Omerta starring Rajkumar Rao as terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was suppose to come out on 20 April but hit the theaters today. Omar has a fascinating story around himself as he is from Pakistani descent but currently holds a British citizenship. He has studied in Britain and can be referred as a learned man far as his educational qualification is concerned but he is better known as the man who killed Daniel Pearl. Daniel Pearl was a journalist in The Wall Street Journal with American and Israeli citizenship. He was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan by a terrorist group and at the fore front of which was Omar Sheikh, who is currently rotting in Karachi’s jail.
Raj Rao has spoken in great lengths about the difficulties he had to face in order to portray this character but not all of it showed on screen. Maybe he has internalized the man but you need a film maker who can capture this subtlety up on the celluloid in a maverick way. Hansal Mehta is a phenomenal director but it would take someone more sound then him to get his head around a character this messed up in his efforts.
It’s a very complicated life to jam in 2 hours but then which life is. They tried to put agendas in his activities but did not really go inside the mind of his terrorists to answer the ‘why’ of him becoming one. It could have very well been a film about the events or one major event happened in Omar’s life but calling it a biopic raised expectations to know more about the psychological aspect of a terrorist. Hansal and Raj did not really hold back from showing eyebrow raising themes and put their best step forward to make a good film but could not make a legendary one. Overall this should be seen by as many people so that they can make more like this.
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