Lal Salaam

<p>Thirunavukarasu “Thiru” and Shamsuddin are talented and brilliant players from , a village where and co-exist harmoniously. Despite their religious differences, they live happily. Thiru’s father, Manickam and Shamsuddin’s father, D. G. Mohideen aka Mohideen Bhai, are good friends who are accustomed to seeing their sons engage in physical confrontations since childhood. Mohideen friendship with Manickam remained since Manickam’s death. Parallelly, local politicians plan to incite communal riots in Murarbad to capitalise on the upcoming elections. One of the politicians son, Raj takes the sole task of exploiting Thiru and Shamsuddin’s rivalry under the guise of a cricket match. In a fit of rage, Thiru injures Shamsuddin’s right hand during a match, sparking a serious conflict between the Muslims and Hindus in Murrabad. Raj, also hailing from an upper-caste family begins troubling the lower-caste families, for political gain, by disrupting the Thiruvizha and confiscates the Thayr (temple cart). Meanwhile, Thiru is facing his own fate where the fellow townsmen and his family disown him. He also faces threats from Mohideen’s men and escapes. With some guidance from his friends and mentor, he plays cricket for the surrounding villages and wins, while also earning some money for the thayr funding. In need of another ₹1.5 lakh rupees, he and his friends go to relying on donations, where they get into the centre of another religious conflict and Thiru ends up saving Shamsuddin unknowingly, thus ending their feud. Mohideen then decides to give the additional funding for their own Thayr. However, a jealous Raj destroys it in retaliation. In the end it is revealed that it was Raj who made sure Shamsuddin injured his hand in the clash in Murarbad. Hearing this, his pregnant wife, Ammani, threatens him to surrender to the police for his criminal acts or lose their unborn child. Finally, the Muslim community in Murarbad helps the Hindu community with their Thiruvizha and the harmony is achieved once again. In October 2022, , who had signed a two-deal film with production house after the success of (2018), was reported to have signed his daughter to direct the latter film in the deal, with the former film being . Soon after, Aishwarya reportedly made a new plan with starring in the lead role, while Rajinikanth would play an extended cameo role. On 5 November, the production house made a public announcement, confirming the project. The official title, , was revealed and a puja was held the same day in . Instead of Atharvaa, and were announced to play the lead roles. made her comeback into acting after thirty-three years through this film. commenced on 7 March 2023 in , while a muhurat was held in December 2022. The first schedule in Chennai was wrapped up in April. The second schedule in began in May. Rajinikanth joined the schedule that month. Former cricketer also joined the schedule that month. In June, moved the team to . Rajinikanth had wrapped up his portions by 12 July. The team completed shooting the second schedule in July. Vishnu also wrapped up his portions by 5 August. The principal photography wrapped up by 7 August. A hard disk containing 21 days worth footage went missing during post-production works and, unable to reshoot all the missing scenes, the team reshot only a few and included them into the final cut. The and soundtrack are composed by , in his maiden feature film collaboration with Aishwarya Rajinikanth. In November 2023, it was announced that the audio rights for the film were purchased by . The first single titled “Ther Thiruvizha” was released on 18 December 2023. The second single titled “Ae Pulla” sung by was released on 15 January 2024 coinciding with . However, Sid Sriram was replaced by in the film version of the song. Rahman revealed that one of the songs in the film, titled “Thimiri Yezhuda” which are sung using the voices of late singers and was made possible via artificial intelligence technology, thus making it the first Indian song to recreate a deceased singer’s voice. The audio launch was held at on 26 January 2024. The theaterical teaser of the film was released on 12 November 2023, on the occasion of . On Rajinikanth’s birthday on 12 December 2023, a promo highlighting his character of Moideen Bhai was released. Initially, the film was scheduled for theatrical release on 12 January 2024, coinciding with . However, in a turn of events, the production house announced that the film will instead release at 9 February 2024 to account for the delay in post-production work and the release of (2024). In December 2024, Aishwarya said an extended cut would be available on streaming as some of the previously lost footage was found. The extended version began streaming on from June 6, coinciding with the , and was regarded by viewers as an improvement over the theatrical version. received mixed reviews from critics. On the website , 40% of 5 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.5/10. Roopa Radhakrishnan of gave 3/5 stars and stated “The film’s politics needs to be applauded. But there could have been more nuance in the way the conflict resolved. It could have been more than just a piece of convenient writing”. Latha Srinivasan of stated “Aishwarya Rajinikanth’s is a social drama with a message. And the audience will love Rajinikanth as Moideen bhai and hopefully, they’ll take back home and to heart what he says on screen. Humanity above all”. Janani K of gave 2.5/5 stars and stated “While the first half of the film is uneven due to forced staging, the messaging comes together in the second half, leaving viewers with a satisfying aftertaste”. Ram Venkat Srikar of stated “The social message is important, no doubt about it, but it’s also important that the strong message exists in an equally strong film. That’s where misses the mark”. Kirubhakar Purushothaman of gave 2.5/5 stars and stated ” is a winner if films are supposed to be noble message churning machines. But if cinema is considered to be much more than the takeaways and moral of the story, we only have a middling film with a topical and much-needed message for the country”. Sudhir Srinivasan of gave 2/5 stars and stated that “a film, in which Rajinikanth seems quite willing to shed his star image in pursuit of story-related pleasures, in pursuit of progressive politics, deserves to be more emotional, and more powerful”. Bhuvanesh Chandar of stated ” is the kind of film you wish you liked for how noble its intentions are. But that’s all you are left to feel for a film that doesn’t try enough to give you more, anything refreshing or anything novel”.</p>