Ancestral feud. Mutual hatred. Boy meets girl. And if that ain't enough, you have rom-com, song-dance sequences and comic relief. Those, as we all know, are the ingredients of the masala cocktail. They seem to be in almost the right proportion too. How much each element is allowed to marinate is where things go wrong. So, while it’s a go right ahead for "Salmaniacs", for others it's not a complete loss either.

That could be because some masalaparameters are kept void, like a love triangle, a spy in the tribe, etc. But, if we really wanted to get into what could have been, there is a lot more that could've been straightened out for it to make a better mark with the audiences. For example, the comic element in the romantic thread distracted from the story big time. The sincerity of the lovers didn't reach us mainly due to the laughs the makers seek to generate.

Then, there's the almost 3-hour length and the pace at which every elements of the story unfolds. While the introduction to various Rajahs and Sardars and their black, white and guess what…some gray characters takes up the first half, it isn't boring. For one the way the camera moves, pans and zooms, make you marvel at the terrain. Then the songs, especially Taali, is composed, sung, picturized (in a smallish tribal den), and choreographed to draw and keep your attention. At this point you are wondering about the story that is still waiting to be told and you see potential too.

Welcome the second half. While the good things of the first half are nowhere to be seen, the plot leads you to some extremely involving conflicts and dilemmas. The politics between the British, the Rajputs and the commoners is intriguing. So, you don't really miss the enjoyable music, because there's something that keeps you hooked. Unfortunately, the pace at which it needs to be told now (in the hour that's left) is a challenge. And everything has to be resolved in a hurry, leaving way too many important questions unanswered. And it ends in the most disappointing fashion ever!

At the end, it is like almost every Salman-starrer. More about him, the actor, than about his character. He plays the cool-dude only wearing Pindhari outfits (I've serious doubts any of the costumes were researched or authentic). His dad played by Mithun does his bit of being happy, full of valor and emotional in turns. The beautiful-but-plaster-of-Paris look of debutant Zarine Khan is interesting only because of the meat her character could potentially hold. Yes, a woman in an epic drama actually had a valuable role, but in the end it all collapses into the humdrum. How I wish, her actions were explained a little better and she was shown to have a brain of her own. Her dilemma between love and duty was worthy of some more detail.

Because my time in the theater was spent smiling and waiting for interesting things to happen, it kept me interested. But once out, when I think about each element in the story that caught my fancy, I realized it wasn't developed further. They didn't take it to a conclusion, logical or otherwise. I'd still not trash it; it's a fair attempt to entertain, and manages to do that intermittently.