portreyal

he/she/they/rey character analysis addict i edit, occasionally

[magicaldragons]

salaar: ceasefire [2023]

rey's literary masterlist

opinions, theories, & interpretation:

"i used to call him, salaar"

"deva is varadha's person"

why pairing deva with anyone other than varadha is improbable

salaar: part two, the potential outcome

deva chose to stop the seal publically

the speech that convinced amma: a theory

character analyses:

○ Deva:

a devaratha analysis.

deva: a weapon

deva: a weapon + an addition

deva: an invincible character?

deva's morality

○ Varadha:

the way varadha's character is written

analysing varadha's psyche

varadha. baachi's brother parent.

varadha's motive: why does he close his eyes?

varadha as a romantic interest

○ General:

how varadha & deva handle emotions

the promise.

love. a definition. [part one] [part two] [part three]

○ The Mannars:

rudra: why does he hate varadha?

radha rama: the analysis

baba and the mannar brothers

baachi's opinion of deva

themes/motifs/symbolism:

ugramm vs. salaar

the umbrella parallel

deva/varadha vs. amahendra baahubali/devasena

deva as the devil, who was once God's favorite

blood stained honor

unstoppable force meets immovable object

yin & yang

parallels: varadha's humiliation

headcanons:

varadeva: headcanon edition

"how did deva find varadha after saving baachi?"

"if deva finds out rudra touched varadha's nose ring AGAIN"

"if deva and varadha hadn't met as children"

"aadhya's first impression of deva"

getting technical:

Prabhas' depiction of Deva's emotions

the colorgrading in Salaar

fic list: [ongoing marked with *]

sandalwood & ozone: a/b/o varadeva. soulmates.*

distance (a mistake i make every night): varadeva. arranged marriage. hate-sex.

fic ideas:

upcoming fics

varadeva hadn't met as kids au

baachi not knowing deva IS the guy varadha cannot get over

undercover!aadhya and radha rama

+ edits:

tere bina

obsessed

eclipse

[magicaldragons]

that curl in shin ha kyun's hair is EVERYTHING

[magicaldragons]

a reality show in Khansaar, post-ceasefire

camera comes into focus on the ghaniyaars, who are preparing for the bloodshed

gurung: yk, i still don't understand why you wore couture to vishnu's funeral cheeka: does it LOOK like i gave a fuck. the man was a pedo. good riddance 😒 vaali, speaking to the camera: 🙄 i don't understand them, but at least we're communicating

meanwhile, the press is hounding deva and varadha:

reporters: sir, SIR, you HAVE to tell us, who's the guy and who's the girl in this relationship varadha, visibly baffled: umm, wtf deva: we're both men, you fucking- varadha, hand on deva's bicep: okay, OKAY, calm down varadha pulls deva back as deva goes to hit the camera

hasty cut to rudra and his uncle:

om: varadha has gained four new territories, rudra, we must do something fast. rudra, talking to the camera: look, i'm not too worried - we've got pandit on our side. but more importantly, who tf is this 'salaar' everyone's been talking about camera man: 😐 ...who's gonna tell him

cuts to the radha rama and the karta not for long

radha rama: if i hear someone say 'salaar' ONE MORE TIME, istg

camera pans to show all shouryangaas

zooming in on bharava, painted blue: kill them ALL 💃🏽💃🏽

krishnakanth, elsewhere, preparing to risk it all: 🏃‍♂️‍➡️🏃‍♂️‍➡️🏃‍♂️‍➡️

bonus: after flipping a couple of pages into the future script

aadhya: so,,,do i have an dance number in this part? cause...🧍🏽‍♀️ bilal: hopefully not 😬

[magicaldragons]

duty. ／ devotion.

[tlematimun]

everyone is a monster to someone. since you are so convinced that i am yours, i will be it. - captain flint, black sails

[lyraeon]

not to be mistaken for toxic positivity again but my god you need to learn to love the oppressed more than you hate their oppressors or else you are just delighting in feeling righteous while leaving those in need out in the cold

[magicaldragons]

be delusional with me for a second or two,,,

varadeva om shanti om! au.

where varadha is a super popular movie star, and deva is his number one fan, who desperately waits for chances to see/meet him.

he finds out that varadha is in this relationship with a man in the industry, who wants to keep varadha a secret, and treats him terribly.

deva takes time a minute to come to terms with everything, but it changes nothing — its varadha, after all — leading to deva realizing he's always loved varadha: platonically, romantically, unconditionally, all of the above.

the ensuing heartbreak is worse because he's now realized his feelings, but believes he has no chance.

cue the fire. tragic. heartwrenching.

deva is reborn, and the rest of the story progresses just like in om shanti om.

[magicaldragons]

saw a post/comment that said "not like psychiatry is scientific" and i think it ruined my whole day.

psychology is subjective, yes – but psychiatry is science. it's a medical branch.

and psychiatric illnesses also come under the purview of science and medicine.

