Directors: Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Raashii Khanna, Disha Patani, Tanuj Virwani, Ronit Roy (in a special appearance), Sunny Hinduja and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 2 stars
The wood-log actor Sidharth Malhotra still seems to be in the Shershaah hangover and Karan Johar along with the directors found Yodha as their escape to encash on it, but, the film turns out to be a refurbished Shershaah that is nothing more than the 90s video game, Contra.
Major Satendra Katiyal (Ronit Roy) forms a special task force under the surveillance of the government and gets martyred in one of his operations. His son Arun (Sidharth Malhotra) decides to keep his father’s dream alive and fight for his country, while terrorist Sunny Hinduja aims to finish Arun and his calling.
Priyamvada (Raashii Khanna), personal secretary of Honorable PM marries Arun, but their relationship hits a rough patch when Arun gets dismissed from his services due to a mission failure. He then takes on a personal route to prove himself innocent but fate isn’t in his favour. Laila (Disha Patani), an air hostess, helps Arun in seeking justice, but will he win?
Two directors, Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha, have made a technically retard film, which looks like a glossy academic project. Their film doesn’t evoke patriotism, but rather appears to be a comic caper where our Indian commandos have become a laughing stock. For the rest of the damage, Sagar and Pushkar have infused celebratory dialogues from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
Yodha has arrived at a time when no one really cares about politically inclined films. In the recent past, Tejas, Article 370, Fighter, Operation Valentine, and even Pathaan and Jawan, had carried the national sentiment. With so many films coming one after the other, Yodha is just an addition to the few not-so-good films of the lot.
Disha fits the part as a cabin crew but she is better off as a glam doll. However, she appeals a bit while breaking bones in the aircraft. Raashii Khanna looks decent in her solo scenes and is watchable but she looks way elder to Sidharth in their scenes together. Pairing the two together is a casting glitch. Ronit Roy is passable.
Sunny Hinduja is good enough as an antagonist for a film like Yodha that is consciously an avoidable film. Sidharth, the blue-eyed boy of Karan Johar, does everything possible to woo but falls flat in every department. He has the most heroic entries, great action to showcase, and whistle-worthy one liners, but all in vain.
Yodha is bearable in parts, but in no way Sidharth saves the film. It is a bad rip-off of Shershaah with fictional characters and torn screenplay, and instead of scaling heights, it has, in fact, just crash landed.
