Omerta

Omertà is a gripping and intense biographical crime drama about Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a cold-blooded, blood-thirsty madman British-Pakistani terrorist responsible for kidnappings, financing 9/11 and the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. He was caught and arrested in India for kidnapping foreign tourists and was put behind bars. However, was later released in an exchange for the hostages on a hijacked Air India flight taken to Kandahar in 1999.

Rajkummar Rao delivers a commanding performance as Omar. He portrays the chilling brutality which is quite unsettling and complexity of the character to the perfection and with ease. Convincing performances by supporting cast esp. Timothy Ryan Hickernell as Daniel Pearl. Well-crafted and masterfully directed story of a radicalized young man who becomes a hardened cold-blooded murderer. Crisp editing and well-fitted original score. Film is taut.

Omertà is a code of silence about criminal activity. It is an oath to not to give any evidence against a mafia to authorities.

A great watch.

Make no mistake; although Omerta is a full feature film, Hansal Mehta has filmed the movie in documentary style. The movie doesn't have any drama and is straight to the point. With a run time of 98 minutes the movie is compact and hard hitting. The highlight of this film is the performance of Rajkumar Rao. His preparation and research for playing terrorist Omar Saeed can be easily seen. He played the calm and violent scenes equally well. Rajkumar Rao took the murder scene of Daniel Pearl to the next level and it is one of the most terrific murder scenes ever filmed in Bollywood. The problem of Omerta is that the movie never looked like taking off and the pace of the movie was very linear just like in a documentary. The strength of the movie is its authentic setting, hard hitting performances and the good background research by its filmmakers.

I had higher expectations maybe from Hansal Mehta and Rajkumar Rao. The movie is basically a character study. Even though people might take it and use it in the wrong sense, but such movies too need to be made. Rajkumar rao was good, maybe a bit less intense than i expected. The british accent was very inconsistent and poor, and that i something which is important in this film.

Omerta as the meaning goes deal with mafia and their tactics.The movie is an intelligent blend of real life facts portrayed with great acting performance by Rajkumar Rao which surely puts him ahead of various A-list actors.The movie has a limited runtime of 1 hour 30 minutes but covers almost every dark aspect of the life of protagonist character.Certain scenes from the movie feel so real that they give you chills all over.But the X-factor here is the amazing direction which makes the movie an easy affair for every set of audience despite the confusing & dark theme.You certainly can't expect a positive message or a happy ending from such movies instead they are made for one purpose,to entertain and put light over the facts we mostly are unaware of.You can argue about the negative aspects of such cinema but you can't overlook the unmatched performances put in by everyone involved.The editing of the movie makes it stand apart from the normal bollywood movie league.From the point it began till it ends,you doesn't lose the connection with the characters.The boldness of the story and audacity to reflect the real image of the world force you to give it a thumbs up without any complains.The strong background score provide a certain pace to the movie and the music grips you with shades of foreign languages.

Well if you have a neck for meaningful cinema this is the best you can choose from the limited options.

Hansal Mehta and Rajkummar Rao's fourth collaboration "Omerta" is intense, violent and brutally realistic with its approach. It showcases the events occured in an Educated and Previleged Omer Sheikh's life from his entry into terrorism to his current whereabouts. It does a great job in so many places except some; where the lack of much needed depth in research material falters the overall representation for the aforementioned person and the crimes that he committed.

This film is a controversial one, as it was always bound to be. A biopic on a terrorist who has done many heinous crimes around the world; it does take a lot of courage to even begin the pre-production. As an avid film lover; I appreciate the whole crew and the director himself for taking such audacious attempt for the portrayal of a criminal mastermind. And that's not an easy task by any means.

Rajkummar Rao as Omer shines through the most. His conviction and commitment for the role is noticeable and certainly praiseworthy. I'm glad he chose such a huge and risk worthy project so early in his career. Truly commendable. Same amount of applaud goes to the team behind the Cinematography and Sound. As both were superb in their respective places. Some sequences have become more tenseful and unsettling just because of the clever use of lighting and subtle nuances carried out by the soundtrack so diligently. It's fascinating to say the least.

Even after so many positive outtakes, I still feel this film is incomplete in ways and didn't left a lasting impression. Apart from Rajkummar Rao other Characters Haven't got much else to do, especially the foreign individuals who played different roles were simply not good enough. The Character of Omer Sheikh, it seems unexplored to a certain extent. And some research materials too didn't delve deeper into the subject of modern world socio-political affairs nor any atrocities done by different governments for their own reasons and agendas. In the end it takes a mid approach & sort of plays a Safe game and left the ultimate Burdening question for us to consider and think about.

Now that could be a good thing for some others might find it a tad bit unfair. For me personally I wanted more clarifications regarding Omer Sheikh's personal life and his incremental change into becoming a pure evil. The sheer potential the script got, being scraped away by a conservative execution. I don't really blame the makers for that, as I earlier have applauded their efforts into it but on a serious note I genuinely think this could have been much much better had they been more sincere towards its impactness. Sadly they weren't!