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Is it normal to keep a house lizard as a pet? Unless you live like Bobby Deol in Bichhoo, the reptile would never agree to such an arrangement. Guess what? Ravi Udyawar’s protagonist in Yudhra tames one and takes it to school in a tiffin box. Following a pointless fight with his classmates, the lizard dies a miserable death, and the boy gets rusticated.
Going by his hobbies and a tendency to rebel without a cause, we do not doubt the teachers once when they refer Yudhra to a special school. The adult Yudhra (Siddhant Chaturvedi) is at loggerheads with his foster dad Karthik (Gajraj Rao gets a token character). It is a gender reversal of what the filmmaker pulled between Sajal Ali and Sridevi in Mom. The unemployed Yudhra refuses to interact with Karthik but rides super-bikes. Did his adoptive mother (whom we never see) pull some strings for the funds?
Yudhra has anger issues. He thrashes anyone without a reason and often gets chair-tied by the villains. The pedestrian writing (Sridhar Raghavan) forces Chaturvedi to jump all over the material to breathe some life into his part. Result? He becomes a maha-dumb guy with no career, skills, or purpose, but has privilege.
As Rahman, Ram Kapoor repeats his Udaan act as Karthik’s colleague and an officer at the Narcotics division. Udyawar’s cops are either white as milk or dark as charcoal – nothing in between. The wayward Yudhra gets way weirder and lands up in prison. If the influential foster dad (Rao) does not seem to bother, Rahman instantly enrolls Yudhra into something so covert that we wonder if the likes of RAW are hiring these days via LinkedIn.
There’s also a love story with Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan, a good actor) which feels near-incestuous given their bro-sis-like vibe in the childhood flashback. Thanks to the adult actors, it gets better but the film is obsessed with its leading man. Exit Nikhat, and enter the villains. One of them is Shafiq (Raghav Juyal raids Orry’s wardrobe) whose insanely ripped torso screams for some carbs. The fire-and-ice chemistry between Shafiq and Yudhra creates a sexual tension that works better than the forced childhood sweetheart thingy the latter has with Nikhat.
The villains are routine – mostly Muslim, foul-mouthed, and flamboyant. The fight sequences have déjà vu written all over them. If one is a visual lift from a popular fight in Animal, there’s another one across the streets of Portugal with Yudhra in a bathrobe. For the umpteenth time in the film, it felt like the dude enjoyed the fights only as a form of workout (parkour, cycling, boxing, etc). Also, how do these men with criminal records procure visas to travel the globe where they move around with guns in public transport? There’s a silly password-guessing exercise that would catapult Abbas-Mustan into the league of Stanley Kubrick for their ‘everything is planned’ strike in Ajnabee.
Yudhra feels like a holiday package that takes you to a handful of countries but to the most un-touristy places. Raghavan’s writing feels as if he handed the duties to the first available intern to go on the same vacation Yudhra and Nikhat take. It is a physically and emotionally harrowing time for both and there you spot them singing on sparkling shores in the sexiest of beachwear. I don’t say this often (even casually) but Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy must consider retirement so I will fondly remember them as the ones who composed ‘Tumhi Dekho Naa’. Yudhra’s songs sound like they were composed for free and I waited for them to end (others left the hall to visit the loo). Among its rare merits, DOP Jay Pinak Oza seems to have had great fun with action scenes and the underwater shots. Sanchit and Ankit Balhara’s original score tries to spice up things but in vain.
The prime disconnect happens because Yudhra’s anger comes without a point or purpose. There’s a revenge angle that fails to register. Whether it’s an editing mishap or not, nobody knows. Plus, Chaturvedi – who is overall impressive – uses his acting school stock expressions in dramatic scenes. Then there’s Shilpa Shukla as a cop whose gaudy red lipstick and thick foundation might land her makeup person a wedding gig or two. Shukla’s pre-climactic duel with Mohanan took me back to the ’90s thriller Gupt.
On this date, I fail to understand why Ravi Udyawar would invest their time in a screenplay as ludicrous as Yudhra‘s. It lacks the coolness of the ‘70s actioners and Chaturvedi is no badass like Shah Rukh Khan or Saif Ali Khan to convince us of mega absurdities. Even commercially, there is not a single dialogue worth remembering. Their substandard execution aside, the songs and the fights pop without a reason.
As for the genre, a brand new die is cast, and the benchmark has been raised with films like Kill. No discerning viewer has the patience to sit through awfully dated plots with Jupiter-sized loopholes anymore. In various ways, Yudhra reminded me of the director’s first outing (Mom) – a poor film in every respect. If only they were to name it ‘Dad’ to complete the family of mediocrity.
Rating: ★★
