Biographical account of a young drop out from a reputed school of London becoming an Islamic fundamentalist, getting trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan, turning into a brutal murderous agent, is nothing new we haven't seen before in the 'world cinema'. But it does turn out to be something really intriguing when you are told that it's about the same man who was responsible for the abduction and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, along with being a key name involved with Osama Bin Laden in the 9/11 attack in America, the 26/11 attack in Mumbai and above all, one of the three terrorists released by the Indian government in Kandahar hijacking case of 1999.
The life story of the man sure had all the elements of becoming an eye-opener, engaging thriller revealing a lot of unknown facts about the infamous events. But sadly OMERTA fails to deliver as per the expectations raised and moreover doesn’t serve any purpose of a cinematic adaptation too, pointlessly presenting the turning points in the life of an educated, cold-blooded terrorist.
Giving you the actual picture, where at one end it thankfully remains a technically well-crafted film featuring a brilliant lead performance directed by Hansal Mehta, it remains unable to make any sort of collective impact on the viewer, either as a thrilling entertainer or any thought provoking realistic project presenting a crucial case-study. The film begins, keeps going, offers some interesting sequences at intervals and then ends without moving the viewers or pulling them in. So watching the end-credits, all one has in mind is praises for an authentic performance of Rajkummar Rao transforming into Omar Saeed Sheikh with an amazing ease, but nothing else for what he did or chose to become in life at an early age.
The screenplay follows a narrative of going back and forth in time depicting various stages how Omar got transformed into a ruthless terrorist. But most of the sequences look like ‘already seen before’ in several other films made on the same subjects or events. So what OMERTA largely lacks is something novel or fresh to convey, something which we didn’t know or haven’t seen before in any related film. The narration never goes deep into the reasoning and never triggers the emotions, which in turn forces you to think that for what such effort was made in the first place?
Explaining it further, Mehta’s SHAHID and ALIGARH were both important films as they had something explosive to reveal, made with a purpose of enlightening the viewers about two important issues. But OMERTA seems to have been made with an utterly confused mindset or an undisclosed purpose, not really thinking about the viewers in particular.
To be honest, I really couldn’t figure out why this was conceived and for whom (as it neither entertains or enlightens in any manner).
Was it made to remind the world that the man is still alive appealing for a more severe and immediate sentence to be given at the earliest?
OR To glorify the success he achieved in his various attacks as a mission!
OR May be just to gain some instant attention at the international platforms (read festivals), purposefully calling the film OMERTA (instead of simple OMAR), which is an Italian word meaning ‘Code of Silence’ – the terrorists get sworn to.
In short, OMERTA strictly can be seen for its authentic depiction and killer performance of Rajkummar Rao, without expecting any SHAHID or ALIGARH from its director Hansal Mehta.
Rating : 2 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 just for Rajkummar Rao)
(Note: The article was first published on UC-News Mobile App in May 2018)
