Yodha Movie Review: Sidharth Malhotra Flexes His Muscles in This Campy Thriller With Overdose of Nationalism (LatestLY Exclusive)

Yodha Movie Review: Sidharth Malhotra is trying to carve a niche for himself these days, picking up movies where he looks good in uniform and also getting plenty of scenes where he can take off his sunglasses in style. Just recently, he donned the khaki to play the cop in Rohit Shetty's Indian Police Force, and after Shershaah, the dude is back to being in the army in Yodha. But he is no ordinary army man here - he is Yodha, an elite trooper who engages in hostage situations. Yodha Screening: Sidharth Malhotra Happily Poses With Wife Kiara Advani and Family for Paps (Watch Video).

Malhotra plays Arun Katyal, whose dead father had started this elite squad of Yodhas, and years later, Arun also joins the same group. Like most protagonists in army-based movies, Arun has an allergy of following commands but still saves the day in the end. However, his luck runs out when a plane gets hijacked by terrorists, and the scientist he was supposed to protect on the flight gets killed after Arun falls off the plane. His unit is shamed and disbanded, Arun gets depressed, thereby straining and ultimately breaking up his marriage with Priyamvada (Raashii Khanna), who works in the Ministry and acts as a negotiation expert.

Watch the Trailer of Yodha:

Years later, Arun is now working as an air marshall; he once again lands on a flight that is about to be hijacked right when India and Pakistan's Prime Ministers are having peace talks in Islamabad. The thing is, all the fingers are now pointing at him as the hijacker. The rest of the film is about how that happened and whether Arun manages to save the day for his passengers with the help of the air hostess, Laila (Disha Patani), and a couple of other passengers.

The Inspirations...

Yodha, directed by Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha, is a campy hijack film Hollywood used to love making in the '90s - see Air Force One, Con Air, Executive Decision, Passenger 57 etc. It is also slightly inspired by Liam Neeson's Non-Stop, where the protagonist is an air marshall and becomes the initial suspect in hijacking his own plane.

However, the campiness of the film is also infused with the flavour of the decade - chest-thumping nationalism - in case the tense situation in which the hero finds himself isn't enough to catch your attention (if that doesn't work for you, the consistent thumping background score might do the trick). I wonder how Neerja, a far superior film in terms of execution and writing, managed to do so without the need for patriotic fervour.

...Mixed With Nationalism

For a change, even though the film deals with Islamic terrorists and the main antagonist turns out to be a Pakistani diplomat, Yodha avoids showing the entire Pakistan to be bad (never mind, the final scene involves their Parliament being bombed). That said, like some of our recent 'patriotic' films - see Fighter - Kashmir becomes the bargaining chip here, with everyone wanting to have a piece of the land while the hero gets to make some mouthy punchlines about who owns the place.

Sample this: after killing a surprise terrorist, he says, 'ab tumhe Kashmir kya, tasveer bhi nahi milega'. If someone claps at this in your theatre, the movie has found its target audience.

A Campy Thriller That Takes Time to Get Going

Keeping away the nationalistic bits aside, let's look at Yodha purely as an action-packed hijack thriller. For one, we need to sit through a lengthy prologue to get to the film's main plotline and there was plenty to trim here. Once Yodha gets to the main events, admittedly, the pacing gets better, and things also get a bit interesting here. When Arun finds his involvement on the plane a perplexing puzzle, it is hard not to feel invested in discovering what's happening. But then the film drops one crazy twist after another, almost becoming an Abbas Mustan thriller, and that's the cue for us to throw our thinking caps away.

The Talkative Villains and Contrived Plot

There are a handful of villains here who don't know when to keep their mouths shut, jabbering beyond the point of annoyance, which I can also say for a couple of the supporting characters who end up helping the protagonist. I might be getting into SPOILER territory here, but dear movie, if you cast 'Sandeep Bhaiyya' in the film and keep him hovering in the background, you are bound to raise our suspicions. It would be an awful waste of an actor like Sunny Hinduja unless there is ahem... something fishy you are going to make him do.

For a hijack thriller, Yodha employs considerable convenience in its use of characters and action. Throughout most of the film, I couldn't even recall if there were any other air hostesses on that flight besides Laila. They seemed almost non-existent, appearing only briefly at the beginning and towards the end. Despite the technical jargon the filmmakers drop to enhance the film's intellectuality, much of the setup feels contrived and convoluted. This includes involving Arun in the hijack drama – why would the terrorists target one commando they had previously defeated for personal agenda? Yodha Song 'Tere Sang Ishq Hua': Sidharth Malhotra and Raashii Khanna's Love Ballad Sung By Arijit Singh and Neeti Mohan Will Soothe Your Soul.

Please Drop Shaky Cam!

I would have been kinder to Yodha, if at least the action was decent enough. There are some good ideas here. There is a sequence where Arun and a hijacker fight with each other while tumbling inside the packed cabin when the flight keeps spinning out of control. Another scene involves Arun and a hijacker fighting inside a cockpit while trying to take control of the plane. Yet, despite the tantalising possibilities, the impact goes missing thanks to its jerky editing and shaky camerawork. It is high time Bollywood retired shaky cam - what's the point of having action scenes when you cannot figure out the head or tail of it? Unless that is the point...

By the time the action shifts from onboard the flight to Jinnah Hall—where, once again, the villain shoots more from the mouth instead from the gun—you know this is a film you don't need to take too seriously. Unfortunately for Yodha, it is the movie that takes itself too seriously.

Coming to the performances, Sidharth Malhotra makes the camera ensure that he gets all his good sides captured well, even if the scene involves him getting beaten up. The actor may not show much improvement in terms of performance, but he looks dashing enough to fit into the mould of the film's genre. Just don't ask him to show too much anger on his face.

Raashi Khanna is quite good within the limited scope of her character; at least her eyes are expressive enough to show 'what the hell is going on here?' Disha Patani is the surprise package of the film... I will leave it at that.

Final Thoughts on Yodha

Yodha is high on campiness and low-brow action but frequently crashes and burns under the weight of its lacklustre filmmaking and melodramatic nationalism. Sidharth Malhotra does get to flex his action-hero muscles amidst a flurry of punches and patriotism; however, not enough flexing can stop Yodha from skidding off the runway.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2024 11:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).