‘Yudhra’ movie review: Siddhant Chaturvedi struggles to rev up a ragged actioner

Bollywood has tasted blood again. After the revolting Animal and the arresting Kill, this week we have a crossbreed that pretends to be a beast but lacks the hunger and the bite. Like a one-trick pony, it thinks action has only one meaning. As the title suggests, the protagonist is born to be a warrior. Surviving violence in the womb, Yudhra (Siddhant Chaturvedi) grows up without parents fighting anger issues and forging bonds with reptiles. It promises an appointment with an unhinged creature, but we soon realise that it is our same old hero meant to keep the galleries agape with a new set of stunts.

His father’s colleagues Kartik (Gajraj Rao) and Rahman (Ram Kapoor) try to channelise Yudhra’s anger in the right direction by turning him into a soldier to finish the mission that his father started. Meanwhile, Rahman’s daughter Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan) keeps Yudhra jiving on the dance floor. As Yudhra infiltrates the den of the drug cartel led by a pragmatic butcher Firoz (Raj Arjun) and his coke-head son (Raghav Juyal), blood starts dripping and masks start to come off.

Siddhant shows the nerve to carry a heavy-footed narrative on his chiseled shoulders and a non-nonsense look that gives way to a wicked smile on demand. Malavika provides him charming company with those expressive eyes but the two have been saddled with some mediocre songs that fail to generate the required magic. The psychological upheaval gets cosmetic and the romance feels plastic as the actioner generates only a little more emotional connection than a video game does. The action set-pieces are performed with conviction but their setting is too predictable to invite awe.

Raghav brings his training in dance to his villainy, making him a reptilian figure. However, the actor needs to work on his delivery otherwise he is going to sound repetitive very soon. Rao, Raj, and Kapoor lend gravitas to the proceedings but the effort gets paled in the anaemic storytelling. It is an old, at times ragged, engine that powers this shiny vehicle. It does rev up a lot but seldom startles you with its ambition or suspense.

Those who frequently drive on the Bollywood lanes would respond to its rhyme and rhythm from a distance. It behaves like a Mahesh Bhatt flick of the 1990s that copied the style of B-grade Hollywood actioners sans a genuine lilt to back the bouts of testosterone.

Director Ravi Udyawar who delivered the emotionally charged Mom (2017)  knows more than a thing or two about mounting tales of revenge on the big screen and writer Sridhar Raghavan is expected to enrich action with context and subtext. But here they deliver a deep cut in their otherwise rich repertoire. Even Farhan Akhtar’s dialogues sound dated as Yudhra repeats the same old tale of Abhimanyu and talk of light after a dark night.

Take this ride only if someone else is paying for it.

Yudhra is currently running in theatres

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