They can't help it. There's no drama in Bollywood, only melodrama. So a Bollywood version of Othello, complete with songs, sounds a daunting prospect. However, Vishal Bharadwaj, who tampered rather successfully with Macbeth (Maqbool), translates Shakespeare's story into gangland Uttar Pradesh with some visual and emotional power.
He has a striking Othello (gang leader and half-caste Omkara) in Ajay Devgan, an even better scheming Iago (Langda, who persuades Othello of his future wife's infidelity) in Saif Ali Khan and an acceptably beautiful Desdemona (Dolly) in Kareena Kapoor.
Most of the songs are integrated into the plot and the liberties Bharadwaj takes with the words only occasionally jar. "Your lover is history," says Omkara before smothering Dolly. Not exactly the Bard but Bharadwaj's courage in fleshing out the minor characters with his own ideas often works well, especially with actors of the quality of Naseeruddin Shah and Bipasha Basu.
Here is a Bollywood director who can be compared with some of the great figures of Bollywood's past.
Omkara
Cert: 12A
