Yudhra

Yudhra (2024) : Movie Review -

Ravi Yudyawar's action drama Yudhra has proved again that not every action film with gore violence be "Animal" or "Kill." The action and violence aren't the only two materials that complete the film, but there are some things called the director's vision, passionate performances, and honest storytelling that fulfill the film's potential to prosper. Yudhra fails on every single front there. Siddhant Chaturvedi and Malavika Mohanan's action thriller turns out to be headless trash that you can hardly afford to watch.

Yudhra Rathore (Siddhant Chaturvedi) struggles with anger issues that have everything to do with his genetic trauma after his father and mother's accidental deaths. From childhood, he can't control his anger, and even his foster father can do nothing to stop him. Yudhra and his childhood friend, Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan), fall in love, but then Yudhra loses his temper yet again and is sent to prison. There, he learns the truth about his father's death and embarks on a mission to find the killer to seek revenge as well as help the nation's security. Will he be able to complete the mission?

The screenplay of Yudhra drags every 15 minutes because it hasn't got anything to hold the viewers. Every 15 minutes you have a useless scene that damages the tempo built by the previous 15 minutes, and then the same story repeats in the next interval. The first half goes into the introduction of messy characters that fail to make a connection with the audiences. Be it Yudhra, Nikhat, Firoz, or Shafiq, you don't feel attached to any of them, and they just keep wandering on the screen to grab your attention-all for zero results. The romance between Yudhra and Nikhat is terribly presented and is strictly for roadside romeos, but sadly it is portrayed by educated students belonging to medical and army streams. Wow, such stupidity! Unlike Kill, where the simplicity of the character drags you into the narrative even if it's set in a single place, Yudhra is far more diverse but extremely disturbing with the locations and characterizations.

Siddhant Chaturvedi grabbed everyone's attention with Gully Boy, and he was indeed very good there. But what's he doing after that? Or rather, how can you go so wrong after that? Bunty Aur Babli 2, Phone Bhoot, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, and now Yudhra, what's this? Bro, this is not what I want from you. Be more sensible with the choices because we have seen your potential in Gully Boy. Malavika Mohanan looks hot, and that seems to be the only compliment from my side, because acting and all, sorry, wrong number! Raghav Juyal fails to create the Kill magic here and how! Raj Arjun plays a deadly villain, Ram Kapoor is dated but decent, Gajraj Rao was okayish, and Shilpa Shukla is wasted.

On the technical front, Yudhra has a decent sound design and background score. The music is unnoticeable, the cinematography isn't good, and the editing is poor. 142 minutes for the story, which doesn't even deserve 42 minutes of your time, seriously? Either we need better stories or we need better editors who know how to engage audiences for two hours. Shridhar Raghavan has written average stories like "War" (2019) and "Pathaan" (2023) in recent times, which were uplifted by huge scale and the director's vision of larger-than-life cinema, but Yudhrat lacks that. Ravi Udyawar is not Siddharth Anand, nor does the film have any big superstars to survive. Ravi's outdated vision hampers Yudhra more than anything, and the production value also looks compromised. As a whole, it's a big mess, but more than that, it's close to a headache point. Please stay safe at home.

RATING - 3/10*