Salute – 5/10

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Cast: Vishal, Nayanatara, Upendra
Music Director: Harris Jayraj
Dialogues: Sashank Vennelakanti
Director: Rajasekhar
Producer: G.K.Film Corporation, Vikram Krishna

Soup/Starters:

Vishal has sound backup of his home production. He could get foothold in the industry through his impressive performance in ‘Pandemkodi’. Rich production values, good publicity, some good story lines, honest performances gave him enough recognition. His recent films didn’t fair well. He has been very selective with subjects. This time he was more cautious and got impressed with this Cop’s story ‘Salute’ from the ‘India Today’ Journo turned director, Rajasekhar. Vikram Krishna and Vishal got excited with the script, took it prestigiously and turned it into a very high budget film. But as hyped by the makers, this film is not upto the expectations. It is an average-below average film.

Its all about a Cop, who saves the crop (society) from insects in his own way. He believes in the principle that encounter is not the perfect counter to criminals as it is impossible to kill all of the them. Lord punishes the culprits and the same should be done by Law. Law and Lord are same. He faces several hurdles on his way. Loses everything but atlast proves that he is right.

Spicy Items:

– Climax: It is the only major highlight in the movie. Till climax the film is very much boring but climax surprises us. All Police officials including DIG, Upendra saluting Vishal for his heroic deeds gave good title justification and enough lift to the film. It has been well written, shot, enacted and executed. Full marks to it.

– Upendra did a good job. Film picks up some strength with his entry. He is well received by audience. He scored well in the heated argument scene with Vishal.

– Vishal’s performance is average. He is good in climax. He should be commended for going to the extent of tonsuring his head. His introduction is impressive. He should improvise on his histrionics in romantic and emotional scenes. In certain scenes, he Iooked like a stick and didn’t stick to the character.

– There are some interesting ideas in the movie.

Eg:

- Using a blind person to catch a corrupted officer. This is an inspiration from Tagore’s idea of using a dead body to check evil doctors.
- Using ‘Change of Name’ ad in a newspaper to arrest a big wig.
- Using Railway ticket, Insulin injection, Tea stall to trace the killer.
- Interval card: On Mission – Intermission
– Some dialogues are impressive.

Eg:
-
Vishal’s team member : Sir, criminal nunchi ye improvement ledoo…
So mana nunchi koodaa ye improvement ledoo…
Vishal: Criminal nunchi ye improvement lekundaa cheyyadam…mana improvement ye kadaa ?
-
Vishal’s team member : Sir, manam kaalustunna savala laanti vaallam. lechi nappudalla kotti paduko bedataaru.
-
Upendra: ikkada sakramangaa yedee vundadu antaa akramangaane vuntundi.
-
Vishal: okadu cheste complaint veyyi mandi chestey order.
-
Upendra with his family:
Ayyappa Swamy mala vesukunna intlo andaroo nistaga vuntaaru. Police vaadi intlo kooda andaroo alaane neeti, nijayiteelato vundaali.
–
Music: It is ok on the whole.
- ‘Nuvvenaa Nuvvenaa’ song is very good. It has shades of ‘mayera mayera’ song in ‘Sainikudu’.
- First song is good with visuals.
- Teasing song on Nayanatara has interesting male voice.
– BGM is not bad.

– Fight sequences are good. Fight on Ice cubes and the one in rain towards climax are fine.

Dry Items:

– Poor screenplay and direction spoiled the entire broth. This film is not a big shake and it fails to maintain audience interest. Extreme closeups and long pauses didn’t work out well. Audience get frustrated waiting for the interval. First half is too lengthy. Slow narration made the film look boring.

– Kid’s episode started off well but its length gradually causes irritation. The idea of fast cut scenes on kids is interesting but it should have been used effectively. All Nayanatara – Kids – Vishal’s episodes lack energy.

– Dubbing to Vishal is amateurish. It is one of the reasons for the poor output of many scenes. His voice sounded childish even in serious scenes. Dubbing to Jeeva gave the look of a dubbing film.

– There are some unconvincing things in the film:
- It has been shown that some goons mix drugs in Ice creams. Police tracing pullaice rocket sounds unconvincing because it is known that Drugs cost a lot and pullaice is lot cheaper. How much amount of drug can be mixed in an Ice cream of < Rs 10/- ??? Then what would be the turn over of the goons ?
- Hyperboles like Vishal holding Volleyball as Vishnu Chakra.
- Moustache of Upendra in the flashback looks artificial.
–
Mass song at the end is unbearable. Harris Jayaraj once again proves that he is not best at giving mass numbers.

Finger Bowl:

Vishal, Vikram Krishna, Rajasekhar strongly expected that Vishal SHALL LOOT celluloid with SALUTE but the output is not upto the mark. Rajasekhar did a fair job with some ideas, montages and some scenes but on the whole he is disappointing. He gave a light screenplay when a tight one was needed. He lacked the knack of putting audience glued to the screen.

Meticulous planning of the makers is obvious. They wanted to attract kids so they placed hero-heroines love track using that episode. Inorder to reach the masses a mass song has been placed. Inspite of all these essentials the much needed feel was absent in major portion of the movie. Climax could fill this gap to some extent but by that time it was way out of the hands of audience to accept it.

One would wonder what made the makers to invest 28 crores on such a subject. It is touted that 2 crores is spent only on publicity. The reverse version of the saying ‘pavalaku rupai action’ – ‘rupai ku pavala action’ might suit this film as the throughput is less.

‘Re’-'Viewing’ is the case only with climax.

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