Salaam

Plot: A journey of a young kid's transformation from a childish brat to a responsible son.


Review: A large part of our young age goes into playing with friends, doing naughty things, hating to study and living a carefree life. The film is mostly based on this but it has other angles as well. So while you have two friends turning foes over a small dispute, you also have the same duo looking out for each other whenever required.


In a village that is famous for the number of its residents in the defence or police forces, there is a group of young kids who almost everyone is fed up of. Raghu (Vivek Chabukswar) and Sada (Abhishek Barate), two best friends are the sons of a police constable Shankar (Girish Kulkarni) and Parshuram (Sanjay Khapre) respectively. While their fathers are busy protecting the people and the nation, these two along with their group of friends spend their time playing and swimming in the rivers. Another boy from the village Maruti loses his father and is unable to continue his higher education. Seeing this the school principal (Kishore Kadam) decided to start a scholarship fund in order to help deserving children to help them complete their education. All the kids participate in this activity and start collecting donations from the residents. Raghu and Sada initially start off collecting the money together but take different routes after a small quarrel between them. What happens next is a story of how a drastic change alters the course of Raghu's life and he turns into a responsible kid.


The film takes you back to your childhood through its story but in doing so, it gets tedious and predictive. The actors give their best and Vivek shines in his role of Raghu. Though Girish is seen on all the posters, he has a very small role in the film. The first half is slow in pace and can be a little repetitive but the pace picks up in the latter half.


There are resemblances to the director's earlier film 'Taryanche Bait' which was about a father's struggle to fulfill a promise made to his son, and also to the film 'Dhag'. But where 'Salaam' stands out is in its beautiful portrayal of the good old childhood days. Watch this one to revive those.