Salute Movie Review - Malayalam (2022)

Movie: Salute- 2022

Director: Roshan Andrews

Production: Wayfarer Films

Story: Bobby Sanjay

Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Diana Penty, Manoj K Jayan & others

Editor:  Sreekar Prasad

Cinematography: Aslam K Purayil 

Music: Jakes Bejoy

Release: March 17,  streaming on SonyLIV

Salute is a mediocre "Cop-Murder-Suspense" Drama

2.75/5

'Salute' the Malayalam thriller genre suspense film released via SonyLiv on March 17, 2022 after many postponements starring Dulquer Salmaan as a cop. To know further about the film, just creep in. 

01. A brief about Salute. 

Salute is not a routine suspense or mystery thriller but also at the same time isn't a brand new story, it has many routine & repetitive elements that appear in almost all crime drama' but at the same time has few spine tingling moments here & there. 

Salute is all about a cop who is sincere, dedicated, intelligent & exposed to variety of situations & how he deals with it forms the storyline of the film. Entire film is like a biography of so called policeman "Arvind Karunakaran- SI" & his encounters with various situations, backdrops. 

Flow along to know more. 

02. Plot & story of Salute.

Arvind Karunakaran (Dulquer Salmaan) is a sincere SI who works in the same police station where his brother Ajith Karunakaran (Manoj K Jayan) works as SP. This station & the police around are habituated to fabricate all the evidences in few crime scenes & cases to sustain their existence & make their living. But the newly appointed SI Arvind Karunakaran when exploring the fraud & henious sides of the same policemen who ought & pleged to be sincere & dedicated is cramped. 

The story opens to the policemen fabricating evidences of a person's (Martin's) murder case, here the suspect (Sudheer Karmana as Chandran Pilla) who committed crime is missing. In the further proceedings, the movie turns serious by involving political drama & bringing in some strange link to the plot. Later the policemen drag an innocent called Murali (Vinod Sagar) into the case & heap the blame of slaying Martin on him & Arvind Karunakaran is absolutely disturbed watching all these. Unable to bear those duplicitous possessions by the policemen in the city & which also includes his brother & he who believes that is how cases should be investigated & solved by policemen, even at cases which have no evidences, that is what  he suggests as a success formula for those who aim of reaching heights. Watching all this happens, Arvind seeks a long leave of 5 years from the authority to build his career of seeking law & helping himself from digging out of the dirt. He goes on a leave, seeks another career & there he meets Dia (Diana Penty) who's his live-in partner later, but again repents on the Martin's murder case,as he realises that he's involved in the case where an innocent is being punished for a crime that he hasn't committed ever & that truth really burns him from inside. From there on he goes on to reopen the closed case by rejoining into his moody profession that he disliked & sees the end by letting the true colours in front of the court. How & why he digs into the case is what you'll have to watch in the film. 

03. Theme of Salute & about Roshan Andrews.

Entire film is slightly inspired by the Blackstone's criminal formula thesis- "Let 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent being suffered" & that is absolutely executed well. Roshan Andrews is absolutely confident on what he wants to tell & succeeded in delivering the best too. The way he portrays the concealed truths of police department & at the same time bringing in the suspense element into the film with a required twist towards the pre- climax & the climax is something laudable. Story by Bobby Sanjay is gripping however lacks the punch of a thriller suspense film, felt like would have been more of twists & suspenses rather it's a one sided detailed report about the crime case, Arvind Karunakaran & his proceedings as an SI & again as a normal. 

04. Dulquer Salmaan as Arvind Karunakaran & his performance.

DQ is a perfect-handsome cop & is absolutely a right fit into the script. The scenes where he bashes the goons in the beginning & in the second half explore his powerful shade. DQ looks strong & fit, a perfect choice for this film. This is definitely not a wonted DQ's kind thriller film, it is something that we never saw from him. A celebration to his fans, an upto new try by him for sure. 

This film demanded a well- built  performance & I'll opine that DQ has vindicated to an extent. This script demanded a performance of all kinds accordingly, Arvind Karunakaran is powerful, same time sensitive, emotional , has an heart & top of everything smart & intelligent. So, DQ is someone who had all those power-packed elements within him, so he is a right fit. I loved his character & performance, being his fan, Am happy for him. 

There are scenes where he feels disgusting & emotional at the same time for the innocent & couple of encounters with Murali's family, later the scenes of fabricating evidences asked DQ to pose a damn uncomfortable expression & Dulquer gives a solid performance in all the scenes. Again the conversations with Manoj & other characters in the film had DQ to act with maturity. There is a particular scene where he again gets back to the case after a long leave & visits the crime spot, which is haunted, filled up foul stinks & as he proceeds further into the house to investigate, the reek in the house makes Dulquer feel like vomiting. All those scenes demanded a heavy performance from the star actor & he delivers a power packed performance- as mentioned. 

05. About Manoj K Jayan, Diana & other actors.

Manoj is perfect in his character & his performance evokes respect for his caliber. He has done the essentials to his character. Diana is wasted, her character has no importance, not even a single scene where she gets to prove her existence. Just a dummy character. Rest others are also just used for an use that's it.  Except the hero character, no other character gets any meatier role. 

06. Music & other technical departments.

BGM by Jakes Bejoy is not worth, appears formulated or materializes like an already heard one. Felt like script demanded much more quality music & score. Thank god there are no songs n the film, otherwise would turn out to be blunders. Editing, cinematography & screenplay, were fine but not of superior quality.

07. What all Salute lacks?

It basically lacks a strong plot & interconnections. Right from the beginning the plot is simple, one-sided & monotonous. It is engaging no doubt, but lacks the punch, you'll be waiting for that magic of crime-suspense's but that twist or suspense never comes in & the film gets done. It concentrates only on the problems that Arvind keeps facing, the murder case that he investigated & re-investigated, that's it, it is simple, no spoilers too, the story is simple. We will definitely expect complexities in such genres, but not even a single scene in the entire film gives that spine chills, that's the problem.

 

Screenplay could have been engaging, felt like it is on a boring side, slow paced. Some unwanted scenes like the party scenes, family introductions, DQ's law career developments, etc taking lot of time is irritating.  The BGM is again the other flaw, not at all alarming or horrific. In and all salute lacks punch.

08. Why the mediocre response & OTT release.

Salute though having a storyline, plot, theme & start studded performance, lacks punch- already mentioned. It is like watching a super hyped CID episode, but nothing too special. That is where the film loses the point. One keeps forwarding the film, because of the slow paced screenplay, again yet another weak link in this film. BGM is a waste, heroine is not properly utilized, these all make it a mediocre film inspite of a good plot & storyline.

Releasing the film via OTT platform is a good move by the unit, this is a film made for platforms like OTT. Sony LIV promised Salute on March 18, but released a day earlier, to surprise the fans. I personally feel if it is released in the theaters would again get a negative talk like Salmaan's recent flop film- 'Hey Sinamika'. Being an OTT release, this film garnered some mixed to positive responses. 

09. My recommendation to you all.

Yes, I liked it with my reservations & limitations. Same applies to you all, go watch with your reservations. Cannot guarantee you all with a super engaging suspense drama, but is an OK film, a one time watchable Cop- Murder- Suspense drama. Fan of Dulquer Salmaan? then watch the film for few power packed action sequences & his uber cool performance.