Omkara is based on William Shakespeare`s 17th century classic, Othello. Regarded as one of finest plays about the human condition, it is being brought to life in an Indian milieu for the first time in a mainstream Hindi film, by noted writer director Vishal Bhardwaj. This is his successive effort after the highly celebrated `Maqbool`, which brought the brooding Macbeth to Indian, screens a couple of years back. The director Vishal Bharadwaj composed the muci for the film. He also composed the background score which is real delight. The Bollywood film `Omkara` is set against the surroundings of political warfare in the interiors of Uttar Pradesh.

The film was screened in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival along with a book. The book was written on the making of the film. It was selected to be screened at the Cairo International Film Festival and Pakistan`s prestigious Kara Film Festival. Omkara was shot over a period of 4 months across various locales, including Lonavala, Lucknow University, Allahabad, Bodh Gaya, Mahabaleshwar, Wai and Mumbai. Even though most of the shooting took place in Maharashtra, all the sets were erected with precise details to create an authentic Uttar Pradesh village.

Synopsis of `Omkara`
The story of Omkara starts in the backdrop of a village somewhere in Uttar Pradesh. Omkara Shukla i.e. Omi played by Ajay Devgan is known as baahubali which means a political enforcer. He is the gangleader that does political crimes for the politician Tiwari Bhaisaab played by Naseeruddin Shah. Ishwar Tyagi i.e. `Langda` played by Saif Ali Khan and Keshav `Kesu Firangi` Upadhyay played by Vivek Oberoi are the closest hands of Omi.

The story goes forward with Langda hijacking a baraat, he sends Rajju played by Deepak Dobriyal who is the bridegroom to stop Omkara from kidnapping her bride Dolly Mishra played by Kareena Kapoor. Rajju fails, therefore the marriage breaks up wuth Rajju. Dolly`s father Ragunath Mishra played by Kamal Tiwari, who is an advocate, becomes furious and meets Omi. He puts a rifle to Omi`s head and demands the return of Dolly. Bhaisaab solves the matter for the time being. Dolly comes to her father and clarifies the fact that she did elope with Omi as she loves him. She refused to go with her father and also tells her father that very soon she will marry Omi. Her father leaves while feeling deceiveed and embarrassed. He just tells one sentence to Omi that the girl who cannot do justice with her father can never do justice with anyone else.

The movie includes some hard core political matters including some scandals. Coming to the story Bhaisaab is elected for Parliament while Omkara gets promoted from `bahubali` to the election candidate. Omkara appoints Kesu as his successor over Langda. Though Bhaisaab was not satisfied with the decision and asks Omi whether Lagda will be alright but Omi was too confident on Langda and he tells Bhaisaab that Langda will understannd the trick behind the decision. But on the other hand Langda is too much disappointed with Omkara`s poor judgment. He becomes resentful of Kesu who is his younger and also less-experienced Langda hatches a plot to take revenge of both Omi and Kesu. He planned a violent fight between Kesu and Rajju, who was Dolly`s original bridegroom. Omi gets angry on Kesu because of his irresponsible behavioura and starts thinking on his decision.

Langda starts playing notorious game as he tells Kesu to seek help from Omi`s love Dolly as Omi would not be able to say her NO. On the other side he shows Omi that Kesu often talks to Dolly. He alo reminds him that both of them were together at college. So there can be an illicit relation between two of them. Omi gifts a kamarbandh i.e a piece of traditional jewellery, to Dolly as their ancestral piece. But this is unknowingly dropped by Dolly. Langda`s wife Indu played by Konkona Sen Sharma steals it. Langda take it as a chance and give it to Kesu telling that this can be a good gift for Billo Chamanbahar played by Bipasha Basu who is Kesu`s friend. Eventually when Billo was dancing wearing that Kamarbandh it was seen by Omi which compelled him to belief Dolly`s unfaithfulness.

The relation between Omkara and Dolly becomes worst. At the night of their wedding Omi becomes convinced that Dolly and Kesu are engaged and they are having an affair. Langda was the culprit and he makes Omi to believe this. Omi strangulates his wife Dolly to death. To remove confusion Langda shoots Kesu with an approval from Omi. Indu comes to Omi`s room and sees the whole scene. Dolly is lying and Omi sitting beside her. Indu sees the kamarbandh. She tells Omi that she once stole it as she was unaware of the fact that whom dis it belong. Omi and Indu understand the misunderstanding and also the root cause. Indu slashes Langda`s throat while Omi commits suicide. The movie comes to its end while showing that Omi lying dead on the floor while Dolly`s dead body swinging above his. The movie is a real tragedy which is a question on jealousy and unfaithfulness.

Cast and Crew of `Omkara`
The star cast of the bollywood film `Omkara` includes Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu, Naseeruddin Shah, etc. The director of the film is Vishal Bharadwaj who has also given the music and background score in the movie. The producers are named as Kumar Mangat, Ketan Maroo and Neelam Pathak. Cinematography is done by Tassaduq Hussain.

Awards for `Omkara`
The Indian movie `Omkara` is an award winning Hindi movie, which has won numerous awards in different heads. The movie has won filmfare awards as best supporting actress, best villain, best actress for critic`s choice, special jury recognition, best female playback, best choreography, best art direction, best costumes and also best sound award. In the Star Screen category the movie got best actress, best villain, best music director, best lyricist and best female playback. The film also got many awards in Zee Cine category including best actor in a supporting role-female, best actor in a negative role, best track of the year, best choreographer, best sound recording, the film got International Indian Film Academy Awards as best villain, best cinematic contribution for literary work and best female playback award. In the category of Bollywood movie awards the movie got awards for best supporting actor and best villain award. The movie got Stardust award as hottest movie of the year, best actor in a negative role, new musical sensation, editor`s choice best performance of the year and also editor`s choice best direction of the year. In GIFA category the film got best villain and best cinematography award. The movie `Omkara` also got all India filmgoer award as best villain, best actress critic`s choice, queen of heart`s award, best female playback and best sound recording award. The Indian movie `Omkara` also got some other awards as for example sports world awards as best actor in a villanous role, in Cairo International Film Festival the film got best artistic contribution in cinema of a director, in Kara Film Festival te film got best actor, best music director and best adapted screenplay award.