 "Yodha movie review: Sidharth Malhotra emerges as the new stylish action hero in a fast paced entertainer")
Star cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Raashii Khanna, Disha Patani, Tanuj Virwani, Sunny Hinduja and Ronit Roy
Director: Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha
Tumhein Na Kashmir Milegi Na Uski Tasveer! Your inner patriotism roars after this dialgue in Yodha. The story of the film starts with the government starting a special task force named Yodha with Major Surender Kateyal (Ronit Roy) for handling and tackling and national international threats to the country.
In one of the operations, Surender gets martryed and Arun (Sidharth Malhotra) his son, who is close to his father and always consider him as his hero and idol, becomes one of the recruits of Yodha Task Force.
However, Arun has quite a different style of working as he doesn’t negotiate with the opposition as he always (Yodha ka style kabhi negotiation ka tha he nahi) and even sometime break the law or chain control. But, he makes sure that every operation is successful with no threats alive.
In one of the operations (around 2001), a plane is hijacked by terrorists at the Amritsar airport, who ask for Rs 50 lakhs along with their members, who are in jail, in exchange for the passengers. But little did they know, that in the plane there is a VIP called Anuj Nair, who is the most efficient and popular nuclear scientist in the country and responsibility for his security is of Arun, who is with him. Priyamvada played by Raashii Khanna, who also holds a high position in the government (also Arun’s wife) engages in a negotiation with terrorists. While talking on a call, Arun tries to give Priya an emergency message but when she and the government fail to give a quick response, he fights with the terrorists for the safety of the nuclear scientist but unfortunately, he gets kicked out of the plane and it flies with the scientist and other passengers.
After the conditions of terrorists get accepted, they send back the plane but not without assassinating the nuclear scientist. This turns out to be a major embarrassment for the government and they decide to shut down the Yodha Task Force. However, Arun fights with the system and says that he did his best but the government couldn’t respond to its emergency message quickly, which resulted in an unfortunate incident.
He continues his battle with the government but slowly his colleagues leave him as they apologize to the system and take transfers for their new jobs. This whole scenario also affects the married life of Arun and Priyamvada.
A few years, later Arun as an Air Commando boards a flight from Delhi to London. And he realizes there is something, weird, unusual and wrong in the plane. While he assumes that the flight has been hijacked, it is much bigger than that, which involves two neighbouring countries and their relationship. To know that critical situation and its outcome, you have to watch Yodha on the big screen.
First and foremost, kudos to first-time directors Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha for their gripping narrative with the addition of solid twists and turns that’ll not only surprise you but also cheer and make you whistle. They handle the storytelling brilliantly and make sure to keep it watertight for two hours and 13 minutes.
Special brownie points to the renowned South African action choreographer Craig Macrae for designing some great high-octane stunts and hand-to-hand combat and knife techniques.
Star Performances
Sidharth Malhotra unleashes his inner action hero and delivers a bravura performance. Apart from action sequences, his act in the emotional scenes is superb. Raashii Khanna also shines as Priyamvada and makes her mark with her subtle act. Disha Patani is in fine form and transformation from a simple girl to a terrorist is amazing. Her fight sequence with Sidharth Malhotra is one of the major highlights. Sunny Hinduja is superb in his negative shade. Special mention for Ronit Roy, who has the power to make his presence memorable despite being a cameo.
On the whole, _Yodha_ is a commercial entertainer filled with action-packed sequences and superb star performances.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)
Yodha is playing in cineamas near you
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