Yudhra is jaded but for magnificent cinematography

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Oh! If this one even had an ounce of freshness…!

But it doesn’t. It mixes everything from Zanjeer (parents’ murder and the hyper-angry hero) to the Hindi film drugs formula to a hamming villain in Firoz—Raj Arjun shocks in a performance that is more of stylized caricaturing than the kind of deadly villainy he can so easily do.

What’s more, the scripting is an even bigger shocker from writer Shridhar Raghavan (who once wrote great stuff like the TV epic CID, Khakee and Bluffmaster! and wrote the illogical YRF extravaganzas War, Pathaan and Tiger 3 that did good business). The dialogues are oh-so-banal in their intended effect (intended, please note, like the gem, “Main Abhimanyu ka baap hoon, Arjun!”). Yup.

What’s more, these seasoned writers (Farhan Akhtar and Akshat Badhaai Ho Ghildial) seem to lack even basic knowledge: the hero mocks his girl for being in a medical college where they cut up frogs et al! Now, where did this gem of mammoth ignorance come from?

The script relies more (a current trend that makes our logic-less movies seem like classics in comparison!) on twists and more twists and fast-paced action and style rather than sense or substance. The hero, Yudhra (wonder who named him that name that means war!) has been adopted by Kartik (Gajraj Rao), the grieving colleague of a cop who is killed along with his pregnant wife in an accident. The child is saved, but for five minutes, we are told, his body has not received any oxygen because his mother was dead. That could give him a kink in his brain, says the obstetrician.

Still, Kartik brings him up as his own son, and a close family friend and colleague is Rahman (Ram Kapoor), whose daughter, Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan) is Yudhra’s childhood friend. Rahman, also a cop, becomes a kind of mentor to Yudhra later.

Yudhra’s only ‘abnormality’ turns out to be his anger issue that overflows at any sub-normal condition. While he affectionately saves a lizard that has been treated brutally by his classmates, he is rusticated from school for beating those students up, and he is then sent to a military school. Here again, he gets involved in a fracas and is court-martialed.

Now comes the really absurd part: he is dispatched to the “worst jail in the country” (is that where court-martialed soldoers are sent???!!!) wherein the inmates are ruled by two ruffians, because one of them, Naidu (unknown actor) is close to Firoz who can lead him to Sikandar, a don now based in Portugal. Rahman informs him that Sikandar is actually behind his parents’ murder, though they could never prove it. Yudhra goes there and kills Sikandar very easily but the real deal is somewhere else. And then we have to wait for 2.21 hours to understand who the real villain is.

And we also must suffer some hyperkinetic action, brutal violence, absurdities galore (like a music store in Portugal being wrecked and people galore murdered and we do not even see a passerby outside the shop, forget cops!!) and lack-of-chemistry romance. We finally get to see the extermination of all villains, and of Yudhra feeling that he should finally calm down.

By that time, regrettably, the viewer is far from calm.

A relentless orgasm of violence like this, I must logically conclude, is more in the terrain of either our superstars or the South folks. This time, the only redeeming feature is Jay Pinak Oza’s splendiferous cinematography, as the film has been shot almost around the globe, and the blue-based frames especially are delicious. The less said about the songs and background score the better, and for me, Ravi Udyawar has helmed his second disappointment after Mom, which was Sridevi’s swan song.

To go on, Siddhant Chaturvedi is great in action, but cannot muster the mobility of face so necessary to convey deep or even myriad emotions. Neither does he possess the X-factor that makes us relate to his character, which is also uni-dimensional. Malavika Mohanan is his partner-in-crime here, so to speak, as all she does seems to be a replay of a fatigued Sushmita Sen-meets-Deepika Padukone. Ram Kapoor is sincere but stereotyped, and so is Gajraj Rao. Raghav Juyal scores better at dance (which he is known for) than at villainy.

To sum up, Yudhra can be safely given a miss, unless you are a fan of unlimited violent action—or of magnificent camerawork! Seriously speaking, Jay Pinak Oza is the true hero of the film. He is the true yudhra who has fought mediocre filmmaking to ‘Excel” (the banner’s name!) in his work.

Rating: **

Excel Entertainment’s Yudhra  Produced by: Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar Directed by: Ravi Udyawar  Written by: Shridhar Raghavan, Akshat Ghildial & Farhan Akhtar  Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy & Prem-Hardeep  Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Malavika Mohanan, Ram Kapoor, Raj Arjun, Gajraj Rao, Raghav Juyal, Shilpa Shukla, Saurabh Gokhale, Sharvari Deshpande & others