Actor Vijay Anthony and Aksha Parsadany in Salim Movie Stills
These little things, and many more, irk us in singer-actor Vijay Antony’s film.
Dr Salim is a good Muslim, who follows the Quran to the Q, offers namaz five times a day, feeds the poor…and, since he is a doctor, treats his patients free of cost. Most of the time. He’s also extremely mild-mannered, and seldom loses his cool. So much so that the MD of the multi-crore hospital that he works for, thinks he is a misfit. He is not someone who can be counted on to ring in the profits.
When a lady colleague makes a pass at Salim, he excuses himself. When his neighbour parks the car in front of his gate, he takes a rick instead.
He is a good man.
Enter a temperamental, spoilt and attention-seeking fiancée (Aksha Pardasany) and Salim’s tranquil life gets disrupted. Like the rest of the world, his fiancée too finds him way too honest and upright. She’s irked when he ignores her eve-teasers, and chooses duty over a date. Very soon, unsurprisingly, she calls off their wedding.
This, and a lot of other events prompts the even-tempered hero to rethink his life and attitude. And that, forms the rest of the narrative.
Salim’s muddled, half-baked screenplay raises questions about director NV Nirmal Kumar’s vision. The opening shot is perhaps the exception: an owl ogles at us, followed by an aesthetic shot of the night. A long road lies ahead, and a white car halts in front of a heavily battered woman. Soon after this though, the narrative takes a deceptive turn, and we begin to wonder what the fuss is all about. And even later, when the link becomes apparent, there is hardly any thrill or excitement.
Only a sense of resignation.
If the first half is sluggish, with the token dream song sequence – beautifully shot though, as is the rest of the film – post interval, it gets agonizingly long. Terribly edited shots, a tasteless item number, and a baffling turn of events.
Vijay Antony (who is also in charge of the music) adds more woes to a script as insipid as this, and lets you know, quite clearly, why acting isn’t meant for him. If he is poker-faced during the first half, and effigy-like in the song sequences, he slogs painfully during the last quarter.
Recommended
Thankfully though, Aksha Pardasany essays her role to the T as the snobbish, nagging fiancée. But a line-up of terrible supporting actors – right from the hospital MD, the policeman, the minister, his sons, and his friends – add further misery to the narrative.
The only dialogue that is perhaps penned sensibly is this line from Salim: “En peru Salim nu irundha, na terrorist a? Peru la enna iruku? Vijay, Antony nu peru vechaalum, terrorist a irukalaam.”
But then, all that we could muster in response to that is a smirk.
The Salim Review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have an advertising relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.