Cast: Superstar Rajinikanth, Vikranth, Vishnu Vishal, Ananthika Sanilkumar, Jeevitha, Thambi Ramaiah, Senthil, Nirosha, Kapil Dev
Crew:
Written by Vishnu Rangasamy, Aishwarya Rajinikanth
Cinematography by Vishnu Rangasamy
Music by AR Rahman
Edited by B. Pravin Baaskar
Directed by Aishwarya Rajinikanth
Produced by Subaskaran
Lal Salaam Movie Rating: 2/5
Aishwarya Rajinikanth has been trying to establish herself as a director in commercial space from some time. After 3 film failure, she directed Vai Raja Vai, which also did not live up to expectations. She has decided to come up with a communal harmony based film, Lal Salaam. Rajinikanth, for the first time acting in her direction, also added some craze to this project. Let’s discuss about it in detail.
Plot:
Shamshuddin(Vikranth) loves to play cricket and he has a goal of becoming Indian player, one day. His father, a very powerful man and a cloth merchant, Moideen Bhai(Rajinikanth), supports his dream big time and joins him in legend Kapil Dev Academy. Shamshuddin showcases great talent and an all-round ability to become a cricketer modeled after Kapil. On the other hand, his childhood nemesis, Thiru(Vishnu Vishal), grows in their home town against Moideen’s wishes.
He treats both of them as his sons. But they never get along due to Thiru’s short temper. He is also a good cricketer but his talent doesn’t find any encouragement. Rather he gets sucked into local rural quarrels and he starts wasting his talent. One day, during a big match, both Shamshuddin and Thiru get into a fight. Shamshuddin loses his hand and Moideen who loves his son, the most, starts to distance himself from Thiru’s family. What happens next? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
Rural cricketing circuit is not as big as University level or District level tournaments. As far as the research states, in the 90’s, when cricket bug has bit every other youngster, the University level tournaments used to be huge more than the inter-village ones. So, setting a cricketing theme for communal harmony film might have worked better with University level of play going on and drafting into Ranji teams, spurring more animosity. This rural tournament being played with almost Ranji level facilities doesn’t really sit with 1993 time period of the movie.
When Hindu and Muslim animosity has been growing with communal riots breaking out, such tournaments in villages might have seen more backlash than what we see on screen. The lack of imaginative narrative and jumping from one scene to another incoherently hampers the movie. It gets hard to understand why so much is happening on screen yet nothing is really sticking to it. It almost seems like writers have decided to throw everything that we see in a film that promotes integrity and communal harmony to see if something sticks.
Jeevitha character just frustrates us with no proper son-mother bond being established. The problem also lies in the ambition of the makers to make this film, a Rajini film, when it is not. The mono action stretch of Rajinikanth playing cricket with his son when no one is around, the penchant to have him appear in key scenes and conveniently putting him out of the scenes hampers the film, a lot. When you have a story going on and see Rajinikanth adding value to it, makes his performance and cameo worthwhile. It almost feels like someone has suffocated the writers to find a way to add Rajini in every scene by hook or crook, while the story is not about him at all.
Rajinikanth is good scenes that need him to really carry the weight on his shoulders. Vishnu Vishal is not used effectively and Vikranth, too. Jeevitha, Nirosha, Thambi Ramaiah are all asked to over act and over react most of the times. The emotional core that tries to define our culture as diverse yet unified lacks really depth due to the scattered narrative. On the whole, movie just succumbs to the hyper ambition and amateur level writing while technical department tried its best to support it. AR Rahman couldn’t weave any magic to gloss over all the shortcomings and Rajnikanth also couldn’t really add his aura.
Positives:
Rajnikanth’s screen presence and his nostalgic Baasha voice(Sai Kumar)
Two songs
Cricket matches
Intention of spreading communal harmony
Negatives:
Over reaction to every action
Amateurish Writing
Over dependence on Rajini to save the screenplay
Flawed and scattered narrative
Incohesive and inconclusive scenes
Lal Salaam Movie Bottom-line: Not what you say how you say is important!