Yuvam

There was a time when the Shankar brand movies of vigilante justice used to work for the audience. Looking at the director’s off-late creations, we will feel that it is a genre that needs significant reinvention. Directed and co-produced by Pinku Peter, Yuvam is one utopian concept that doesn’t have any fleshing out happening in script development. It utilizes the public’s general anger towards lazy public servants, but the idea here lacks coherence.

Aby, a young advocate, is our main protagonist. He is a YouTuber who makes videos about socially relevant topics. During one particular case that he was handling that dealt with the suicide of an ex KSRTC employee, the court asked him whether he and his friends can fix the mismanagement happening in KSRTC, and Aby accepts the challenge. What we witness in the movie is this Herculean task in front of the trio to make an establishment like KSRTC profitable.

Some may argue that when Shankar does it, you guys praise, but when someone does it in Malayalam on a smaller budget, you do the nitpicking. Well, the difference is in the level of conviction a filmmaker brings in to certain fantasy concept. When Shankar and Sujatha created something like a Mudhalvan, you get drawn into that idea instantly. Making ideas like these captivating is challenging, and Pinku Peter is exploring the anger in its periphery. The idea behind the movie may have come from the frustration of seeing mismanagement of public property. But the scripting here is never going beyond that frustration. The bad guys are becoming buffoons, and it felt like a very silly way of handling a concept like this.

Pinku Peter has points in his script that needs to be addressed. But some of the solutions he offers look bizarre. From the moment the court asks three young men to take care of KSRTC, the cinematic liberty problems begin. Rather than feeling excited, you get this “wait, what?!” kind of feeling. That feeling only increases as the movie went forward. You get to see fans of KSRTC giving it protection as if the entry scene of a villain in a typical Tamil movie. And as I already said, the menacing-looking villains are treated as mere caricatures towards the end, and it made the conflict, and the solution in the film look so flimsy.

Amith Chakalakkal has a certain level of charm in terms of carrying himself and also in dialogue delivery. Yuvam is only exploring that aspect of the actor. It’s not a character that goes through a major emotional transition or something. Actors Abhishek Raveendran and Nirmal Palazhi are there as supporting characters who don’t have much to contribute to the story. The portions in the first half where the camera pans towards them have no real significance when you look at the movie’s main thread. Dayana Hameed is that inconsequential good looking heroine. They have roped in talented names like Sai Kumar, Indrans, Nedumudi Venu, Kalabhavan Shajon, etc., for some pivotal roles, but the writing for those characters was underwhelming.

The seed for Yuvam may have come from a genuine place of anger. But this wannabe beta Rang De Basanti is only skimming through the peripheries of the problem. With no real depth in the offering, Yuvam is a bland movie.