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| Saif Ali Khan in Omkara |
Omkara might be feeling the Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna heat, but Langda Tyagi has spawned an online life all his own. He has cussed his way into the hearts of Netizens. There are more than 20 communities dedicated to the Indian Iago in Orkut alone (“List of abuses and insults used by Langda” is a typical discussion thread). The bloggers, too, are raving about Saif Ali Khan’s star turn. Some snippets:
Amit Varma (http://india uncut.blogspot.com) lauds the inspired casting, the day after Omkara released:
If you’d shown me the cast and the script before I heard about the film, I’d have assumed that Saif Ali Khan was playing Cassio/Kesu: after all, the cheerful charmer, as Kesu is in this film (though not Cassio in the play), is what Saif does best. But instead, he plays Iago/Langda Tyagi, and slips into character so well that you hate the man by the time the film is over. Surely this isn’t the same guy who did Dil Chahta Hai?
Ishan Prakash (http://ishkash.wordpress.com) on “the bastard we all know but can’t describe”:
Langda Tyagi is the most inspired performance since Paresh Rawal’s Sardar. In between I can’t think of any actor getting into the soul of a character like this. Langda is a bit of Jack Sparrow and Bill the Butcher at the same time, which means quality. The best thing was, for the entire movie Saif killed himself to become Langda. When he called SMS “assum kar dena” in a car with Omi, that sealed it for him.
George Thomas (http:// georgethomas.blogspot.com) writes in a post titled “kaThor prudery” on Omkara in general and calls for revolution:
I was in a theatre in Atlanta, surrounded by desis of various confusions and places of birth. I didn’t hear complaints about the dialogue; I could hear people laughing at all the jokes (I was also impressed at how quiet the hall went during the final sequence); I, too, not being familiar with the dialect at all, could follow what was happening.
He goes on to say since no one is really interested in “unimportant” issues like education and poverty, it’s time to go the West way and get multiplexes out to the remote areas as “we’ve managed to sharpen our multiplex-building skills”.
Elsewhere in the virtual world, US President hopeful George Allen’s “macaca”, allegedly a reference to an Indian supporter from the rival camp, S.R. Sidarth, has raised the hackles of many. Some samples from the blogs:
GorillaSushi (http://gorillasushi.com) in a post titled “Macaca — The New Black”:
There’s a couple of definitions for the word Macaca:
1. A type of macaque monkey
2. A derogatory term for a mixed-race person
3. French Tunisian slur for people with dark skin
French Tunisian? Sounds like a stretch right? It would be if Allen’s mother wasn’t of French Tunisian descent. Allen has stated that he did not intend the remark as a slur, while his campaign insisted the word was a variation of mohawk, a reference to Sidarth’s “mullet” hairstyle.
Even if you believe that one, are you going to vote for some knucklehead who can’t tell a mohawk from a mullet?
Chacko (http://mutiny.wordpress.com/tag/india) tells Indians how to respond if they are ever called a macaca:
Mistake it for ‘my kaka’, which means uncle in 6/18 national languages of India and say: “Really? I honestly don’t think I know your father.”
(From today we start a weekly column on blogs. Suggestions are welcome. Write to techtalk@abpmail.com)