Yudhra Review | A Derivative Action Thriller With Forced Swagger

Yudhra, the latest Excel entertainment film directed by Ravi Udyawar, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi as the title character, is so generic that you feel like asking the makers whether the characters in the movie don’t watch movies. Filled with predictable scenes one after the other, Yudhra almost feels like an autogenerated script that uses a lot of the Jason Statham films as a reference. With dance numbers and fight sequences getting infused in a story that has no interest in looking unique, Yudhra just makes you wait for the protagonist to kill all the bad guys you predicted before he could.

So our hero Yudhra lost both his parents in a road accident while he was in his mom’s womb. Doctors told his adoptive father, his father’s colleague, that the lack of oxygen Yudhra faced while they were trying to save him from his mother’s womb may have future repercussions for Yudhra’s behavior, and guess what? Yudhra is a short-tempered guy who acts like a stoned MC Sher when he gets hurt. How Yudhra’s father’s colleagues decide to utilize this character flaw of Yudhra to take down the drug mafia of Mumbai and how that changes the life of Yudhra is what we see in this Ravi Udyawar film.

The film, in terms of treatment, has a very confused approach. The story here is ultrabasic, and the only thing catchy about the concept is the anger issue. But there are patches in the middle of the movie where writer Shridhar Raghavan himself had forgotten about this character kink. Every action setpiece in the flick has a setup that one can guess from miles away. By the time the film reaches the second half, the audience with whom I was watching the movie started to shout at the hero for not being able to see the very obvious foul plays happening around him.

The script’s development is, at times, bizarrely hilarious. In the earlier parts of the film, you get to hear about this iconic villain named Sikander, and our hero kills him like peanuts. Then we have the character played by Raghav Juyal, who, after all that eccentric foolishness, dies just like that because of an easy stab. Even the interval block of the movie is predictable from a distance, and the usage of cliched tropes peaked when Yudhra manages to crack the password from Nikhat in a way even Salim Javed won’t try. The fight sequences are not happening that organically, and bad CGI and illogical setting just make the chases and setpieces look underwhelming on screen.

Siddhant Chaturvedi, as this action hero, is trying too much to have an on-screen swagger. There are sporadic moments where you get a feeling that the guy has it in him to be this brutal action hero. But most of the time, the need to be this violent killing machine makes him overdo stuff, making the swagger look forceful and contrived. Malavika Mohanan is playing the usual eye candy heroine in the film. Even though her character is linked to the core plot of the movie, the basic feel of the writing makes the character just a glamour tool. Raj Arjun looks convincing in that attire as a deadly antagonist. But the performance in the second half would make you ask him whether he needs Hajmola. Ram Kapoor, as always, is the cool uncle, and Gajraj Rao plays the role of the father, whose character arc is easy to guess. Raghav Juyal is kind of wasted in that typical fashionista, impulsive son of the bad guy.

Ravi Udyawar’s Yudhra is an action thriller that feels like it has already made up its mind about having glossy beach songs, club songs, and various kinds of stunts it wants to have and then decided to build a story around it just for the sake of having a structure. With neither the swagger in the performances nor the scale of the action managing to impress you, Yudhra is ultimately a tiring experience.