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Single Salma Is A Surprisingly Effective Film That Finds Charm In Familiarity

Nachiket Samant's film subscribes to stereotypes without peddling them and perpetuates predictability without ruining them. This might sound easy, but maintaining such a balance is a feat.

Ishita+Sengupta

Nov 01, 2025

Still from Single Salma.

FILMS CENTRING ON WOMEN are often tethered to an issue and conclude with a resolution. This is as much a roadmap as an outline; an overused detour and a rewarding shorthand. Nachiket Samant’s Single Salma ascribes to this with commitment. The protagonist, as the name suggests, is a single woman and her singlehood, as the first ten minutes hint, is the issue. She is 33, the eldest among the four siblings, and is drowning in responsibilities. As most stories like this go, by the end, Salma ought to have her life in control, deliver a spiel about being overlooked for being a girl, find love and find herself in the process. She does, and yet all of this feels novel.

Written by Mudassar Aziz, Amina Khan and Ravi Kumar, Single Salma is one of those atypical Hindi films that earns ingenuity through reiteration and accrues appeal by familiarity. It subscribes to stereotypes without peddling them and perpetuates predictability without ruining them. This might sound easy, but maintaining such a balance is a feat, especially when Hindi films either typecast or go home.

Take, for instance, the setting and the people. Based in Lucknow, the film revolves wholly around a Muslim household. A single hand moves up for a greeting, Urdu words float in the air. None of this is extraordinary, of course, but identity in cinema today is thorny. Single Salma also comes at a time when the community's depiction is getting increasingly erased from the forefront or being wrapped in excess. Samant’s portrayal, however, carries a fuss-free dexterity that dissuades empty speculations. The names are spelt out, the language is on the tongue of the characters, and that’s all the film chooses to say on the matter.

Ditto for the protagonist. Salma Rizwi (Huma Qureshi) is written as a prototype but grounded with rationale. She has the textbook ticks. She is giving to a fault, daughter to a patriarch (Kanwaljit Singh) and sister to demanding siblings. She has a government job, and a chunk of her salary goes into repaying debt so that her family can keep their ancestral house. Despite all of this, Salma refuses to be reduced to a victim of circumstances. She has a best friend, Ratna (a scene-stealing Nidhi Singh), a personality and a voice. Above all, her lack of self-preservation is not absolute. When need be, she can take care of herself.

Therefore, when her mother, concerned with the perils surrounding Salma, suggests marriage, she refuses and then agrees. In comes Sikander (Shreyas Talpade), the 40-something man with a henna-dyed moustache and hair. Although older than her, Sikander is already better than the stream of men who wanted to prospectively marry Salma (most were looking to wed the second time). On his part, he melts. A garment seller, Sikander, is quick to realise that she is beyond his league and confesses so on their first meeting. He also adds that his youth was spent taking care of his family. This honesty moves Salma, and their marriage is fixed.

The issue of singlehood could be ‘solved here’, but Single Salma looks at the state as a problem of the onlookers rather than of the person. The story soon segues to London, where Salma, along with four of her colleagues, goes for a two-month programme. She meets Meet (Sunny Singh), a third-generation immigrant whose liberal outlook is a stark contrast to the orthodoxy surrounding her in India. Sparks don’t fly, but attraction builds.

Although Single Salma takes the shape of a love triangle — Sikander good-naturedly sends “miss you” texts from India while Salma and Meet stare at each other longingly in London — building up even to a face-off between the men, it never loses focus on the woman. Evidence is sneaked in a steep narrative leap when her picture from London, wearing a bikini no less, goes viral in Lucknow and raises hue and cry. Everyone turns their backs on her except Sikander, who, despite being brought up in a closed environment, reveals himself to be no less progressive than someone like Meet. But what good is choosing if one doesn’t want to choose?

Single Salma holds this question close, and through the proximity lends a rare clarity to the female protagonist. Even then, the more gratifying bit about the film is its cognisance of being a story about women, even when centring on a woman. There are slight, continuous departures, all of which add to a sweeping subversion. Take, for instance, how Salma’s male colleagues are shown gossiping in the office, and it is her female boss (a wonderful Navni Parihar) who calls them out. Later in London, we see her having fun without it being portrayed as a radical difference from who she is as a person. It is also the men who come across as more small-minded in a new country, freely peddling prejudice till called out. It is not a competition as such, but these nuances speak volumes about the vantage point both genders inhabit: the world is more open to those viewing from below.

The performances are uniformly effective. Away from the Luv Ranjan brand of aggressive filmmaking, Singh comes through as surprisingly gentle. With a dodgy British accent, Meet is not the most likeable character, yet the actor offsets potential annoyance with restraint. Qureshi, on the other hand, finally gets a role deserving of her merit. The actor is persuasive as Salma, and even when going through familiar beats of angst and sorrow, she lends her distinct attributes to the role. It is Talpade, however, who leads the pack. There is, famously, hardly a bad Shreyas Talpade performance (looking away from Emergency here), but there is something to be said about the inventiveness he brings to most portrayals without falling back on gimmicks. Sikander is a thoroughly written, almost loserly character who is hopelessly in love and, despite being too glad to be chosen by Salma, also sidesteps questioning about her choice. Like other men. Talpade is greatly effective and walks away with all the laughs. In many ways, Single Salma is also his film.

Here are some Shreyas Talpade movies that should be next on your watchlist. Watch them on OTTplay Premium.

The narrative doubles down on this. For an outing about a woman, it is bookended by Sikander. He narrates Salma’s story, and his voiceover fills in the gaps — this works as part of the structure and design. But mostly, it distils the intent of Single Salma and demonstrates the film’s central messaging: when a woman does what she wants, everyone benefits from it. Even the men.

Single Salma Is A Surprisingly Effective Film That Finds Charm In Familiarity

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