop and it could prove to be one of the key elements that provide Omkara its success.
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July 24th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Yep, Oz… everyone is waiting for july 29th. I hope it turns out to be a damn good movie. About Vishal.. all wud say is that.. he sometimes looses it at the end. But still a notch above the rest in today’s bollywood. Hey even i share the same birthday as you and jimmy.. 30th Feb..every year
July 24th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
- Sumeet, I hope it meets the rising expectations :)>- 30th Feb? Oh! In that case imdb.com has not listed the right date of Jimmy’s birth.
July 24th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
30th Feb … kab se bhai …???
July 25th, 2006 at 12:30 am
30th Feb? :d
July 25th, 2006 at 2:21 am
vishaal bhardwaj’s film Maqbool was kind of slow ….(havent seen makdee)….probably because he dwells more on characterisations and dialogues and not just dialogue…despite that it was absolutely rivetting …..every scene of the film speaks volumes of the class…
cant wait for omkara ….
:-w
July 25th, 2006 at 4:28 am
Makdee was a cute movie.I remember having watched it on a free ticket i got from my tuition teacher:),Was a nice movie.Loved the way he captured the bungalow etc and Shweta Prasad’s performance.Only con was that the ending was crap.
Maqbool was good.The cast was truly a dream team of Indian Cinema with even the side actors like Piyush Mishra and Ajay Gehi acting well.No cons in this one.
About Omkara,it looks well-researched and has a lot of things going for it.But whether it really is good will be known on Friday:)