Salaar - Telugu original - 175 mins - Action, Drama - Netflix
Let me give a couple of ideas to the producers ( and they can make solid money out of ) . One - they can easily float a dungeons and dragons type game - based on world building and universe spun by Prashant Neel .
The imaginative level of detail - characters , games of thronsy setting , the cities , character names ( deliberately “thrill” inducing names like Mannar , Khansaar , Ghaniyaar, Salaar .. oh Raisaar ) - damn at one point you mimic Shruti Hassan’s rolling eyes and dialogue ( wait wait wait .. 🙄 ) .
Two - especially if you haven’t seen the movie yet - Rerelease a 100 min “ fan cut” - a fast paced edit of the movie with 15 mins from the first half and then about 70 percent of that second half and you get an absolutely no holds barred bloody actioner the movie wants to be and (I loved every bit of the thulp and pulp 🙂 )- I guarantee repeat audiences well !
The movie takes an awful lot of time setting up and surely would have been exhausting in theatres - especially with Ravi basrur’s background screams ( repetitive and one feel the KGF hangover - and you are almost waiting for the .. “thandane..” ( maybe we get it in part 2 with the Amma sentiment)) - thank God for the ffwd buttons on Netflix !
After Saaho - when Prabhas signed a bunch of movies - I knew this one would probably be his best bet - expectedly he does the part as it works to his strength - limited dialogue ( internet says about 112 in total ) and walking slowly and showing his imposing frame and crunch bones , making people fly and chop appendages liberally ! He is solid in the second half but his main action intro in the first - looks tired and jaded for sure. Prithviraj gets a good part and comes into his own in the second half . Rest of the support cast, just bellow and snarl.
Shruti Hassan has a wonderful voice to sing , but … I watched a full length movie of her after 7 am arivu ( 2011, when she absolutely grated in her accented Tamil). This time she grates even the foreign accent and the lesser said about Telugu , the better.
Prashant Neel - is all style and technique - his set pieces are his strength ( the sequence and shot of Prabhas skewering a bunch of guys and then arms flaying , like Kali) is stunning !
He is an ambitious and imaginative as ( zombie henchmen ! ) a film maker - but his movies have now become repetitive in colour scheme( enough with the grading ) , staging, repeating actors (one thought that there could be a KGF connect, but no!), everyone looks the same , everyone wears black and smoky eyes ( men or women alike ) , all men have beards (one point you think haven’t u already seen this guy and isn’t he dead 🙂) , background score is loud , don’t get me started on the slo mo .
This is a film maker with great potential - producers wanting to invest and actors wanting to star in his movies - He definitely needs to do better, lest he end up like Zack Snyder ( 300, batman v superman , justice league ) in Hollywood - all style , limited substance and now at a point where A list actors aren’t working with him - and thriving on fanboy support .
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