Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Omerta’ which is streaming now on Zee5 depicts the baneful influence of religious fanaticism and its effect on international terrorism in a heart touching manner.

Written by Mukul Dev and directed by Hansal Mehta, ‘Omerta’ is the story of British brought up Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh of Pakistani dissent who kidnaps and brutally murders the reporter of Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl in 2002 which created furor all over the world as it was one of the ghastly acts perpetrated by terrorism.

Saeed who got caught after his involvement in a lot of kidnapping incidents of foreign nationals and terrorist acts in India was released following the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999.

After getting into Pakistan he joins hands with ISI to launch more attacks and even involved in 9/11 and 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. He was later arrested and sentenced to death by Pakistan.

The film belongs to Rajkummar Rao and he proves his mettle once again with an extraordinary portrayal of a complicated character. Unfortunately, his hard work went unnoticed despite the screening of the film in various national and international film festivals and getting nominated for Screen and Film Fare awards.

With the digital release, ‘Omerta’ is now bound to get more recognition and bring more laurels to Rajkummar Rao and entire crew.

‘Omerta’ though starts on a promising note gets drifted off badly due to shaky screenplay by Hansal Mehta which fails to maintain the required momentum in elevating the story further.

Moreover, the film moves at snail’s pace with scenes of flashback popping up at important phases of the narrative thus hindering the flow and weakening the plot.

The photography of Anuj Rakesh Dhawan is pleasing to the eyes and music of Ishaan Chhabra gives ‘Omerta’ an altogether robust look but could not able to save the film from getting ignored.

Smart screenplay and slick editing should have made ‘Omerta’ more watchable and engaging. Nevertheless, it’s a laudable effort to present a true story that is more contemporary in today’s world of growing hatred and hostility among mankind which are detrimental to world peace.