Review: Salaar: Part 1- Ceasefire- This film fails to fire

Cast: Prabhas, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Shruti Haasan, Jagapathi Babu, Bobby Simha, Easwari Rao, Shreya Reddy, John Vijay and Mime Gopi

Director: Prashanth Neel

Music director: Ravi Basrur

Rating: 2/5

Ahead of its release, Salaar was touted to be the year's biggest release as the lead actor Prabhas and director Prashanth Neel are known for delivering Rs 1,000 crore films at the box-office with Baahubali and KGF franchises, respectively. Salaar was announced as yet another franchise, with Salaar: Part 1 being christened as The Ceasefire. With the potential to be the second Indian film to enter the Rs 2,000 crore club after Dangal, does Salaar create the much-needed magic for Prabhas after Radhe Shyam and Adipurush?

The story opens in 1985, where two friends, Deva (Prabhas) and Varadaraja Mannar (Prithviraj) live in the dystopian city of Khansar. They had to part ways as teens but remain indebted to one another. Deva moves to Tinsukia, a village surrounded by coal mines in Assam, where he works as a mechanic, while his mother (Easwari Rao) runs a school and stops children from working in coal mines. Meanwhile, several eyes are on Aadhya (Shruti Haasan), who is returning to India from the US and her father's dealings here is about to land her in trouble. Initially, we are shown how Deva and Aadhya meet and how it is connected to his past. Prashanth takes the entire first half to set up this premise. The tone, the colour scheme and even the setup is either carried forward or borrowed from KGF with nothing new to offer. First half thrives completely on build-up shots and slowly mouthed dialogues, which makes an 80-minute affair look like a three-hour film already. The unusual mannerisms of characters and mass dialogues that lack real punch cracks us up.

As we are ready for a lengthy second half, the violence shifts to Khansar city. Though Prabhas and Prithviraj try their best to lift the film with their performances, other characters make it dreary. The music, too, reminds us of KGF 1 and 2. Mother sentiment works to some extent in the beginning but there is nothing new to offer.

However, the cinematography is a huge plus despite the usage of the same monochrome hues we get to see from the beginning till the end. Another huge plus for Salaar is the intention. Prashanth has given more power to his female characters and also has touched upon some social issues that women have been going through for years in remote towns of India. Else, Salaar is strictly a one-time watch, exclusively for Prabhas's fans.