Movie Review: YODHA is not the usual hijack film and is laced with a fine performance.

Star Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Raashii Khanna, Disha Patani

Director: Sagar Ambre, Pushkar Ojha

Yodha Movie Synopsis: YODHA is the story of a brave officer. The year is 2001. Arun Katyal (Sidharth Malhotra) is a part of the Yodha task force. He resides in Delhi with his wife Priyamvada (Raashii Khanna), secretary in the Ministry of Defence, and his ailing mother (Farida Patel). Arun's father Surender Katyal (Ronit Roy) is no more. He died while fighting on the field. He started the Yodha task force and Arun wants to follow in his father's footsteps. However, he is infamous for not following orders. He never got into trouble, as all his operations have been successful. One day, he is on a flight while providing security to a nuclear scientist, Anuj Nair (S M Zaheer). The flight gets hijacked and is forcefully landed at Amritsar airport. The Yodha fighters reach the airport and give a smoke signal to Arun, indicating that he can try his luck and defeat the hijackers. He goes for it, hoping that the Yodha team will soon reach the aeroplane and seize the perpetrators. Due to bureaucratic hurdles, that never happens. Arun gets thrown out of the plane while fighting the hijackers. Anuj Nair is killed. An enquiry commission finds Arun guilty and it also recommends that the Yodha task force should be disbanded. This also results in a fight between Arun and Priyamvada as the latter's testimony goes against the former. Both decide to separate. Arun is devastated. Five years later, Arun gets an opportunity to redeem himself. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Yodha Movie Story Review: Sagar Ambre's story has all the elements of a mass entertainer. Sagar Ambre's screenplay is novel, as it does not follow the template of the conventional hijack films. However, the writing at times gets confusing. Sagar Ambre's dialogues are realistic and some of them are heroic.

Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha's direction is quite nice, also considering that it is their debut directorial venture. The director duo knows the grammar of mainstream action films and uses it effectively. They also try their best to keep the focus more on action and on the in-flight happenings to give the audience their money's worth. A few scenes that stand out are Arun's entry, Arun trying to protect the scientist and the madness that ensues in the Air Bharat flight while trying to ascertain who the hijacker is. The climax fight is engaging.

On the flipside, the film suffers, as it is too technical. A large section of the moviegoers will get confused in understanding the challenges faced by Arun and the pilot in landing the flight. Also, the intermission point will leave viewers scratching their heads, wondering what exactly is happening. Thankfully, the narrative gets clearer in the second half but still, a few aspects will go over the heads of the viewers.

Yodha – Official Trailer | Sidharth Malhotra | Raashii Khanna | Disha Patani

Yodha Movie Performances: Sidharth Malhotra puts up a great act and has been aptly cast. He looks cool while doing action and in the climax, he will be greeted with whistles and claps. Raashii Khanna is superb and just right for such a strong character. Disha Patani (Laila) does not have much to do initially but she shines in the second half. Kritika Bharadwaj (Tanya Sharma) is the surprise of the film; she does very well. Sunny Hinduja (Rafiq) gets prominence much later in the film. Nevertheless, he leaves a mark. Tanuj Virwani (Sameer Khan) lends able support. Chittranjan Tripathy (S N Dhingra) is decent. Farida Patel does not have a single dialogue and gets a raw deal. Ronit Roy is great, as always, in a small role. S M Zaheer, Mikhail Yawalkar (Ahmed Khalid) and Sanjay Gurbaxani (Indian Head of State) are fair.

Yodha Movie music and other technical aspects: The music is average. 'Zindagi Tere Naam Ki', 'Tere Sang Ishq Hua' and 'Qismat' are soulful but are not of chartbuster variety. 'Tiranga' is well-woven into the narrative. John Stewart Eduri's background score has a cinematic feel.

Jishnu Bhattacharjee's cinematography is neat. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray's production design and Theia Tekchandaney's costumes are realistic yet appealing. Craig Macrae and Sunil Rodrigues' action is quite good and not disturbing at all. RedChillies.VFX's VFX is praiseworthy. Shivkumar V Panicker's editing could have been sharper.

Yodha Movie Conclusion: On the whole, YODHA is not the usual hijack film and is laced with a fine performance by Sidharth Malhotra. However, it suffers to some extent as it's quite technical and confusing.

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