Yudhra review – When action speaks louder than words

The greatest action films are built on a balance of solid emotions and stellar action sequences. The most mind-blowing action scene will impress the audience only when the emotions behind it are real and raw. Director Ravi Udyawar’s latest action offering – Yudhra, featuring Siddhant Chaturvedi in the titular role, has big ideas and the action sequences are stunning to say the least. But the core emotions of this story about an orphaned, off-kilter man don’t always make sense.

Parinda, Ghayal and the more recent Animal, all featured key characters who were off-kilter, but their quirk was well-defined and justified. The same can’t be said for Siddhant Chaturvedi’s Yudhra. The boy can’t keep his anger in check because he is an orphan. But then he’s got a foster father Karthick (Gajraj Rao) who is perhaps the most doting and patient father that ever was. But Yudhra’s rebellious nature and his inability to reciprocate to his father’s concerns makes little sense. The hero seems to be a rebel without a cause. The other father figure in Yudhra’s life, Rehman (Ram Kapoor) provides context for Yudhra’s predicament and his wayward anger issues, a little later in the film, but that’s news to Yudhra, too. So it doesn’t really come together why his character is unhinged all the time. There is another explanation at the start of the film, one that establishes a fact that Yudhra was born after his mother died in a car crash so the situation would probably impact his brain. But Yudhra is not a challenged human, he’s simply got seething anger issues, ones that surface only when an action sequence is in the offing. Seems like the protagonist’s key condition is more of a screenwriting device than an actual, believable situation.

Moving to the story, it deals with a young man named Yudhra (Siddhant) who is a bit of a troublemaker. His father was a decorated policeman by the name of Girish Dixit (Saurabh Gokhale), who was killed in the same car accident that claimed the life of Yudhra’s mother. Orphaned, Yudhra is adopted by Girish’s colleague Karthick. Their other cop friend Rehman (Ram Kapoor) and his daughter Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan) make up for Yudhra’s friends-and-family. Problem is, Yudhra can’t stay calm in any situation and he always lands himself in trouble. One thing leads to another and Yudhra finds himself in prison, where he gets acquainted with a handler of dreaded drug lord Firoze (Raj Arjun). When Yudhra is let out of prison, he makes a beeline for Firoze and his son Shafiq (Raghav Juyal). That sets in motion the entire premise of the film wherein Yudhra must fight off his own demons to bring the bad guys to justice.

Yudhra is a bit of a difficult character to summarise. He’s a charming army cadet, in the vein of Tom Cruise from Top Gun, but then he’s also prone to aggressive outbursts like Vikram from Anniyan. Yudhra also loves to race his bike on the streets of Mumbai ala John Abraham from Dhoom. He’s a crazy, violent inmate in prison like Shah Rukh Khan from Don 2. But when he’s infiltrating the gangs of Firoze and bumping off the gangster’s foes he’s as slick and stylish as James Bond. There are many shades of grey to Yudhra, perhaps a little too many.

But there’s no monotony to the action sequences of director Ravi Udyawar’s film. The action is plentiful and every single second is stylish, intense and very slick. A showreel of just Yudhra’s action sequences will fit into any modern Tom Cruise or Henry Cavill film with consummate ease. If you’re an action junkie, Yudhra’s action will leave you high and excited for sure. But the stakes in those action sequences are almost incomprehensible. The only time the action grips with drama is when Malavika Mohanan gets involved along with Raghav Juyal and then later on with Shilpa Shukla (playing a fiesty female cop).

Not just the action, the technical aspects of Yudhra, including the background music, foley sounds, cinematography and CGI are all top-rate. To employ an old cliche, this film’s style overshadows its substance like Goliath does to David. The mixed metaphor just sums up the vibe of Yudhra, perfectly.

Siddhant Chaturvedi’s performance is one solid reason to watch Yudhra in theatres. The actor has thrust his soul into a performance that is all heart. Ditto for Ram Kapoor, Malavika Mohanan and Raj Arjun who are all in top form. Raghav Juyal is the find of 2024, with his performance in Yudhra proving why his performances in Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah, were no shots in the dark. This young actor is a certified breath of fresh air.

Ravi Udyawar’s last offering was Mom, featuring Sridevi in a visceral film that could knockout even the hardest film buffs. Pity, that his long-awaited return to directorial duties isn’t as consistent as his debut from 2017. It has all the style and the pizzazz, but it just falters with its all-too-convenient writing and humdrum editing.