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

Kareena told IANS: "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 Shabana ji (Azmi) 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 Bhardwaj's "Mr Mehta & Mrs Singh", is excited about doing her first literary adaptation and that too Shakespeare.

Bhardwaj has returned from the Pusan Film Festival in South Korea where his film about children ("not a children's film") "The Blue Umbrella" was screened Oct 12, and he 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'."

Bhardwaj 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 finalised 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 come together in Shakespeare's immortal tale of love, jealousy and retribution relocated to a rustic north Indian backdrop.