'Yudhra': The saviour of this Siddhant Chaturvedi potboiler is the action as the film is far from perfect

The first few reels of Yudhra are reminiscent of Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, so the complaint people on social media have about today’s films not being nostalgic enough goes away immediately. It shows us a precocious and hot tempered anonymous child shooing away a bunch of kids who are scaring a lizard. He quickly establishes himself as a gentle soul before he attacks the little creature himself. The scene is purely for effect to show how unhinged and unpredictable he is, and has terrible anger issues. Alas, there’s no Sunny aka Arun aka Akshay Kumar in his life to assuage his jitteriness.

Yudhra has style and silliness packaged into one screenplay that cruises along without pausing for breath or blink. The pace at times is so hurried that we forget to connect the dots precisely, and it also exposes the flaws in the narrative. Siddhant Chaturvedi’s character has been promoted as the new age Angry Young Man, a tagline made iconic by Amitabh Bachchan and writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. But where Bachchan’s Vijay was a victim of the circumstances around him, Yudhra’s angst is more internal, inherent, and inherited. We are told he’s just like his father, but we never see that side of him. The character is bumped off too early to be able to strike a connect.

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Even when they reek of farce, the saviours of this potboiler are the action sequences. Of course, the shooters are unable to target who they should be, even when they easily eliminate everyone else in sight. Also, it was good to see Ram Kapoor after long. He plays a police officer but his salt and pepper hairstyle and those designer jackets suggest he could be an Uber cool drug lord, but that role is reserved for Raj Arjun, and his son Raghav Juyal (who offers a deliciously hammy and effeminate turn and unapologetically flaunts some gaudy outfits).

Yudhra is far from perfect but here are some Hindi films I was reminded of while watching this actioner. When Yudhra and an old man are together in jail, I was reminded of Gupt, when Yudhra is taken of an ocean and his comatose body is lying on the boat surrounded by dead fishes, I immediately recalled Chup Chup Ke. When people start getting desperate for a certain password, Ajnabee and 16 December’s Everything Is Planned and Dulhan Ki Bidaai Ka Waqt Badalna Hai began playing in my head. The only twist I possibly wished for was Malavika Mohanan turning evil and shocking the hell out of my brains. Poor Khakee and Akshay Kumar are crying in one corner.