Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire, directed by Prashanth Neel, once again takes you back to the familiar setting of a mythic town that considers itself to be an independent state and is governed by its own set of rules and regulations. The film feels like an accumulation of several high-adrenaline slow-motion sequences, and it never fails to hero-worship the actor whenever it gets the opportunity. Prabhas, as Salaar, walks with a single expression throughout the film and leaves the rest to his fans, who he knows would cheer for him even if he only lifted a finger. Salaar has so many things happening at the same time that, at the end, I just lost track of events, and there came a point where I had to sit down and connect the dots to understand where the narrative was headed. In a film like Salaar, it is very important to create a buildup and then reach a pinnacle, which gives you an adrenaline rush. But the problem with this particular film is that it wants to hop from one high to another, and so it isn’t able to create the desired impact when it matters the most because every other scene is treated like the climax sequence. So, let’s find out what happened in the film and how the different characters were connected to each other.
Why Did Deva And His Mother Leave Khansaar?
It was the year 1985, and two friends, Varadha and Deva, lived in Khansaar. It was a known fact that they always had each other’s backs, no matter what. Varadha was the son of the “Karta” (equivalent to the legislative head) of Khansaar, and Deva came from an underprivileged background, but still, their economic status never came in between their friendship. At the beginning of the film itself, we saw how Deva protected his best friend from his own stepbrother, Rudra, and how he risked his life just so that Varadha could get what he deserved. At that point in time, we were not told who Deva’s father was or to which clan (out of the three clans in the Khansaar) he belonged. The royal guards arrived at Deva’s doorstep one day, and after killing his father, they wanted to plunder his house and take his mother into their custody. Deva tried his level best to save his mother, but the royal guards were given the freedom to do whatever they pleased as long as they were not violating any clause of the constitution, which was referred to as the Nibhandhan. Now, apparently, after a family’s male member was deemed to be an enemy of the state, the soldiers could go and do as they wished with the females of the family. At this juncture, Varadha arrived at the scene, and he asked the soldiers to step down. The leader of the army (whom we later came to know was Ranga’s father) didn’t agree, and to make him adhere to his command, Varadha put him in charge of a territory and gave him the legislative position of “Sardar,” i.e., head of their independent territory. Varadha didn’t know at that moment what the consequences of his actions would be, as all he cared about was saving the life of his best friend. Deva left Khansaar forever with a promise to come back whenever his friend needed him.
Why Were Mannaar Tribes Against Shauryanga?
Since 1127, Khansaar had been ruled by three fierce tribes: Mannaar, Shauryanga, and Ghaniar. Years passed, and there seemed to be a need to establish the rule of law so that Khansaar would not impede its own progress. But a conflict arose when, after the death of Shiv Mannaar, his son, Raj, wanted to become the Karta, though he knew that the rightful heir to the throne was Dhara, the Shauryanga leader. Raj got Shauryanga killed, but he didn’t stop there. He believed that even a single member of the clan, if left alive, could pose a threat in the future. So he went on a rampage and killed every Shauryanga child and woman he could lay his hands on. Raj believed that he had killed every member of the enemy clan, but he was wrong. A few members of the Shauryanga clan had managed to survive and they were secretly plotting a coup.
Why Did Radha Rama Have To Declare A Ceasefire?
The council of ministers voted for and against the declaration of a ceasefire, and in the end, when both sides had equal votes, Varadha was called to cast his vote and break the tie. Everybody believed that Varadha would vote in favor of the ceasefire since it was his life that was at stake, but shockingly, he voted to lift the ceasefire, and people believed that he had signed his own death warrant. But what they didn’t know was that he had Salaar, the one-man army, by his side, and he knew that he would be able to overcome any obstacle and nobody would be able to stop him from achieving what he wanted. Deva and Varadha, together, killed hundreds of mercenaries single-handedly and showed no signs of stopping. A twist in events came when, after achieving victory, Varadha declared that he was not done and that he now wanted to become the Karta of Khansaar by replacing his own father. There was greed in his eyes when he spoke those words, and though, as of now, Deva stood by his side, it was unclear how long that comradeship was going to lost.
What Did Raj Mannaar Come To Know About Deva?
Raj Mannaar always knew that there would come a time when his own people would rebel against him. He knew that violence was in the blood of every person who stayed in Manaar. But the state of civil unrest was happening on a much larger scale, and we got to know some secrets that had the potential to entirely change the dynamics of things. Firstly, we got to know that a lot of members of the Shauryanga clan were still alive, and they were conspiring to overthrow Raj’s regime. They were waiting for the right opportunity, and they believed that now the time had come for them to aggressively move towards their goal.
During Salaar‘s ending, it was revealed that Deva was Dhara’s son, and he was the rightful heir to the throne. As of now, we don’t know if he himself knew about that fact or not. Obviously, it would come as a huge surprise for him, too, if he didn’t know about it already. Now the predicament was that Deva had sworn to protect Varadha and help him to sit on the chair of the Karta one day; there was an army of Shauryangas, under the leadership of Bharava, who wanted to burn down the empire, and there were others like Rudra who wanted to take advantage of the situation. In the second installment of the franchise, we would get to know if Deva lives up to his pledge or if he has a change of heart and takes over Khansaar, going against his own friend.
How Did Deva And Varadha Become Staunch Enemies?
At the beginning of the film, we saw that in 2017, Deva and Varadha became staunch enemies, and we are never shown what happened between 2010 and 2017 that changed their equation so drastically. It is said that best friends have the potential to become one’s greatest nemesis, and something like that happened with Varadha and his Salaar. We saw how Adhya, who was the daughter of Krishankant, came back to India and was kidnapped by Raj Mannaar’s daughter, Radha. Krishankant once used to work for the Mannaar clan, but due to some unknown reason, he went into hiding and left India, as he knew that he was not safe there.
Radha wanted to find Deva, and she knew that if she kidnapped Aadya, only then would Deva come out of hiding. Her plan was successful as Deva came in front of everybody and saved Aadya, and even Varadha came to know where his friend turned enemy was. It is possible that some sort of misunderstanding or disagreement created a rift between two friends, or maybe they were onto something else, and they just wanted the world to perceive them as enemies. We would get to know the truth in Salaar Part 2, but we are sure that in the end, the friends would reconcile and once again fight together against everybody who stood in their way.
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