There was a time, quite recently at that, when the movies from various parts of South India had caught the collective imagination of the nation. It was almost like they’d finally discovered that secret ingredient that appealed to everyone, everywhere. What started off with the Bahubali franchise from S S Rajamouli soon snow-balled into a movement. Rajamouli himself came back with the grander, more epic RRR; Kannada cinema brought us the KGF franchise; followed by the Allu Arjun-starrer, Pushpa series of movies - it was just one superhero movie after movie peddled from the various corner of the collective — South India.

Many of the more sober cinema enthusiasts found these movies crass, loud, and ridiculous — epithets that have always gone on to define movies from South India before. But never before did all these same characteristics work completely in favour of these movies either. Perhaps it was the COVID-19 pandemic that finally allowed people the luxury of time to sit back, relax and see these movies for what they were — wheelers and dealers of unbridled entertainment and absolutely nothing else. And once that bit became clearer to the more discerning audience, maybe they suddenly became more palatable, more enjoyable — more popular.

Matter of fact, these movies became so popular that it was only a matter of time before Bollywood jumped on to the bandwagon. Movies like Pathaan — and more importantly, Jawan — expertly bridged the middle-path between total massy and flair. Plus, you throw in a Shah Rukh Khan in the mix, and Bob’s your uncle!

These types of movies were going to stay. And therefore, when the Prashanath Neel directed, Prabhas-starrer Salaar started with their ticket sales at the end of 2024, no one was really surprised when they started selling out like hot cakes. Based on the trailers, the same format had been polished, polished, and made even more epic — if that were even possible. So appealing was this format of cinema that no one was even surprised when it blew the Shah Rukh Khan-Rajkumar Hirani Dunki ticket sales out of the park by miles. Besting a Shah Rukh Khan and Rajkumar Hirani combo in ticket sales and then later, at the Box Office, takes some doing, but Salaar was clearly up for the job.

And why not!

A tale of two friends in a dystopian world, Salaar is absolutely electrifying. True, the first 30-45 minutes of the movie ramble on a bit, attempting to set up a suitable scaffolding to hang the rest of the story from. It takes a fair bit of patience, a little strenuous viewing and even then nothing seems to be clear — you are tempted to almost give up. But then very slowly — very, very, very slowly — you start to make some sense of which way everything is starting to point. You are still unaware of the main players, you are still unaware of the primal premise that the movie is based on, but you persevere. And then the screenplay finally reaches that point where things magnificently fall into place. You reach a point in the movie where the screenplay has only one thing left to do — tell you what happened and what will happen soon after.

And then you just sit back and enjoy the visual spectacle that unfolds before you.

Just like all it’s predecessors, Salaar isn’t necessarily ‘good’ cinema. But it is most definitely ‘epic’ cinema. From Prabhas’ entry marked as the “rebel star”, to the action set-pieces panning out one after the other, you are taken deep into the fictional city of Khansaar, a place that has been wiped off the Indian map since independence, and you are made to realize the friendships, the alliances, the betrayals, the enmities — and most importantly, the gratuitous violence that follows from all of it. Nothing is what it seems, and you have absolutely no qualms about that. All you, as the audience, want is for things to keep moving, to keep happening, to perhaps never end, to keep you entertained forever.

Trying to break down the story is pointless. Not because there is no story, but because talking about it in a linear, traditional format brings you no joy. No, movies like Salaar are spectacles. And you have to respect the medium if you wish to enjoy the same. There’s no being smart about it, there’s just sitting back to enjoy something for the heck of it. And on that scale, Salaar does way more than just deliver. These are movies that makes the sinews of your muscles quiver, you can feel your fingertips tremble every now and then, you allow yourself to get swayed by the flow and only then do you love every minute of it. That’s how you watch it, or you shouldn’t even bother wasting your time. It’s not for everyone, sure — but it is for everyone who wants to invest their time and effort into it.

And finally, when you reach the end, when you reach that bit of crescendo in storytelling, you are absolutely at the edge of your seats, desperate for more. Salaar: Part One — Ceasefire leaves you at an absolutely unbelievable cliff-hanger — and boy, you’re going to be left hanging there for a long, long time.

The action set-pieces I’ve already mentioned; the magnetic background score is riveting, mixing effortlessly with any of part of the story your watching; the SFX is plush and modern and only seldom does it look tacky; the camera work is spectacular — overall, they’ve succeeded in creating a perfect little world for you to get invested in, one you know if false and fictional, but one which you are completely invested in.

Prabhas and Prithviraj are cut to perfection, the former completely owning this entire class of film-making. Be it a Bahubali or a Salaar, Prabhas just knows his way around the medium. Prithviraj naturally has a lot more variety to his portfolio, but here he just seems to belong — as do an entire host of supporting actors, who add a lot of meat to the substance of this movie.

Use the weekend to entertain yourself, use the weekend to rest, recuperate and have some fun. Watch Salaar. It’s totally worth everything.

Full movie now streaming on Netflix.