'Lal Salaam' movie review: Rajinikanth cannot save this shallow take on the country's corrosive divisive politics

Cast: Rajinikanth, Vishnu Vishal, Vikranth, Senthil, Thambi Ramaiah, and Kapil Dev

Director: Aishwarya Rajinikanth

Language: Tamil

India’s majority population is fanatic about cricket. In fact, there are many news reports that dub this sport as a religion by itself in the country. Director Aishwarya Rajinikanth adds this sport in the mix in Lal Salaam, where the plotline is already convoluted in portraying the conflict between the communities of Hindus and the Muslims, which is ramping up in real life. The former is a majority community in the country, while the latter is a minority community. In recent years, India has been ridden with conflict as the government has also tried to pass bills that targeted the Muslim population through bills such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Add the hurried conscription of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, then there is a lot of hurt and even oppression of the community that is getting buried deeper everyday. So when a movie titled Lal Salaam makes it to the silver screen, starring super Rajinikanth, what would one expect?

A take that treats the subject matter fairly? If not fairly, then at least to not manipulate emotionally with roundaboutery. Instead, what we get is a watered down version of not only the conflict, but also the emotions that hide high in such films. While on one hand we have jingoistic, masochistic films hitting the bumper at the box office, there are also half-hearted attempts such as Lal Salaam which do nothing but muddy the conflict that is taking place in real time in the country.

For instance, Rajinikanth as Moideen Bhai tries to be diplomatic, as he preaches the public about the importance of unity and understanding. The portrayal is so out of touch with reality and is even tone deaf to a certain extent. The film wants to speak about the merits of non-violence in a climate where people are used to seeing headlines about lynchings and mob attacks everyday.

The film does so much damage in its treatment of the relationship between the two communities. There are layers to this relationship that is not explored. What about all the times that the majority community has only taken from the minority? What about the disrespect that everyone belonging to the minority face? What about the trauma that incidents of such conflict inflicts on the younger generation? We do not see any such detail take life in the film.

Instead, it takes the path taken so often that it is stale. It about two best friends from different religion fathering two children – Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth – who breaks apart the friendship because of their ego and misunderstanding sowed by political forces that attempts to use their enemies to gain power.

Of course, the good guys win and the bad guys lose. For a film titled Lal Salaam, the film lack the virtue of the title, the oeuvre and the pizzazz that the title possesses all by itself. When the castes or religions named in the film are beeped out, it did feel like the film did not even attempt to keep the essence of the salute alive.

To say that the storyline was disappointing is a bit of an understatement. However, what surprisingly grated on my nerves further are certain frames in the film that is reminiscent of a melodramatic television soap vs an emotional telling of a tragic tale. The scenes seemed to be stitched together haphazardly without any thought to seamless transitions.

In the end, the film came across more as an effort to whitewash the current political sentiments in the country. Are we supposed to be fooled and impressed with this perfunctory film about equality? Think about it.

Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)

Lal Salaam is now playing in cinemas

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics.