Yodha Review: Action works big time in this otherwise silly thriller👎

2 min read

One-Line Review: Siddharth Malhotra carries Yodha single-handedly till the climax with his one-man show.


Yodha (2024) on IMDb

Yodha Youtube Trailer


Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Raashi Khanna, etc.

Release Date: March 15, 2024

Director: Sagar Ambre


Introduction

Arub Katyal, a member of Yodha – a special unit of India has to face a challenging situation


Sidharth Malhotra flies high in this predictable action thriller.

~  Times Of India

Our rating for Yodha is 4/10.


Summary

Arun Katyal, son of a martyr who found the Yodha – an elite task force—heads the team now. This unapologetic young man bows to no one and takes immense pride in choosing fists over strategies while handling terrorists. During an Aircraft hijack by a terror organization, Arun is in charge of the security of a passenger in the aircraft who is a renowned nuclear scientist. Though Arun is advised to wait for the government to negotiate and take action, he tries to take things into his own hands. An unfortunate turn of events makes Arun fail in his mission, resulting in the assassination of the scientists by the terrorists.

Despite being suspended from Yodha, Arun still stands strong on his argument that he didn’t do anything wrong. But the Yodha task force started to weaken as its members quit one by one. Arun takes his time to retaliate and prove himself right. After a while, Arun finds himself inexplicably on a flight from Delhi to London, where he falls for phony texts on his phone. Arun suspects another hijack and starts to figure things out with one of the air hostesses, Laila. Things take a downhill turn as Arun gets stuck in yet another complicated hijack situation where the nation’s future itself is at stake.


Review

Yodha is all about Siddharth Malhotra and no one else. The actor seamlessly subverts everyone else onscreen, throwing flying kicks, fists, and occasional charm. But is that enough to save an action thriller? We don’t think so.

The initial sequence where Arun intercepts and indulges himself in a terrorist situation is impressive. We seldom get to see such close-cut, single-shot, hand-to-hand combat in Indian cinema that’s executed exceptionally well. But from there, the very next scene was a downfall, where we got to see Siddharth go behind Raashi Khanna, delivering cheesy romantic dialogue imitating old Bollywood movies. After that mandatory love track, we are put back into another “thrilling” situation, which turns out to be messy and boring.

Rather than weighing the bad and good in the movie, let us make it simple for you. Action – it works big time. The rest don’t.

Even though you somehow manage to endure what’s happening onscreen, ignoring all the flaws, the climax hits you as a huge bummer. A movie that could have ended with a decent climax moved towards absolute chaos, wondering what in the world was happening. Finally, just when you think everything is done and dusted after the big explosion, the hero emerges again, showing off the cliched Bollywood attitude, making it even more unbearable.

In short, Yodha is good at action and bad at everything else.


Conclusion

Give Yodha a shot if you are free and have nothing better to do.