Kathmandu, March 18 -- Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj isn't one to shy away from Shakespeare. 'Maqbool', 'Omkara', 'Haider'-each brought the proof that Bhardwaj takes Shakespeare's ideas and places them into Indian social and political settings where they still feel natural and meaningful.

'O'Romeo' steps off that path. Instead of reworking a play, it lifts Romeo the name, and drops him into Mumbai's criminal layers, nudged by tales from Hussain Zaidi's 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai'. Right from the first shots, you see an intensity build. The execution, as the film gradually reveals, is a more complicated story.

The film follows a gangster whose encounter with love cracks him open in ways that violence never could. This idea holds real promise on...