I am back on my Indian Cinema obsession again with the recent Telugu film hit released to Netflix: Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire. 

I have to say that I love this new world of movies that RRR has opened up for me. While nothing has quite measured up to that entry itself for me, I recognize that isn’t necessarily a fair comparison to most movies from Bollywood, Tollywood, and other Indian cinema industries. I loved RRR and put it in my top 25 favorite films ever. It’s unfair to expect that from everything I see! I have to be realistic.

Netflix has been a great boon for Indian cinema, as they have a wonderful catalog, and they typically get movies quickly after the initial Indian run. That was the case for Salaar here, as it debuted in January after its 2023 run in India.

Salaar was a huge hit in its native country, becoming the 3rd highest grossing Telugu language film of 2023. It’s the story of two childhood friends–Deva and Vardharaja–who grow up doing anything for each other. When Vardharaja uses his influence to stop the assault of Deva’s mother, the latter leave their home for years. 

Much later in life, Vardharaja needs to raise an army due to the political strife in his home territory, and he summons just one man: Deva. The two of them get caught up in a ceasefire between warring tribes, with a vote on whether to continue with the looming ceasefire, and peacefulness doesn’t last for long!

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+This movie is advertised as “gory”, and for two full hours, you are really going to be wondering why that is the case. It’s got some pretty solid Tollywood action set pieces, but nothing here is particularly brutal or violent or vicious. It’s just some hard-hitting fisticuffs amidst a lot of talking.

But when you get to the third hour, everything comes together.

In the climactic act of Salaar, we start seeing limbs flying off of people, some villains getting spikes rammed up through their jaws, and the blood just generally flows mercilessly. The promised gore really hits the fan if you are patient enough with Salaar to wait for it. 

There is even a sudden tonal shift where the movie almost shifts genres for fifteen minutes or so and becomes a straight-on horror flick, as Deva and Vardharaja go up against a swarm of zombified warriors. It’s almost funny how our heroes don’t care that these men are being drugged into mindless violence; they just blast through them, swords a-swinging. But hey, it allows the movie to deliver even further on the promised viciousness as they do so!

+Another thing that comes up when I think of the tone of this film is the fact that, for all its promises of action and brutality, it ends up being a very intrigue-inspired outing instead. Much of the movie–most of it, honestly–deals more with various tribes and gangs and governors in the Khansaar region of India. 

You get a lot of backstabbing and conniving and secret alliances and what-have-you, and that was all stuff I did not expect to see from this genre of film. Salaar is not afraid to put the action in the backseat for long stretches so you can get familiar with the plot instead. It really wants to give the why’s and who’s of all the limb-hacking you get into in the third act. 

-Compared to other Bollywood and Tollywood entries I’ve enjoyed, Salaar underdelivers in a few areas, most notably in humor and in music. There are a song or three, sure, but nothing particularly memorable or enjoyable. And the humor is almost nonexistent. I mentioned above how I appreciated some of the tonal shifts towards horror or political intrigue, so to be fair, it has that masala aspect of carrying multiple genres at once, but I think I find myself enjoying the outings that bring the more absurdist humor or musical beats overall.

-In this three-hour movie–which is just Part 1, and hence isn’t even a full feature on its own–there is A LOT going on, and it is almost impossible to keep up with everything and who everyone is. It almost demands a second viewing to be able to piece everything together. I was having a devastating time trying to remember everything that happened over an hour ago from where I was at any point. Salaar just throws about 50 characters, two timelines, and three plot lines at you over its runtime.

Every time I would think I was starting to “get it”, something would change, and we would be introduced to even more new characters, tribes, or conflict. It is a DENSE movie, and while I applaud the bravery it takes to trust your audience to swim amidst everything going on, I was really not quite able to keep my head above water. And who has another three hour viewing in them to go back over it and figure out where all the pieces go? It’s too long for that! 

OVERALL

Salaar is very convoluted–definitely overly so–for what most people probably show up for it for. If you can keep up with everything it’s giving you (or you have the time to watch it more than once), you’ll likely be rewarded with a deep and layered story that also has, you know, body parts flying about. There was a little too much going on for me to keep up on one watch, but it’s still very well-made as far as the cinematography goes. It looks great!

★★★ Out Of 5