Swiss Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and Karma Media And Entertainment’s Omertà (a) is the true story of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh. It traces the story of how a bright student of the London School of Economics became a dreaded terrorist.
Omar Saeed Sheikh (Rajkumar Rao) studies in the London School of Economics. He feels terrible when he sees his Muslim brothers and sisters being persecuted in Bosnia. He quits his education and decides to do something to reduce their misery. But soon, he becomes a jehadi and a dreaded terrorist who is behind kidnappings of foreigners in India in 1994 and who also murders The Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl (Timothy Ryan Hickernell) in 2002.
Mukul Dev has written the story which gives an insight into the making of the dreaded terrorist, Omar Saeed Sheikh. While the story has twists and turns, it moves on a single track. And because it is the story of a dreaded terrorist, it would not really impress too many people from among the general public. Yes, connoisseurs of art cinema may like to watch how an ordinary citizen turned to the world of crime but there’s not much for an average person to take home from the film. Rather, the story becomes boring after a point of time once it is established that Omar is on a revenge spree. Hansal Mehta’s screenplay is written in such a way that the audience feels, it is watching a docu-drama on Omar Saeed Sheikh. Not many would be interested in watching the documentation of the life story of a dreaded criminal. Hansal Mehta’s dialogues are good.
Rajkumar Rao plays the sinister Omar Saeed Sheikh with all the conviction at his command. His cold stares and his couldn’t-care-less attitude come to the fore very well. Keval Arora is lovely as Omar’s father, Saeed Sheikh. Timothy Ryan Hickernell is okay as Daniel Pearl. Rajesh Tailang stands his own as General Mahmud. Sanjeev Chopra (as Maulana Abdullah), Ravi Khanna (as Zubair Shah), Rahul Dhir (as Amin), Akhilesh (as Siddiqui), Ajitabh Sengupta (as Salauddin), Marco Bojic (as Rhys Partridge), Tilak Raj Joshi (as the cop at the old Delhi check post), Chris Walter (as Paul Rideout), Jack (as Christopher Myles), Mo Pitz (as Bela), Susheel Dahiya (as police inspector A.K. Jain), Jaipreet (as lawyer Majeed), Harmeet Sawhney (as Abdul), Rupinder Nagra (as Maulana Ismail), Aryan (as Sohail), Aamir (as Jaffer), Satish Yadav (as Saif), Tarun Kohli (as Naved), Sahil Shah (as Arshad), Aman (as Anees), Aditya Uppal (as Abu), Tareeq (as the preacher), Sanjeev Mehta (as Maulana Masood Azhar), Amin (as Qasim), Orvana Ghai (as Omar’s wife, Saadia), Satwant Kaur (as Omar’s mother), Sahir Mehta (as Omar’s brother), Arya (as Omar’s sister), Kallirroi Tziafeta (as Marianne Pearl) and the rest lend decent support.
Hansal Mehta’s direction is fair but is limited in appeal. He has made a film which caters to a very thin section of the audience only. Ishaan Chhabra’s music is okay. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s camerawork is effective. Harpal Singh’s (Pali) action and stunt scenes are impactful. Neil Chowdhury’s production designing is alright. Editing (Aditya Warrior) is quite sharp.
On the whole, Omertà is too class-appealing to make any impact at the box-office. It will, therefore, flop at the turnstiles. It has some hope in the very high-end multiplexes, that too, just in the first weekend.