Salute (Vijaykanth) Review

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it superman? No, it is Narasimha!!! The one and the only one! He can dodge bullets a la Matrix, he can put gravity firmly in its place by jumping off the 10th floor and landing without a scratch, and he carries pistols containing 150 bullets with each bullet capable of killing at least two!

God, aren't you dying to see it?

We are sorry to be the ones to break the news to you, but no, the genre doesn't appear to have ended after all. So here's one of those films with violence, only violence and nothing but violence, so much that it would put even Mithunda's movies to shame (now if that doesn't make the point, I don't know what will).

Now to be fair, it isn't difficult to watch Narasimha. You just need to be able to give a little bit of allowance for the quality of acting, another bit for the story, another bit for the screenplay, yet another for the music, and finally a little bit for the dubbing (this is a Tamil flick). And if you can give just that much of allowance, you also deserve our awe - you are capable of living with just about anything.

Well let's try to search for the story. Narasimha (Vijaykanth) starts as a terrorist who makes a mockery of the police force and terrorizes the innocent public of the country. The force is all out to nab him, and when they finally manage to do that, surprise, surprise! He turns out to be a captain who is on a mission to penetrate terrorist groups in Kashmir. And what better way than to pose as a terrorist himself?

A general (Raghuvaran) introduces Narasimha as the greatest weapon that India has, and, after eulogizing him until you are shedding tears of gratitude that he's one of us (comparing him to the hidden lion in the Ashoka pillar, calling him the second army etc), informs him of the kidnap of the chiefs of defense services by Baba (Rahul Dev), a terrorist, who is demanding as ransom the declaration of Kashmir as a independent country. Yawn.

Narasimha, after mouthing some unbelievably original patriotic dialogues, asks for ten men and sets out with them on a mission to rescue the kidnapped. And after blasting through about 50 vehicles and 500 terrorists, he finally confronts Baba in an amazing fight (the kind of wire stunts that have been used here would put Crouching Tiger And Hidden Dragon out of the Oscars) and kills him, and you're happier than anyone else.

Somewhere in between (you tend to lose your orientation in this one, you know), Vasanthi (Easha) falls in love with Narasimha due to a coincidence that you used to think happened only in the movies, and both shake a leg here and there (mostly abroad - you should not mix patriotism with pleasure), and finally tie the nuptials in an emotion-ridden scene.

In case you didn't get it, this is a pathetic one. The director has done an exceptionally bad job, and tries to convince you that killing a few innocent people in the process of protecting the country is quiet all right. I wonder what all the human rights folks would have to say to that. The story is nonexistent and the screenplay is hopeless, and all these are accentuated by the horrible dubbing; most of your energy is spent in trying to decipher what is being said on the screen.

The acting is better left untouched, but it seems a pity that senior actors like Raghuvaran and Nasser are wasted away in little or no roles. There is no humor element in the movie (you cannot consider the grating role played by Vadivelu to be humorous under any circumstances). The music by Manisharma is a major let down, and turns out to be nothing but lots of noise.

If you are feeling patriotic, put those 30 bucks in an army welfare fund.