[magicaldragons]

the whole concept of bhallaladeva declaring that devasena is his,

while baahuballi pledges to her that he is hers – which in turn makes devasena his to love/protect.

and all of khansaar feeling entitled when it comes to varadha and constantly crossing his physical and personal boundaries,

while deva says "im yours, to use as bait or as a weapon" – which makes varadha his to love/protect

[rambheem-is-real]

so not the point of this post sorry rey but

thinking of "nuvvu naa dhanivi avantika" (you are mine avantika)....

[magicaldragons]

no cause i had Thoughts™ during that scene too, when i rewatched

[magicaldragons]

the speech that convinced amma

a theory.

the very first time i watched the movie, i didn't understand why amma was so taken with aadhya's speech. it shouldn't have been convincing enough, especially for someone like Amma

but it's clear that Amma isn't just convinced, she's also surprised.

almost like she's heard these same words before.

so it begs the question: where else did she hear this — who said this the first time?

the only characters that could answer this question are characters she had once been apprehensive about trusting, but whom she eventually grew to care for or trust, which includes:

Krishnakanth

Varadha

or another character we haven't been introduced to

we have no reason (yet) to believe that she was in khansaar anytime right after the ceasefire, which makes it unlikely that she spoke to krishnakanth,

which leaves us then with varadha:

a boy that deva meets in childhood, from a family that Amma was wary of. especially considering how attached her son seemed to be getting and the way he was risking his life for varadha.

[magicaldragons]

baachi's opinion of deva:

we all know baachi dislikes hates deva.

it's even the title of one of the tracks on the OST, lmaoooo

and taking into account the fact that varadha has kept baachi so sheltered — it's bound to end messy

because baachi maintains a narrow perspective of his environment throughout the film. his immaturity borders on selfish — not out of malice — but the kind of self-centeredness you'd expect a child to have.

and it's definitely foreshadowing for some type of conflict between him and deva, because he:

feels like deva is completely to blame for them being in this mess in the first place — which is obviously why he primarily holds most of his resentment towards him

is frustrated by what seems like deva's 'impulsivity' and/or 'recklessless' — which, isn't entirely unreasonable — but he doesn't look deeper to see deva's motives or his devotion to varadha

thinks that deva makes varadha weak — because varadha displays emotions around deva, that baachi is not used to seeing on his elder brother

[magicaldragons]

so...deva is a master strategist - he's definitely aware of each port's location, understands how the system with the seal works (he created it ffs), and knows khansaar's laws by heart.

we also know that he's not against subterfuge.

and he chose to stop the seal publicly?

[magicaldragons]

radha rama.

the analysis

radha rama is such an interesting character, because she has the potential to be more than she is, but she plays by the rules of the game and aims to follow in her father's footsteps – she idolizes rajamannar, eager to maintain his approval of her.

her father's validation is something she's been consciously striving to attain from a young age, and as a woman, it's something she's put consistent effort into, especially with how she's surrounded by the harshest of men at court.

the power her presence exudes and the way she wields fear is something she imbibed through carefully watching her environment. and she definitely had to figure out how to come across as ruthless, because Khansaar especially is a shark-eats-shark world.

her hatred for Varadha is something she's been familiar with ever since he was born, and she hates him even more than Rudra does – but unlike Rudra, she never wasted her energy on childhood pranks and displays of ego, instead putting that drive towards building herself: she's extremely self-reliant and a self-made person.

she's very ambitious, and completely capable of using anyone to get where she wants, and definitely thinks that relying on people emotionally, or telling them your plans, is weakness.

she seems like the type of person who doesn't understand the need for emotional vulnerability or forming relationships, unless it's to build connections. she's indifferent to her own brother, distant with her husband, and yet has utmost fealty for rajamannar's word, but we aren't sure yet if that is as his daughter, or in service to her karta.

she's very situationally aware and keeps tabs of her own on the lords and others at court, through obulamma, and other possible connections she has,

which is why it's all the more surprising that she was blindsided by her own husband - she was surprisingly affected when she found out that bharava was a shouryaanga.

which leads me to believe she either: overlooked the signs because she was fond of him (which is doubtful) or she severely underestimated him.

bharava is someone who most likely has very little emotional attachment to radha rama, with how devoted he is to the shouryaangas and their goal. all he had needed was a way into the mannar family and to be closer to the throne, and he easily could have convinced radha rama that he wanted the wealth and status. additionally, with how self-reliant rama is, she wouldn't have had a pressing motive to take a husband, which leads us to the possibility that bharava was able to provide something of value to radha rama in exchange.

with what we know of rama so far, it's easy to assume that she wanted to live on her own terms, personally and politically. her view on relationships and her primarily logical nature would've led to her wanting to get marriage out of the way, and particularly to someone who would not interfere with her life.

she definitely thought she was trading him a seat in court, in exchange for her absolute freedom.

so, in a way, she underestimated him and assumed he was another violent, power-hungry man, not unlike every other man she'd had experience handling.

but to discover that she'd let an enemy into her closest circle must have been a shock to her, especially with her self-assuredness and her devotion to her father and his cause.

