Salaar, Part I-Cease Fire: Could cause a seizure

Salaar is an Urdu-Persian word, meaning commander or leader. According to the beginning voice over, a Muslim invader could rule over India, during the 12^th century, largely, due to the resources, strength and acumen of his trusted lieutenant, Salaar. There is a Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, India, which has a great collection of antiques, art and rare manuscripts. But I doubt if anything in the film is related to or valued by this prized antique treasure trove. So, storing a copy of the film in its august premises is ruled out. What a pity; Salaar stored in Salar! What a headline that would have made! On the other hand, Salaar Part I: Cease Fire could find a place in a more accommodating museum. Perhaps among the best museums in the world: the China National Film Museum. Or National Museum of Cinema, Turin, Italy. Why not the La Cinémathèque Française, Paris, France? Maybe the German Film Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. And if nothing works, it can be stored in the National Film Archive of India, as a prized possession, available for exclusive viewing by paying a heavy fee.

It is mind-boggling and heart-stopping, fills the screen with oceans of blood, offers a collection of chopped heads s rewards for purchasing a ticket, has a preposterous plot, acting that can best be described as over-the-top, or poker-faced, performances, and direction that reinforces all these elements.

In 1985, Khansaar, a fictitious city-state, on the Indian border, near Gujarat, but not under Indian occupation or control, a tribesman, Deva, a humble, poor lad, and the King Raja Mannar's son, Vardharaja ‘Vardha’ Mannar, are bosom pals. After Raja Mannar commands the decimation of Shouryaanga tribe, a mob pounces on Deva and his mother at their residence, but Vardha intercedes, and Deva saves them, by offering an important territory of his kingdom, in exchange for sparing their lives. Deva and his mother are told to leave Khansaar immediately, for their own safety. Before exiting Khansaar, Deva vows to return on Vardha's call, and come to his aid, whenever summoned. He goes to Bharuch, Gujarat, India, to become a mechanic.

In 2017, a tycoon, Krishnakanth's daughter, Aadhya, flies to Varanasi from New York, against his advice, to pour her mother’s ashes in the Ganges. This alerts her father's old rivals, who conspire to abduct her, but Krishnakanth enlists the assistance of Bilal, who thwarts the enemies' attempts to seize her, and he safeguards her, as his friend, at Deva's place, in Tinsukia, Assam. There, she pretends to be an English teacher at a school, where Deva's mother is the headmistress. Eventually, the girl is traced to Tinsukia, where, upon his mother's reluctant advice, against her principles of non-violence, he uses his enormous strength to stop the goons' attempts to capture her.

Now that the bad guys have reached Tinsukia, fearing for Deva’s life, his mother plans to escape with him. But they decide to travel separately. Aadhya and Bilal are sent off in a convoy, led by a man named Rinda, the truck bearing the seal of the mysterious emblem of Khansaar. On seeing this seal, Deva's mother senses serious danger, and signals to him to rescue Aadhya and Bilal. He stops the convoy, diverting the attention of Vardha, and his step-sister, Radha Rama Mannar, who has ordered Aadhya's abduction, to avenge something Krishnakanth has done to her decades ago. Radha admits to planning the events, to pit Deva and Vardha against each other, since opposing the seal of Khansaar is a crime, and the perpetrator has to be killed, a rule that Deva himself is told to have imposed years ago. After the rescue, Bilal recounts the tale of Khansaar, and all of their connections to it, for Aadhya, in flashback.

According to a media report, Prabhas approached Prashanth Neel, in 2020, to direct his next film, after being highly impressed by Neel's debut film, Ugramm (2014). Both were busy for two years, with previous commitments, and the film’s muhurt was performed on 15^th January, 2021. It could finally be made in 2022-2023. Shooting began a week later, and the result is all for us to see. The film is based on Ugramm, by Prashanth Neel, and has dialogue by Sandeep Reddy Bandl, Hanumaan Choudary and Dr. Suri. It is written and directed by Prashanth Neel.

Behind the camera, Prashanth has the support of cinematographer Bhuvan Gowda, editor by Ujwal Kulkarni and music composer Ravi Basrur. No comments on their contributions.

On the screen are a few thousand homo sapiens, led by

Prabhas as ‘Deva’ Devaratha Shouryangaa Raisaar, alias ‘Salaar’

Videsh Anand as young Deva

Prithviraj Sukumaran in a dual role as Vardha Raja Mannar Vardha/Siva Mannar

Karthikeya Dev as young Vardha Raja Mannar

Shruti Haasan as Aadhya Krishnakanth

Jagapathi Babu as Raja Mannar

Bobby Simha as Bhaarava

Tinnu Anand as Gaikwad, alias Baba, the only actor from the Mumbai film industry, who must have done it only for the money, for there his is an infinitesimal role.

A slow, misleading start. There is bravura galore, heart thumping in abundance, battle cries and full scale battles, shift of locales about a dozen times, total anarchy under the nose of the Indian government, who is not even mentioned in the film, flashbacks every 20 minutes apart, energetic performances by Videsh Anand, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Karthikeya Dev, Shruti Hassan, and a few more. Then there is Prabhas. The PRABHAS.

Is this the same Prabhas we saw in Bahubali, Parts I and II? No way. He goes through the film looking like a somnambulist, a bull-fighter who has been administered a drug that keeps him half asleep and slows him down to half the normal pace at which most men walk.  Just one expression, half-asleep cynicism at every dialogue, even when administering lethal blows, throughout the film, is not what we expect from an actor who has been around for 22 years, and has done a plethora of roles. I sincerely hope he learns a lot from this outing, and does more meaningful cinema.

Fans and girls, you might even love Prabhas’s change of gear, and holler/wolf whistle at the apparition called Prabhas. But if I were you, I would not go near any cinema that is showing Salaar 1: Cease Fire. With this Cease Fire, the susceptible could end-up with a seizure. ‘Cease fire’ is a joke. And if you don’t get it, you are not a true critic or cineaste. What they are trying to tell you is that the period of waiting, between Part I and Part II, can be considered Cease Fire. But they will come back with a vengeance, in Part II. However, that is a wrong assumption. At least a dozen films will arrive, outdoing Salaar I, and outdoing the ‘trendsetter’ at its own game, in the next 12 months. Since it will arrive after these twelve odd movies, how will it trump them? More of the same? Whatever happened to the body we thought was the Central Board of Film Certification? Is a film that glorifies violence to hellish level open for viewing for anyone who is above 18 years of age?

On the other hand, the 18+s of today, will be the film-makers of the 2030s, and this could be their encyclopaedia, their reference point, their ‘how to make a…’, their ‘DIY’, their ‘self-help’ visual tome.

Rating: *

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr2jBvbiy04

P.S.: For the record, the makers of Salaar I: Cease Fire also produced KGF.