Salaar

Darkness without reward. Prashanth Neel’s film with Prabhas offers drawn-out violent spectacle but little innovation or artistry. “Violence violence violence,” Rocky says in Prashanth Neel’s K.G.F. Chapter 2 (2022). “I don’t like it.” It’s funny because it’s so untrue. Rocky loves violence and, after four brutal films, it’s reasonable to assume Neel does too. It’s his calling card: Rajamouli does the grandest action, Lokesh the hippest, Neel the bloodiest.

Salaar: Part 1—Ceasefire is my first Neel in a movie theatre—though it felt more like an amphitheatre, erupting every time Prabhas chopped off a limb or put a spike through someone. Hearing an all-male crowd baying for blood first thing in the morning is an occupational hazard, but the bigger problem with Salaar is the constant threat of sexual violence. Of the three prominent female characters, two narrowly escape assault. It sets the film in motion. Deva’s mother is on the verge of being raped when his friend, Vardha, eldest son of Khansaar’s ruler, saves them. Thirty odd minutes in, Aadhya (Shruti Haasan) is surrounded by goons who call her their ‘property’ and grope her before she’s rescued. There’s a musical sequence building up to the rape of a young girl, and a big action sequence that just prevents another. It’s a disappointing thing for Neel to thread through his film, and does nothing to alter the image of Telugu action as India’s Neanderthal cinema.

Genre:Action, Drama, Thriller
Director: Prashanth Neel
Cast:Prabhas, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Shruti Haasan