Salaar Review – Its Prabhas Mania All Along
The story of Salaar (Prabhas) – the one who stands rock solid behind his friend ready to be a bait or a shark for his friend Varadaraj (Nee kosam era avutha, sora avutha) is set in this dystopian realm that has a law of its own, book of rules of its own – Khansaar and heading this land is Raj Mannar (Jagapathi Babu). He comes to rule over this land which thrives on crime by killing an entire tribe in order to ensure there is no contest over his election – yes! It is land that in its own misconstrued way follows its rules, and goes for a vote for major decisions.
Vying for taking over the reins from their father are the step brothers Rudra and Varadaraja Mannar (Prithviraj) – and there are a bunch of others in the court with ulterior motives – and one chance they are ready to kill each other – be it for a seat in the government or to be the ultimate leader of all of Khansaar. It is the hatred between Rudra and Varadaraj that lends itself to a situation where Deva helps his friend in gaining back his identity as the successor of Raj Mannar – and Varada in turn sacrifices the land given to him in order to save his friend and his mother – the why of it is revealed in the post interval part of the film.
Soon that situation arrives when senior Mannar referred to respectfully as Kartha goes out of Khansaar and each of the warring groups are at logger heads, form alliances, get together the best armies from across the world – the goal is to kill the opponent and gain the power. Schemes, counter schemes and a whole lot of fights and tons of blood flows, which by the way is perhaps the only major colour you get to see on the screen as the director Prashanth Neel has yet again created a movie franchisee where the major colour palette is limited to monochrome.
And, against all this grey, dusty browns, and dark background is the tall and imposing hero Prabhas. After Bahubali, it is perhaps the first time that a director has made optimum use of Prabhas – his screen presence, his good looks and crazy fan following, who are cheering for their screen idol every time he slices off a hand or chops off a head. And, then while the dialogues are minimal – they are said with an attitude – be it his sorry or the way he says please – And, you get to see a glimpse of all these in Salaar trailer.
The major emotion of the film Salaar : Part 2 – Ceasefire is fear. The fear of a stamp which when found on a container, even the police and the government fear to touch, fear of Devarata (Prabhas) – the man with a fearsome tattoo who is otherwise in hiding away from violence because his mother (Easwari Rao) told him so. And, here he is controlling his anger – for – once its unleashed no one can stop him. And fear amongst the common people of khansaar who pray for a saviour – and we know who.
Then there is the Salaar heroine Aadya (Shruti Haasan), who doesn’t get to do much else in this first part, except to set the ball rolling by leading those looking for him to Deva.
To cut the long story short – Salaar is what Prashanth Neel has successfully done for KGF series – created an alternate universe to weave a story that allows him to unleash bloody action sequences like never before, employ technical brilliance to deliver stunning cinematic world where background music plays one of the major roles to give each scene its edge, and use age old techniques of elevating the hero to larger than life persona to create awe and wonderment amongst the audience who get their dose of whistle-blowing moments. And, then you let the not so happening scenes pass you by – not to mention the length of the film that had scope for editing.
And, in the end, the audience’s appetite is whetted so much that they can’t wait to see what the Part 2 of Salaar has in hold for them.
Rating – 3.0/5.0
