Omkara - II

The story is set in Uttar Pradesh (a Northern state in India) where Omkara “Omi” Shukla is the “Bahubali” to Bhaisahab and leads a gang of outlaws. Amongst other cohorts, Langda Tyagi and Kesu Firangi are the two trusted lieutenants to Omkara. When Bhaisahab moves from the local politics to a higher level, he appoints Omkara in his place. And when the time comes, Omkara appoints Kesu Firangi as his “Bahubali”, much to the disappointment of Langda Tyagi who has been his trusted lieutenant for over 15 years. This is where the movie becomes extremely interesting as from this point on, Langda Tyagi schemes the downfall of Kesu Firangi and unknowingly triggers off a chain of events that destroys everything around him and Omkara.

Right from the story to the script to screenplay and most importantly the characterizations of the lead actors, Vishal Bharadwaj is top rate in every department of filmmaking. However, he could have totally done away with the music in the film as it tends to dilute the intensity of the story and disturb the narrative flow. Save and except the title track, all the songs were dragging the plot. And the title song has been sung exceptionally well by Sukhwinder Singh setting out the (mostly bad) qualities of Omkara. The title track has very good music and lyrics.

If the other songs were cut out of the film, then the impact of the movie would have been significantly higher. However, these days, producers have to keep the commercial parameters in mind while producing the film and I guess the same would have happened to Omkara. There were two item songs “Beedi” and “Namak” in the film. Of course, the song “Beedi” is a huge hit and may have ensured good sales of music of the film. Of course, it also had Bipasha Basu as Billo Chaman Bahar gyrating to the beats of “Beedi” with the wily Langda Tyagi and her lover Kesu Firangi.