Yuva
A Review by Vikram Kapadia
 

 

I happened to see “Yuva”. First day – first show. It’s years since I’ve done this, probably decades. And I’ve decided to share a few thoughts. Sometime ago, I wrote a few lines about “Main Hun Na” on this very site and although I don’t fancy myself as a reviewer I couldn’t resist the temptation of sharing my views in all modesty for the second time.

 

I was immediately hit by the “state of the art” titling and a very dramatic beginning. Expected from the likes of Mani Ratnam. Then came the non-linear Tarentino style first half. I was glad to see this structure, more so because it prods the lazy Indian audience to work at assembling the storyline piece by piece.

 

Yet I was wanting the director to get on with it. Abhishek’s story was beginning to get obvious and a bit too tedious. And although he seems to do nothing wrong one loses interest in him. Maybe because his scenes with Rani were not really moving forward and his nonchalant villainy was getting a bit too repetitive.

 

The three different tracks (Abhishek’s, Vivek’s and Ajay’s) cross in a very interesting fashion and one expected the graph of the film to hit the roof. But it was not so. Nobody actually influenced the other in a way that deserves such a beautifully conceived and executed screenplay (in the early part). In the second half things just went on and on and I couldn’t for the life of me differentiate the work of such an acclaimed film maker from the others. Except, of course for the climax on the bridge. It was handled with panache.

 

What then? I came out of the film with no distinct emotion, or view, or satisfaction, or feelings. Which is probably what prompted me to write. Perhaps, it’s a way of sorting out my own feelings.

 

What if…? What if Abhishek and Rani were edited a bit more? What if Rehman’s songs were even half as good as his background score in the film? What if the heroines had more to do with the plot? What if the second half was more layered and textured? What if the director had been more lucid in his intentions? What if the film was either about love or about politics or about violence? What if the rest of the cast was as endearing as Vijay Raaz?

 

I must not take away from some really candid moments, some of them were moving. But if its only about Yuva, it is a bit too ambiguous, don’t you think?

 

Vikram Kapadia