“Joh Ladki Apne Baap Ko Thug Sakti Hai ... Woh Kisi Aur Ki Sagi Kya Hogi.” This striking dialogue towards the beginning of the film, which sets the tone for the way women are perceived in the film's society and insinuates the imminent conflict between Omkara and Dolly, has been taken almost verbatim from the Shakespeare original. Twenty minutes into the film, we recognise that the Hindi cinematic adaptation does not stray far from its English play original. However, that does not connote a lack in introducing some aspects into Omkara by the filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj that distinguishes the film from its precedent.
Act 1 Scene 1 of Othello introduces us to Roderigo and Iago, whose cinematic counterparts Raju and Langda commence Omkara for its viewers. While the resentment towards Othello in the former is already present, Bhardwaj creates time, opportunity and context for this resentment to manifest itself and eventually enhance into something uglier and cruel. This shift in plot sets the foundation for the most prominent distinction in the literature and its adaptation, which is their “villains.” Bhardwaj remakes the villainous Iago into a more humane and less evil character in his Langda. Although Iago and Langda’s actions to amplify the emotions of suspicion and betrayal follow a similar course, there are multiple minor departures Omkara takes from Othello.
What the film achieved that the play did not is evoking emotions in the audience other than anger towards its villain. Bhardwaj creates opportunities for the audience to, if not empathise with but at least feel a significant bout of sympathy for Langda, an emotion that was never spared for Iago. By delving deeply into Langda’s motives for revenge while spending sufficient time in building this development within the character himself, Bhardwaj gives space for the viewers to relate, on some level, to the emotions that propel Langda’s evil actions.
Sympathies also arise in the distinct portrayal of Kesu in comparison to his original character, Cassio. Much information that we are privy to of Kesu and his literary counterpart is derived from the other characters’ perceptions of them. The audience gets a more explicit glance at Kesu’s character due to the visual means of its depiction. Characteristically, Cassio is viewed as a courageous man capable of fighting for justice and thereby the rightful owner of the title bestowed upon him. Kesu, on the other hand, is chosen for the position, explicitly mentioned by Omkara himself, for his education and the charm that holds over the younger, educated, voting population of the State. Kesu is seen as a choice of convenience rather than a worthy one, making Langda’s actions seem like a consequence of a title wrongfully robbed from him based on his literacy. Introducing classism, through the multiple clear distinctions between people based on their literacy, among a few other themes, Bhardwaj creates an Indianized remodelling of the Shakespearean play.
Moving away from the characters themselves, the analysis of the plotline reveals a much more significant dependence on casteism in the film than the play’s on racism. While Othello being a black man is mainly a reason for disapproval by Brabantio, Omkara’s “half- caste” identity plays into the plot frequently. More often than not, Omkara is regarded as “aadha-baman”, with a constant emphasis on his Brahmin identity, his Dalit identity only brought out when used as a weapon against him.
Switching the plot from the characters serving a monarch in Othello to them being the henchmen of a corrupt Indian politician, one not that different from the other makes the violence and struggle for power in the latter seem far more unorganised and far less noble. The scene where Omkara’s men frisk the police officer before entering Omkara’s home comes to mind at this instance.
Unlike Shakespeare’s Othello, the film decidedly focuses on female sexuality and the constant and violent restrictions and monitoring it endures, constantly glorified and romanticised by the institution of marriage and by media representation. Another distinction between the literature and the adaptation that reflects Bhardwaj's emphasis on female sexuality in Omkara is the creative decision to maintain Dolly and Billo as unmarried women. In doing so, the film presents them as women who are explicit in their sexuality before being legitimately married, which can be considered a transgression of social norms, a threat to the men associated with them, the society they live in and anyone else participating in patriarchy.
Another one of Bhardwaj’s creative decisions that feel significant to analyse is making Langda a disabled person when there was no mention by Shakespeare of Iago being the same. Perhaps disability was used to draw sympathy and make him seem “less evil” because he is disadvantaged. Or maybe it could be Bhardwaj’s reinterpretation of the depiction of Iago as a “devil”, which can be understood as some form of “morphing.”
There is an interesting dichotomy in the way women are portrayed in the film: voice or voiceless. Towards the beginning of the film, Dolly is seemingly a woman with a voice, in the way that her opinion was included when she first eloped with Omkara. However, where Shakespeare writes Othello to give Desdemona an opportunity to refute the claims and prove her innocence, a voice still being policed by a man, Bhardwaj has Dolly professing her love to Omkara before her death, a rather distasteful depiction. Furthermore, Indu, although depicted as an outspoken woman, has a voice constantly subdued by her brother, husband, and sister- in-law’s social position. However, Bhardwaj gives her the opportunity to right a wrong done to her and the larger plot by killing Langda, an element that was not even included in the original play. It makes one wonder where Bhardwaj places himself and his film concerning a woman with a voice or voiceless.
The language between Shakespeare’s Othello and Bhardwaj’s Omkara can easily be distinguished as the former being poetic, whereas the latter can be determined as crass and abrasive. However, the context of the two texts cannot be disregarded while viewing something as important language. In the play, the characters have a certain noble status that they uphold. Furthermore, the audience viewing this play is from a particular class in society and receive only one specific type of language. On the other hand, the film places itself in a particular part of India within a very specific group of people. A lot of the film is dependent on the characteristics of this location of the film- them being from Uttar Pradesh, them being gangsters of sorts. Unlike the play, the language of the film impacts the plot of the film heavily and is used cleverly to depict the unequal status between Omkara-Langda and Dolly-Kesu.
Separating the film from its soundtrack would be doing both aspects a grave injustice. Both lyrically and symbolically, the music constantly finds ways to guide as well as enhance the overarching plot of the film. A popular Bollywood visual element utilised in this film is the “item song”, although, in the context of this film, the term is used due to a lack of a better word. The “item songs” perform a far greater purpose than initially assumed in most Bollywood films, although the male gaze on a woman and its consequent reflection of female sexuality are never far removed from a piece of media. The item songs are of a unique mixture of the traditional folk, Nautanki and a regular Bollywood item number. One should not separate the fact that Nautanki women were closely associated with prostitution, as were the Kanjar women, a caste to which Omkara’s mom belongs, a rather significant addition to the story.
The audience from the Shakespearean play Othello is drastically different from the Bhardwaj adaptation, and the filmmaker has managed to achieve a film that perfectly encapsulates the essence of the original while simultaneously reframing it to make it better suited for its new audience. While there are notable differences between the original and the adaptation, the distinction is what makes Omkara an excellent film to view. With adaptations of Shakespearean plays, filmmakers tend to tread a narrow line between doing justice to the original piece of literature and creating a film that its audience will feel disconnected from. Bhardwaj has managed to manoeuvre on the narrow line by producing an enjoyable and reasonably accurate adaptation while simultaneously exploring new fascinating landscapes with local and identifiable characters that find their place within the usual structure of Bollywood films.
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