[magicaldragons]

varadha as a romantic interest

a romantic interest should fulfill three conditions:

1. should motivate (provoke, challenge, inspire or push) the protagonist. 2. force the protagonist to earn our respect and appreciation by the end of the story. 3. be one of the reasons we deeply hope the protagonist comes out on top… with the love interest.

the silence is loud, y'all...

deva is a willingly passive character, he only takes the narrative into his own hands for reasons central to varadha.

and it is only through varadha's gaze that we get to know deva as a man, instead of the myth others know him as.

by the end of the movie, the audience is filled with a sense of foreboding, because we know that varadha will gain the throne at the cost of losing deva, which makes it an empty victory.

the same article also mentions:

"He or she represents everything your protagonist’s personal journey is about and everything your protagonist aspires to be worthy of when the film is done."

and

"No character is ever perfect, but they are perfect for each other in a way the reader/audience must be able to fully see and comprehend."

...hold on, i'mma just:

"Without this love interest, the hero(ine) can never be happy, content, or fulfilled. This is why the love interest is so often the character tied to the proverbial railroad tracks (or worse)." cough. varadha is always suffering. cough.

and from this article:

"Love interests reveal different facets of a character’s personality, adding layers to their development."

and finally, i'm including these sections of this article, because it's not varadeva if it's not tragic

Key Elements of Tragic Romance: 1. Doomed Love: the central story is marked by an impending sense of doom. Lovers may face societal norms, familial opposition, or even physical barriers separating them. 2. Intense Emotions: Characters experience profound emotions, ranging from passionate love to deep despair. This emotional intensity often propels the narrative forward. 3. External Conflicts: Beyond internal struggles, external forces such as war, societal expectations, or misunderstandings contribute significantly to the tragedy. 4. Inevitability: A hallmark of tragic romance is the inevitability of the tragic outcome. This sense of unavoidable doom builds anticipation and heightens emotional impact.

Common Themes in Tragic Romance: 1. Unrequited Love: Unreciprocated love is a poignant theme where one character’s deep affection is not returned, leading to heartache and longing. This unbalanced dynamic intensifies the tragedy. 2. Sacrifice: Many tragic romances highlight the theme of sacrifice. Characters may sacrifice their happiness, freedom, or even their lives for the sake of their beloved or a greater cause, adding a layer of nobility and pathos 3. Separation: Forced separation, whether due to external circumstances or internal conflicts, is a common theme. It underscores the fragility of love and the pain of being torn apart from a loved one. 4. Societal Constraints: Social, cultural, or familial pressures often play significant roles in tragic romances. These external forces can create insurmountable obstacles for the lovers, reflecting real-life societal barriers that many face. 5. Fate and Destiny: The concept of preordained destiny can be both romantic and tragic. Many stories explore the notion that the characters are meant to be together, yet fate invariably separates them.

the first point is so proveably not true, because the love is very much, mutually there, which somehow makes it all the more tragic.

reminding myself and everyone here that the narration explicitly mentions twice that fate broke these two "ప్రాణ స్నేహితులు" (prana snehithulu) apart.

[magicaldragons]

parallels.

deva realizing that, in his absence, varadha has not been able to eat, sleep, or breathe in peace.

and to make it Worse:

[magicaldragons]

the way varadha's character is written

if we forget the narrative for a moment, and prithvi's depictions of varadha, we confront the fact that varadha's character is written very much as a woman's usually is, especially in indian cinema:

1. varadha is defined by the men in his life: his father, deva, his brother - his life is dictated by their actions

he waits for his father's validation, for deva, for an opportunity to save himself.

he spends most of his existence waiting.

note: it is equally important to mention that deva is just as defined by the relationships in his life, but that he plays an active role in his own subjugation, willing to be a weapon for those he loves, and is capable of taking the narrative into his hands at any point he chooses to.

2. his role as a caretaker is emphasized, time and time again

3. varadha's form of love is immensely self-sacrificial

4. his honor manifests physically (a framing commonly reserved for women)

his dignity becomes something that can be taken from him or he can be saved from losing.

5. and he has his boundaries crossed in ways that just aren't used for male characters

all threats are very intimate.

6. his character arc is entirely about taking back his power, after oppression being mistreated, humiliated, and not taken seriously for the entirety of his life

prithvi brings nuance to an otherwise one-dimensional character; otherwise, varadha is a character meant to suffer for deva's character arc, until it is time for him to take the throne.

[magicaldragons]

varadha's mukku poga honor stained with deva's blood.

send tweet.