Lal Salaam

Whenever a director has to use voiceover to move the plot forward, it's a sign of poor storytelling. In this movie the director uses voice over to tell us what is happening on screen. Unnecessary symbolism sprinkled in to make it seem like an art film, but it needs a more talented story teller to pull it off. The non-linear story telling doesn't have any suspense either as there are barely any stakes.

Vishnu Vishal and Vikrant are completely wasted. The supporting cast is forgettable. Even Rajinikanth seems to be phoning his performance in.

People who've seen this will have more appreciation for Darbar and Jailer. This movie isn't even worth watching on OTT.

She wastes her dad's money and his legacy thinking of doing something to compete with Dhanush. And we will tell you what your father said.. A crow cannot become an eagle.

52 knife in the waist of a woman who does not know how to cut.

52 knife in the waist of a woman who does not know how to cut.

She wastes her dad's money and his legacy thinking of doing something to compete with Dhanush. And we will tell you what your father said.. A crow cannot become an eagle.

She wastes her dad's money and his legacy thinking of doing something to compete with Dhanush. And we will tell you what your father said.. A crow cannot become an eagle.

The movie in the first half feels very dragged but in second half they give you the story, that time it grabs your attention.

Coming to the first half, the main mistake I felt was right after the hero entry with an intense build, we get to see his girlfriend and then cut to song. I felt that breaks the attention that was getting built up for audience. The other mistake is having many fight scenes in the first half just to extend movie time.

In second half, we get to see story, but one mistake was when they go back to past, I feel they should have written "few months back" because it was a sudden jump, and it was confusing. But they do show "today" after the past scene is over.

Overall movie - was fine, not a great story. Acting wise everyone did a great job. Seeing Rajnikanth sir first time as a Muslim person was absolute joy. He did full justice to his role. The hero and supporting actors everyone did a great job. Cinematography was also really good with some scenes focused on the village (and more, I don't want to give spoilers) Definitely, one time watch for the actors' beautiful performance.

The Plot -------------------------

Thirunavukarasu (Thiru) and Shamsuddin, two talented cricket players from Murrabad, a village where Muslims and Hindus coexist with each other, are central to the story. Under the pretense of a cricket match, local politicians take advantage of Thiru and Shamsuddin's animosity in order to spark communal unrest ahead of the next elections. During the match, Thiru hurts Shamsuddin's right hand out of rage, which leads to a major confrontation between the Muslims and Hindus of Murrabad. The plot unfolds as they navigate this communal conflict.

The Review -------------------------

If this film does become super hit, which I somehow feel it will, it will be purely because of Rajinikanth. I am confused though, can you call this a special appearance if Rajinikanth is in the majority of movie? The only time he is not there is in the middle few scenes but he is present mostly throughout the film. In any case, he is the saving grace of this film. We all know why he's in this film, his daughter is the director, but his presence elevates the film to a whole another level. He provides emotion to scenes that if he wasn't in it, would have turned out to be dull and exhausting. He provides energy to the film and I applaud him for that. I also liked the execution of the film's politics.

Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth provides decent enough performances. They gave what was required of their characters. The supporting cast did a fine job as well. However, I did feel that there were some unnecessary characters in the film, with the most noticeable being Vishnu Vishal's love interest Nandhini, played by Ananthika Sanilkumar. Even the antagonists were executed poorly and are very forgettable. Kapil Dev also has a cameo appearance in this film but he adds nothing of value to the story.

The soundtrack is fine individually but doesn't have the emotional impact when woven in as part of the narrative. It's good to listen to on YouTube but as a narrative device, it's passable. Pravin Baaskar's editing and Vishnu Rangasamy's cinematography are nothing to write home about and both lacks style.

There are logical flaws in the films as well. For example: Thiru hurts Shamsuddin's right hand out of rage, which leads to a major confrontation between the Muslims and Hindus of Murrabad. As a result, Shamsuddin's right hand needs to be amputated. This guy, around one or two nights after the surgery, ties a noose around a fan in an attempt to delete himself. How did he tie the noose with one hand in such a short time without anybody noticing? If another guy tied it, why was he not punished in the movie and if he was, why was it not shown?

Despite all of it, I strongly feel that the biggest issue with the movie is the screenplay writer and director herself, Aishwarya Rajinikanth. She doesn't add anything new to distinguish this movie from the rest as the film's primary focus on religious unrest and the Hindu-Muslim divide have already been done in older films. She could have, at the bare minimum, provided a more nuanced way of resolving the conflict instead of the one we got which felt more like a piece of convenient writing. Her direction is also mediocre as the pacing in this movie is very lethargic. There are scenes in the first half that drags on long after it's served its purpose resulting in a motionless story. Most of the second half was boring as the movie failed to provide an effective emotional connection to the situation.

In the end, if you haven't already watched this movie in theater, then I recommend waiting for the OTT release and skip the theater. This is a one time watch just for Vishnu Vishal and Rajinikanth.

That's my opinion on Lal Salaam.

Yes yes yes kudos to aishwariya for showing the lead not only as the charming actor that rajni is but that he plays this pure hearted Muslim personality. Let's be honest a lot of people that are badmouthing this movie is cause this movie's lead actor is a good Muslim who cares if there's any instigating going on , who doesn't backstab others cause that's what we see most Muslim characters especially in Bollywood movies doing. Vikrant as shamsu is the angry bull headed guy who's brilliant yet he gets shorter screen time and attracts more than the slightly boring Vishnu as thiru's character.

CON- It definitely could've had a shorter scenes like the scenes by the temple where devotees are just crying and crying and shouting and why the actress always get such less screen time??

What happened to Sid's version of ae pulla? The guy singing it in the movie had a horrible voice.

Please see this movie unless you don't like seeing unity in religious communities.

I love when I get to hear words that Muslims use such as their greeting cause we rarely get to explore the cultural side of Muslims in movies; all we see is Muslims as terrorists and Muslims as the backstabbers which is just creating hatred.