Remaking Othello in India: Race, Caste, and Colorism in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara (2006)

Document Type

Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.18274/zh8ve027

Journal Title

Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

This essay examines Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara (2006), a Hindi-language adaptation of Othello, through the lens of premodern critical race studies and anti-caste studies. Tracing the structural similarities between race and caste, I argue that the film stages a conflict between the rhetoric of castelessness embraced by its eponymous hero, Omkara, and the casteist beliefs of its antagonist, Ishwar “Langda” Tyagi. I consider the repercussions of these narratives on the kinship network to which both characters belong and suggest that Langda favors a patriarchal masculinity based on alliances with dominant-caste men whereas Omkara forges relationships across caste and gender lines. I demonstrate that Langda’s quest for caste-patriarchal domination reminds Omkara of the terms of his marginalization, severs his relationship with his paternal ancestry, and relegates him to the company of women. I conclude by suggesting that Omkara’s relationship with Langda’s wife, Indu, imagines an alternative to the world of caste masculinity. Attending to caste and colorism not only sheds light on the alignment between historical structures of oppression, but also invites us to reflect on the role that appropriations of Shakespeare can play in critiquing these structures.

Comments

This article is freely available on the Borrowers & Lenders website at: https://borrowers-ojs-azsu.tdl.org/borrowers/index.  

Publisher Statement

Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation is a peer-reviewed, online, multimedia journal that welcomes original scholarship engaging with the afterlives of Shakespearean texts and their literary, filmic, multimedia, and critical histories.

Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation is published in partnership with ACMRS Press, part of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The journal is also supported by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.

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