Yudhra review: Siddhant-Raghav’s film more style, less substance

Imagine you have Sriram Raghavan penning the story and screenplay, Farhan Akhtar the dialogues, Javed Akhtar the lyrics, and Shankar Ehsaan Loy giving the music. On a regular day, this is a fail-proof concoction for a successful film. However, we are sitting in 2024, when it’s tough to impress audiences. And hence, even with them around, the final product, Yudhra being the case here, fails to make any impact. The Siddhant Chaturvedi film is a long bumpy ride (142 minutes) and leaves you dejected and exhausted by the end of it.

Director Ravi Udyawar, who masterfully helmed Sridevi-starrer Mom, struggles here to bring engagement to a film that juggles too many elements. There’s drama, suspense, romance, emotions, and loads of action, but Yudhra fails to pick up momentum ever. Even good performances by Raghav Juyal, Raj Arjun and Ram Kapoor are wasted in the loose plot. As you reach the interval, the only thought running in your mind is ‘What is even happening?’. And by the end of the film, you are left to ask ‘Why did it even happen?’.

The film opens with a shot of Siddhant engaging in a fistfight with a man, and dropping into the ocean with his blood turning the screen red: a symbolic moment that appears when his character Yudhra boils in anger. We are then taken back in time to show how Yudhra’s parents died in an accident, and given his mother breathed her last before delivering him, the lack of oxygen to the foetus affected his brain. So, our leading man is said to have anger issues, which sadly, come up only at his convenience. He is also angered by the fact that his dead father’s colleague adopted him, leaving him to behave bitterly with him.

After embarrassing him multiple times by going to jail, he is sent off to a cadet training institute in Pune. He meets his childhood friend Nikhat (Malavika Mohanan) there and falls in love. After a song-dance routine and a kiss, he ends up bashing a man, leading to his court-martial. And while in jail, he is assigned a job by another colleague of his dead father, to bring down the drug cartel in Mumbai.
What follows is an endless journey with some very predictable twists, and interestingly, very random location shifts. It’s also hilarious how Yudhra is painted as an invincible man. He takes on international drug lords single-handedly, with inborn action skills, that would put Tom Cruise to shame.
Watch the trailer of Yudhra here:

Recently, with Kill doing fair business, it’s proof that audiences do enjoy a good actioner. However, what worked in its favour was the pacy screenplay and no fluff around the story. And Yudhra falters in both these departments.
In a bid to keep giving audiences big moments, the screenplay goes all over the place. Yudhra’s supposed complexity feels forced with no emotional hook. Rather than a layered, troubled hero, Siddhant’s character is reduced to a one-dimensional angry man. His backstory, designed to evoke sympathy, only ends up feeling like a convenient justification for rage, leaving the audience emotionally detached.

The action sequences are the film’s saving grace. Slick, stylish, and choreographed with international finesse, they provide a brief adrenaline kick to this otherwise sluggish narrative. A couple of tense underwater sequences could have even redeemed the film if only the story had been woven around it. The music is quite forgettable, and the editing could have been a lot tighter.

Coming to performances, Siddhant Chaturvedi in his first solo outing, does only a fair job but shines in the action scenes. Raghav Juyal, with every project, is proving his mettle. He is such a star at playing straight-faced evil characters, and with his comic timing, Raghav has a promising career ahead.
Malavika Mohanan also gets to pack a few punches and the scene where she electrocutes the villain is one of the most memorable moments (also, good job with science).
You cannot say anything about Ram Kapoor, Gajraj Rao, and Raj Arjun that hasn’t been said before. They are seasoned and add the gravitas needed in their parts.

To sum up, Yudhra lies somewhere between an earnest effort and a missed opportunity. You try hard to like it but never fully feel invested in the chaos that’s transpiring on screen.