Hidden Dimensions of Minor Characters

Hidden Dimensions of Minor Characters

Comparison and Contrast Essay – Othello vs Omkara

Classical pieces of literature remain popular in today’s world. For example, many of Shakespeare’s plays are periodically made into movies. Recently, Shakespeare’s Othello had been adapted into a Bollywood film by director Vishal Bhardwaj. The new film is called Omkara, which has some changes and twists while maintaining most of the original plot line. However, in the movie, minor characters are depicted more into details. Minor characters, such as Bianca, Roderigo, and Emilia in Shakespeare’s Othello become more pronounced in its adapted movie, Omkara.

In Omkara, the characteristics of Billo become more colourful, compared to Bianca in the original play. In Othello, Bianca is only a minor character, whose inner emotions are not really revealed into details. In the original play, Bianca is a prostitute, whose main role is Cassio’s lover. There are not many plots about Bianca. Moreover, Bianca represents a typical role of the female at that time, which is very unimportant. This is revealed through Cassio’s attitude toward Bianca. Bianca is certainly not the focus of the play. Her personal stories remain a mystery in the play. The only emotion Bianca displays in the play is based on her love of Cassio. As she says in Act V, Scene II, “Bianca: O, my dear Cassio / My sweet Cassio! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!” (Shakespeare 5.2.90) Another remarkable scene about Bianca in the play is when Cassio gives her the handkerchief and asks her to make a copy of. At this scene, she questions Cassio about the origin of the handkerchief. She thinks the handkerchief may be “some token from a newer friend.” (Shakespeare 3.4.206) This scene shows her jealousy toward Cassio’s “new friend”, which indirectly reveals her love toward Cassio. However, her further actions and inner emotions are not further described. As shown above, the only two remarkable plots about Bianca in the play is revolved around Cassio, other aspects of her life is not shown at all.

In comparison to the play, Bianca’s character, Billo becomes much more dimensional in the movie. The film not only shows Billo’s love toward Cassio, but also reveals more personalities of Billo. In Omkara, she has more plots and becomes more important overall. Compared to Cassio’s indifferent attitude toward Bianca in the play, Kesu in the movie really loves Billo. In one scene, drunken Kesu beats someone up because that character was disrespectful toward Billo. Moreover, Billo helps Kesu’s plan by dancing and assassinating another politician. Billo in the movie has her own opinions. She does not blindly love Kesu. She gets very angry when she thinks Kesu may be cheating on her. Through these added plots, a more complex Bianca comes to life.

Not only does Bianca’s role become more interesting, but more layers are also added to Emilia’s character, Indu in the movie