VISITOR COLUMN

People who follow cine news would have been surprised and shocked to know the update from Vijay Antony that he won’t be composing music for other artist’s movies unless it possesses some outstanding content. It’s the response of the audience to a movie like Salim would have made him to announce it.

Even now, the film unit hasn’t confirmed that this movie is a sequel to “Naan”. But the proceedings in the movie establish a bridge between the movies. One is that the protagonist plays the role of a Doctor and it looks like he begins this instalment from where he left in his previous attempt. Other aspect is its music.

There are 5 major aspects that make this movie work in audience’s minds. They are Vijay Antony, screenplay, music, dialogues and cinematography. When the movie begins it looks like Vijay Antony would remain in his comfort zone throughout the movie. But as the movie progresses, he slowly comes out of it and his performance turns out to be the spearhead of the movie.

In the second half, he succeeds in trying to be expressive in some scenes and does underplay in the rest. Unlike Naan, here he has a job to deliver dialogues with variations. He has done them well. For the first time, he has appeared in a duet. His look and style are value additions to the song.

Director N.V.Nirmal Kumar, former associate of the legendary Bharathiraja, has written and directed a neat, pacy entertainer. He has provided excellent characterisations to everyone. Characters of Vijay Antony and Aksha Pardasany deserve a special mention here. Right from the beginning, the happenings seem to be close to reality and from few scenes before the interval onwards, it looks more cinematic.

Nowadays, only few film makers succeed in pulling audience’s attention to their style. But most film makers try what the audience expect and sometimes the unexpected. Salim comes under the latter. Some scenes make the audience guessing about what is going to happen next. Amidst this, the audience don’t seem to be minding the logical lapses. Salim, in Arab means “Safe” or “Undamaged”. Director’s careful handling of the script has made the movie to be safe at the box office.

Vijay Antony has used different versions of Naan’s theme music in Salim. He did not spoil the brand music in the name of trying new with the already proven theme. Even if the same tune is used yet again for the sequels, for sure it is going to raise the curiosity of the audience towards the movie. Also he has used the owl’s hooting well in apt places which was also previously used in Naan.  His music takes the movie altogether to a different level.

Cinematography by M.C.Ganesh Chandra gives us the much needed thrills and chills. It gives a rich look to the movie. I saw people sitting and listening to the lyrics of the song rather than walking out of the screen for a smoke. Each and everyone in their own style showed their admiration for the lyric either by clapping or whistling.  

Another pillar of this movie is its dialogues. After a long time, I saw most of the dialogues in this movie, relishing and exciting the audience. Many in the theatre responded to a dialogue where the media, in order to create a sensation, terms Vijay Antony as a terrorist for his actions. There is one instance which reminds the mentality of certain people of this democracy to classify certain people as terrorists just by the hint of their name and some of their abnormal actions. But those days are gone in India. There are even more dangerous events happening and are at the same time being ignored by the so-called public. Most audience have mentally grown a lot in watching movies and are responding to even minute details. There is still a long way to go. Complete success of some good, need of the hour dialogues in movies are only, when they create some impact in the society. For that to take place, audience ought to apply those dialogues in their life. Only then the efforts of the film maker get complete. Not only dialogues, even scenes and the characters involved convey us a lot.