Yoddha

Logic apart, Yoddha is a film you can watch if you love screaming your head off every time a bad guy gets thrashed. It’s a spicy treat served hot with a mug of frothing chilled beer. Chew, sip and have a party.

A south remake is so full of bounce and spin that it reminds one of cricket. It seems like all the bad guys are full of hot air; one touch and they are either flying around, spinning like tops or bouncing high enough to smash into streetlights, not to mention all those broken windshields and scattered drums. The hero is not human; he is from Krypton or some exotic planet where most villains are bird-brained and most conspiracies, hare-brained.

And Yoddha is the remake of one such superhero flick, in which the only thing that is extremely clear from the very outset is that the hero — Dev in this case — is made of the same kind of titanium alloy that is used in spaceships — he is basically scratch-proof, water, fire and weapon-resistant and comes with a really long warranty. He makes the mistake of dying in one life, but is not the kind who repeats such mistakes; at least not after getting to see the repeat telecast of his past life in vivid trucolour. But sadly, his arch-rival, Raghab, who can put Jack the Ripper to shame any day with his penchant for ruthless murders, must have swapped brains with a bird in some pre-Puja exchange mela. In this age of guns and swift deaths, he keeps trading punches with the hero. And despite being filthy rich (he owns a sprawling mansion and a private chopper!), the best weapon he comes up with is a javelin! But yes, given the way he throws the weapon, India sure loses a potential winner of that elusive Olympic gold with his demise. What a waste…

Well, you must have got the drift by now. Yoddha is a two and a half hour-long brainless adrenaline rush with good cinematography and fantastic visual effects. The flashback, which is set in an ancient kingdom, is replete with fantastic 3D visuals of palaces, royal courtyards, an arena and a precariously-placed plateau deep in the Himalayas with a huge statue of Rudra — the warrior form of Lord Shiva. And the obviously virtual imagery is extremely realistic. Even the music by Indraadip Dasgupta and Savvy Gupta is good. As for acting, the best of the lot is perhaps Nigel, who surely makes us hate him in both his lives. As for the lead pair, Dev lives up to his ‘hero’ image with a lot of smooth dancing and hard punches and Mimi is all sizzles and smiles. Her portrayal of emotions during desperate-in-love scenes is also good. As for the supporting cast, Kanchan is his usual funny self, while Rajatava as a Mughal (?) conquerer and a fisherman is as good as his roles allow him to be. In short, all the ‘reborn’ actors more or less justify their two lives.

What disappoint are the jumps in the storyline, especially in the climactic sequence, when the lead duo ride out of a mansion in north Bengal on a motorbike and end high up in the Himalayas soon after! Geography has perhaps never been this abused.

Logic apart, Yoddha is a film you can watch if you love screaming your head off every time a bad guy gets thrashed. It’s a spicy treat served hot with a mug of frothing chilled beer. Chew, sip and have a party.