kamran wrote:
Some more time developing Langda's motives would have serviced the film tremendously - when exactly does he put his plan into motion? After his ambivalence in taking those two photos at the birthday party, there is no scene showing him making a determined decision to bring Omkara down.
agree, and not just w/ langda, but I felt there were several times in the film that events occurred w/out sufficient motivation/development, but rather simply to stay true to the events in the play. the script definitely seemed lacking in that sense. and w/ langda’s character, I thought it wld have been more effective had his character had more motive, afterall in the play, it was certainly more than “ being passed up for lieutenant†which drives iago. and the culmination of the iago/emilia characters was a completely unnecessary and unneeded alteration from the original play, I am not sure what prompted the writers to change it
aside from the script/characterization, I found some of the main players terribly miscast.
saif for me was certainly the most disappointing, I remember reading a vishal interview where he said something like how he wanted saif to be like the gabbar singh of the film. and that was part of the problem, saif seemed too much like an over-the-top masala character rather than the sinister iago. after viewing the film, I cldn’t help thinking how the character wld have been had another khan(irfan) played the part
getting to ajay, the role of omkara severely exposed his limitations as an actor. his lack of emotion/cold/laid back approach worked fine in the first half but as the film moved on and especially in the culminating sequences he completely failed to portray the true anguish of his character. he seemed hardly more troubled in the latter half of the film than he did in the beginning. though not taking away completely from ajay, he did have some particularly effective scenes especially in the first half
my favorite performances in the film wld definitely come from the smaller parts… I cldn’t think of anyone better than vivek to play the young, good looking, flirtatious yet loyal michael cassio. this was one casting decision by vishal which was perfect, and definitely viveks best performance since his company. of course the other great casting choice is deepak dobriyal as the patheric roderigo. after his small part in maqbool, am glad that vishal decided to give him a more pivotal part here
kamran wrote:
The background score was exaggerated (not the songs, mind you); sometimes silence during tense moments is more powerful.
ya the score was certainly intrusive during certain portions, but for the most part I thought the score was pretty effective. and the bgm itself was excellent, definitely one of the highlights of the film I thought. but more than the score I thought the song placements were terrible… especially in the first half hour or so where there were like 2-3 songs played in quick succession and greatly interrupted the narrative.
with the exception of beedi, which I thought was not only well placed in the film but also played a part in moving the plot forward (w/ the resulting drunken brawl w/ vivek), all the other songs definitely seemed unneeded and intrusive. even the title song that I liked so much , seemed to be misplaced in the film
and ya there definitely were some wonderfully shot scenes in the film…
definitely the introduction scene of omkara(the character) has to be among the best entrances in hindi cinema. as saif/vivek are scuffling w/ brabanzio’s character in the yard, omkara suddenly appears from above and begins descending the steps wrapped in black and almost completely in shadow. the score in this scene also plays a big part, and is really effective
the other scene of course, is when omkara elects kesu as bahubali, and langda proceeds to yell it off the mountain top sending the crowd into a joyous frenzy. I am not sure who deserves more credit for this scene, vishal or the location scout
also I liked the use of cell phones in the film - one scene in the beginning is particularly clever, when kesu puts the phone on speaker so that bhaisaab can talk to both othello and brabanzio during their confrontation. another instance is when kesu captures a local politician, doing his own brand of "fund-raising"
, on his camera phone
but all in all, I found the film so so. though to be honest, I probably came into the cinema hall w/ unreasonably high expectations. after all we are talking abt the director of maqbool, one of the best indian films of last decade in my opinion
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