Language : Malayalam
Director : Rosshan Andrrews
Writers : Bobby & Sanjay
Cast : Dulquer Salmaan, Manoj K Jayan, Diana Penty, Alencier Lopez
Genre :Thriller
Streaming on Sony LIV.
Writers Bobby and Sanjay are well known for their scripts that largely deal with the grey areas of human emotions. But post the duo’s much raved Mumbai Police in 2013, a good chunk of their films haven’t done justice to the concepts that they had on paper. The latest Dulquer Salmaan starrer Salute is the latest entrant to this list of films.
Set against the reinvestigation of a double murder case, Salute starts off rather promisingly. The initial 30 minutes of the film is unconventional and pulls your interest towards the proceedings. But once the core conflict and main characters are established, Salute squanders away its opportunity to become a riveting thriller.
The first half is well-paced and manages to create a genuine curiosity in the minds of the audience with a screenplay that strives on the moral ambiguity of its lead. However, the second half suffers from a half-baked narration that’s laced with convenient plot points and a climax that fails to do justice to the overall build-up. Yes, one could argue that the ending is out of the box and unusual for a thriller, but it struggles to generate an impact in its quest for uniqueness. Contrary to the first half, the latter half does well when it dwells into the emotional side of characters and their concerns around the outcome of the investigation although they’re restricted only to a handful of scenes.
Both Jakes Bejoy (music) and Aslam K (cinematography) do well in their respective departments. Sanjay and Bobby’s script as usual is interesting but the screenplay fails to make the most out of it. Rosshan Andrrews does a fair job with the content in hand but Salute could have benefitted from a tighter narration in its second half.
The casting of Salute is questionable. Too many familiar faces are cast in inconsequential roles with no scope for performing. Dulquer Salmaan and Manoj K Jayan are the only actors with substantial screen space and both of them were fine in their characters.
Overall, Salute is a watchable thriller that promises a lot with its first half, only to leave you with a feeling of ‘could have been better’ by the end of its runtime.
Verdict – 3/7 stars.
Watchable.
Trivia:
Was initially set to be released in Theatres. Released directly into OTT and that got the lead actor temporarily suspended from Theatres, as he happened to be the producer also.
