Yudh Week 3: Lesbian frisson, flirtatious Maoists, bomb blasts and more

There are definite signs of improvement in Yudh, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There could be a relapse soon. It’s Week 3 of Yudh and it feels like watching over a patient and monitoring signs of improvement. This week is way better than the last two have been, unfortunately that’s not really saying much. Unfazed by his previous experiences with Naxals, Yudh and his daughter Taruni go back to the mining region for a Posco-meets-Jindal Steel situation. Their mediator turns out to be a turncoat. He is now leading the Naxal uprising against Yudh and his company. Someone detonates dynamite in Yudh’s mine, which leads to a terrible explosion in which workers are injured. There’s another blast in the village near the mine, and here a child is injured. It’s all part of a Naxal plot to make it look like Yudh’s people are going around blowing up the village. Yudh is an honest and earnest man and he needs to improve his PR in this area, so he promises to compensate each injured person with a couple of lakhs of rupees. The Naxals (who appear to be plucked out of Gangs Of Wasseypur) have no integrity or idealism. They’re mighty pleased with the money that’s being thrown at them. The child who was injured by the blast in the village is taken to the hospital, but her parents take her home because they prefer treatment by a witch doctor. So Taruni decides to go and convince these people to hand over their daughter to her, so she can treat the child in hospital. She is, but of course, successful. Once realisation dawns on them, they hand the girl over. Taruni gets her treated and saves the day. [caption id=“attachment_1645279” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Amitabh Bachchan in Yudh. Screengrab from YouTube video.[/caption] In case you were wondering why we’re seeing so much of Taruni, all this is supposed to convince us that Taruni would be a great CEO. She can enter a Maoist-ridden area with no protection, talk tough, sleep in a jeep outside the village, shout at doctors, shout at the police, look serious, look happy, suffer a false arrest – what more do you need to run a business empire? Yudh’s son on the other hand, after escaping from the Naxals and recovering in Delhi, promptly gets on a flight and goes back to the same village because this is his way of showing employees he’s not scared. Next thing you know, he’s woken up in the morning, in a totally unguarded house, by the perfectly-groomed sole Maoist woman in the enemy camp. She simply wants to chat with him and have a cup of tea, thank him for saving her life and flirt a little bit. You know, as you do when you’re a Maoist. I don’t know which Naxal soldiers Anurag Kashyap has been hanging out with, but they obviously aren’t the ones we are used to hearing about in the news. This bunch is rather friendly. Back in Delhi, Mona – the PR person for Yudh’s company – got slapped by her sister for ratting out her brother-in-law to the police (he kidnapped a girl). Through it all, Mona wears the strange business suits which you see the anchors of Zee News wearing. After this encounter with her sister, Mona promptly makes her way to the house of her “friend” – the woman who works in a news channel. There’s a light lesbian frisson here, but it’s never fully revealed or explored. Sure this is late-night entertainment but Indian television has its boundaries. The ostensible reason for Mona shimmying her way to the other woman’s house is that Mona wants to stand up for what is right and needs a place to stay. Here’s where Yudh falters in making its mark as a realistic serial. The good people are too good. There is not an evil bone in their body. The baddies are too bad. They have no redeeming features. Whether it’s the corrupt politician, Mona’s sexually deviant criminal brother-in-law, Yudh’s competitor, or Yudh himself, everyone is either black or white. Also if you’re bad, you have to look the part. If a line-up of the cast is done, while they’re in costume, you can pick out the villains from the heroes at a glance. For instance, Tigmanshu Dhulia as the corrupt politician wears pitch-black opaque dark glasses indoors. Why? Is he suffering from conjunctivitis or recovering from an eye operation? It’s all very juvenile along with being tedious and vanilla. It’s high time Nawazuddin Siddique made an appearance and saved the day.