Rajkumar Rao is one of my favourite actors and when I heard that ZEE5 is going to stream Omerta: The Real Story Of A Notorious Terrorist, I quickly subscribed to the channel and eagerly waited for the film, which I had missed in 2018 when the film was released initially.
In the movie, Rajkumar plays the role of a notorious Pakistani origin British terrorist named Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who was instrumental in the abduction of Western tourists in India in late 1994. The movie deals with his arrest and imprisonment in Delhi, his release in exchange for the IC-814 hostages in 1999 which involved the ghastly killing of Rubin Katyal by the hijackers, the kidnap and killing of American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 among others.
Image Source: ZEE5.com
In the form of Omerta, Hansal Mehta, director has given us a gripping – clinical terrorography with stellar performance by Rajkumar and others including Rajesh Tailang, Rupinder Nagra, and Timothy Ryan Hickernell. In the past too, we have seen some cinematic marvels produced by the duo of Hansal Mehta and Rajkummar Rao, like: Bareilly Ki Barfi, Shahid, City lights, Aligarh, etc. If I was to list the top 3 best performances by Rao, Omerta certainly will be one of them.
Rao plays a soft hearted radical who wants to improve the social status of the plight of the Muslims in Bosnia. In the process he turns into a hardcore terrorist whose only pleasure is in killing innocents and spilling blood. The process of this transformation of Omar from a student to a dreaded terrorist is superbly played.
Rao’s effortless and convincing acting forces the viewer to enter a terrorist’s mind and experience his ideologies in a gripping, and character driven thriller based on real life terrorist. The movie shows how the human mind can be motivated to work against the society by manipulating it with the wrong reasons and building sympathy for the wrong cause.
Image Source: ZEE5.com
The movie, an edge of the seat thriller, goes into the details of a terrorist’s modus operandi, depicting his plans and his execution. The scenes of Omar killing people and enjoying blood on his face show the cruel mindset of the monster that Omar has turned into. The horrifying scenes like the grin on his face at the end of the act can be the most ghastly scene in any Bollywood movie.
The photography is very effective with the close-ups that show the monster that Omar is. Background scores like the sounds and lighting effects are also nicely taken care of in the movie.
Overall, Omerta is a riveting, nail-biting thriller, and a character-driven journalistic account of a life lived in darkness. Gripping performances, Rao’s acting and the relentless pace of Omerta makes it impossible for the viewer to turn away from the movie for a single moment.
Movie Link: https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/omerta/0-0-189437