Salaar: The Convergence of contradictions

Would you agree that Salaar is not just a big budget movie, but one that will redesign the careers of many Big names?? But it’s just a fact, Let’s check how it is!!

Prashanth Neel,  the biggest hype factor of this movie.

Even while Salaar has many elements like the hero of India’s biggest hit, the villain, who is a superstar cum frontline actor as well as a most promising director from the Industry that surprises with quality, all eyes are on the director of the film. Just 3 films in 9 years of his flawless career. The first one was ‘Ugram’ which took the Kannada industry by the hand and the last 2, yeah the KGF franchise; one among India’s biggest sensational mass icon characters and top tire hit.

Through Salaar Prashant Neel who is at a dream-like career point has to prove that the success of the KGF franchise is not just a one-time wonder and it becomes a huge responsibility for him. If one slips it is absolutely impossible to come back at a point like this, such is the momentum of the fall.  His career has reached that high today. Apart from the same level of brand hype that Shankar took in 30 years and Rajamouli in 23 years, Prashant has achieved a separate fan base in just 3 films, so one can only imagine his growth as a director.

Prabhas, The Hero!

A dream-like turning point when standing as a mere industrial mid-range hero. With that, the label of Pan Indian Superstar came from the actor who was confined to a single industry only. Something every actor wants, right?? But Prabhas is someone who has happened to this literally in his life.  After 14 years of his career, through Baahubali he became a pan Indian superstar and gained crores of fans.

And After that?? A career dip where everyone wishes that no one, not even to their enemies this course should happen. And those are not small failures, these 3 films can be placed at the forefront of the list of the biggest failures in Indian cinema, in terms of financial loss. While the first ‘Saaho’ had an initial box office pull, the later ‘Radhe Shyam’ was one of the biggest disasters in terms of cinematic aspects and box office collection. ‘Aadi Purush’, which came after it, was a failure even when the teaser came out. After the release, everything turns out to be just a formality, a pathetic film that beats a cartoon, where everyone asks the question, where is that 600 crores?

Prabhas needs Salaar to be a success, more than anyone else to be precise here. Although there has been a big fall, I personally believe that the stardom given by Baahubali still remains. Salaar is a golden opportunity to bring it back to its former glory. We can believe that it will happen when a promising director like Prashanth Neel joins.

Why the Antagonist, Prithviraj Sukumaran, is awaited above Prabhas or Prashanth??

A formidable as well as Powerful villain is one of the highlights of every Prashanth Neel film. Garuda and Adheera of KGF Franchise are classical examples for that. There is an interesting incident about the arrival of Sanjay Baba as ‘Adheera’ in KGF : Part 2. He had turned down the role when he was invited as Adheera in KGF 1.  But Prashanth believed that if he saw KGF Part 1, Sanjay Dutt would definitely agree to appear as Adheera in the second part. That was how much faith he had in his film. So Adheera’s face was not clearly shown in the first part.  Prashanth’s confidence was true and Sanjay Dutt, who had seen the first part, accepted the role without hesitation.

Prashanth Neel, who is so meticulous in the characterization and presentation of the villain characters along with the hero, but this time saw his villain in Mollywood superstar Prithviraj Sukumaran. But in truth, one role that we should be curious about Prabhas and Prashanth should be Prithviraj’s villain. Let’s look at some factors that point to it.

Prithviraj as an Actor

His 21-year-old Career, who started as a hero at the age of 19, bounces back quickly from failures without any major setbacks in his career and can be seen. There are many typical small snack movies that came out in Malayalam once without any quality in his career too, but after 2012 he has a career span that makes anyone jealous.

With an impressive filmography record that includes 3 State Awards, he is embarking on what can undoubtedly be called the ‘greatest’ in terms of characters. A month before the release of Salaar, ‘Aadujeevitham : The Goat Life’, based on the most read epic novel in Malayalam, will be released in August. No one who has read the novel will forget the story or the character, such a famous work.

He has done many body transformations for the character.  He was on a strict diet to lose close to 30 kilos which will help him achieve a malnourished look. When asked about it, he said, “It wouldn’t be something I advise anyone to do. Never again will do a character like that!”  He responded, he was so dedicated to the role. Even before a movie or its teaser is released, if the name comes up in the National Award discussions for best actor and movie, then one can only imagine the range of that character. Why Prithviraj reaches salaar in such a situation is a matter of curiosity.

Prithviraj as an other language actor

Although he has done several films in non Malayalam languages, after Kaaviya Thalaivan, which won the Tamil Nadu State Award for Best Villain in 2013, Prithviraj is very careful in doing other language films.  Finally after 6 years to be exact another other language film, that too as a villain with huge hype. For that, what is special about that character in salaar. Curious, right??

The Director Prithviraj

A proven director with one of the biggest hits in Malayalam, the 100 crore club film ‘Lucifer’ which used Mohanlal, the greatest actor and biggest superstar that Malayalam industry has ever seen, and extracted his extraordinary performance as an actor and all commercial potential as star material and the OTT release Bro Daddy, which is a fun ride. Next, Prithviraj is all set to direct Lucifer’s sequel ‘L2 : Empuran’ on a grand scale. Salaar Production Company ‘Hombale Films’ are also rumored to be partners in L2 production.  After that, the line-up of ‘director Prithviraj’ is Tyson produced by Hombale Films, in which he will be the director and hero followed by Lucifer 3rd part.

In an interview 14 years ago, when Prithviraj was 26 years old, to the question, “Can you tell us the picture of Prithviraj twenty years later, how would you be known?”  Listen to his answer to the question.

“After 20 years I should be a Malayalam actor known in at least 3 other language industries ​​in India. After 20 years I should be an owner of a film company who is very active in making good films and running a production house bringing good commercial films to the audience. I should be a film director who brings only themes that interest me very much into film form.. It will be when I am nearing 40 years of age that I will be able to expose my full caliber to the film world..!”

Prithviraj Sukumaran is 40 today..!! True to his words, Prithviraj in his 40s, who is exposing his full caliber to the film world, is playing the villain role in Salaar, isn’t it something that raises a lot of anticipation and excitement??

Kannada industry hit holder for over last 7 years, Vijay Kiragandur’s Hombale Films is looking forward to a gigantic projects line-up starting from Salaar. After being criticized after the poor selection of ‘Dhoomam’ that came after the greatest ‘Kaanthara’ Salaar, which is coming in with huge hype. Also the production company has just announced the prequel to ‘Kaanthara’, a few days back. Will it keep the glory with a new success or will it burn the hands again??

Thus we can briefly describe ‘salaar’ as an amalgamation of many people who are currently in very diverse situations. Although the teaser, which was released 2 days ago, could not give any expected impact, it does not diminished the hype of the film. That much is the trust and expectation that fans from various industries have in director Prashant Neel. And it won’t be an exaggeration if one tells that the bad impression about the teaser has been totally cleaned up by the trailer that got released today. So yes, Salaar the guard is still alive and they are coming to hold the big names to plus one.

– By Devadath