by Subhash K Jha

After seeing what Vishal Bharadwaj made Tabu do as Lady Macbeth in Maqbool, Kareena is keen to take up the director's offer to play Desdemonia in his version of another Shakespearean tragedy.

Says Kareena, "Vishal has offered me the role. And I'll be listening to the script as soon as I return from Chennai to Mumbai. I loved Tabu's performance in Maqbool. Even Shabanaji and that child actress (Shweta Prasad) were outstanding in Vishal's Makdee. And Desdemona is one of the most challenging characters ever written for an actress. Of course I'd love to do it, if all goes well."

Kareena , on a roll with ravishing roles opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Farhan Akhtar's Don and Aamir Khan in Vishal Bhardwaj's Mr Mehta & Mrs Singh, is excited about doing her first literary adaptation, and that too Shakespeare.

Vishal Bharadwaj has just returned from the Pusan Film Festival in South Korea where his film about children("not a children's film") The Blue Umbrella was screened on 12 October.

Vishal is ecstatic. "It's one thing to make your film and watch it privately with a preview audience. But to see the reaction of an unprejudiced open-minded audience comprising thousands of people from across the world who don't follow the language, is an exhilarating experience."

"God has been very kind to me. Both Makdee and Maqbool were very well received. Now I've to be very careful about what I do next. I've left Mumbai so I can focus on writing my script for Othello."

Vishal refuses to divulge details at the moment. But his Othello will be as contemporary and rugged as his take on Macbeth. Ajay Devgan has been finalized to play Othello.

With Kareena doing Desdemona, this would be a new screen pairing. The two nearly came together in Rituparno Ghosh's Raincoat. At one time there was a belief in the industry that Ajay felt awkward working with Kareena because of his differences with Karisma. However Kareena and Ajay did share some screen space in Mani Rathnam's Yuva.

And now they'll play Mr & Mrs Othello in Shakespeare's immortal tale of love jealousy and retribution, relocated a rustic North Indian backdrop.

Other Shakespearean Plays In Hindi Cinema:
Gulzar's Angoor(A Comedy Of Errors)
Ananth Mahadevan's proposed Do Dooni Char (A Comedy Of Errors)
Sohrab Modi's Hamlet(1935)
Kishore Kumar's Hamlet(1954)
Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool(Macbeth)
Vishal Bhardwaj's Othello(2006)