MANI RATNAM DISAPPOINTS
By Utpaljeet Hazarika
Critic's I-view
After a long five - year exile, Mani Ratnam is back in Bollywood. However, his comeback has been disappointing for his viewers. As the name suggests Yuva is the story of three young couples and how their lives get entangled on a crucial day. The entire story is based on the present political scenario of the country, and the involvement of the student community into politics by politicians for their own benefit. Thus the politicians exploit the students and spoil their career.
Ajay Devgan plays the role of Michael Mukherjee, a PhD student, who takes an active part in society and politics. He questions oneself before blaming everything else around him for the degeneration of the socio-politic fabric. Playing his love interest is Esha Deol, as Radhika, a French teacher by profession. Radhika wants to get married, but Michael doesn't believe in the institution of marriage.
Vivek Oberoi as Arjun Balakrishnan is a typical yuppie and an engineer who plans to shift his base to USA and enjoy life there. But his ladylove Mira (Kareena Kapoor) wants to get married and settled down in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Abhishek Bachchan as Lallan is the most unpredictable of them all. He believes that his needs are more important than the right and wrongs of life. He lives for himself and feels that he owes nothing to anybody except himself. He fears no one and listens to none. He stays in Kolkata with his love Sashi (Rani Mukherjee).When the three young men come together by an accident on the Second Hoogly Bridge, their lives change. The movie examines the lives of these three men and their families and the complex relationships between individuals who are very different, yet so similar.
The entire film depicts the state of West Bengal and the day- to- day life style of the people, particularly the inhabitants of the slum areas where all the untoward incidents take place. Moreover, the film tries to clearly portray the present involvement of the student union in the political scenario just to earn name and fame in a short time with the help of the muscle power. The three couples only run for money and power. Neither they think about their families nor about their own furture. Sonu Sood plays the main negative lead in the film. The music of is composed by A.R.Rehman, while Mehboob has written the lyrics. Both have done their jobs excellently well.
Yuva has also been made in Tamil (Ayutha Ezhuthu) simultaneously which stars Surya, Madhavan, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, Trisha Krishnan and Esha Deol.
The movie has strong points too like the nice cinematography of Ravi K Chandran, and especially designed sets of Sabu Cyril. In fact, these sets recreate Kolkata streets. Besides, it has another distinction of its stunt choreography by Vikram Dharma. The stunts of the fight sequence keep the audience gasping. Moreover, Sreekar Prasad's skilled editing has aided Dharma's sequences to perfection.
Now a few weaknesses of the movie. Devgan has been cast as a college student and has been shown in the company of his colleagues who are much younger to him. How can he do justice to that role? Devgan should not have accepted the role. Abhishek Bachchan takes us all the way to the bank in this film. He is too clean a guy to be projected as a street tough. His pumped up muscles and an embryo beard don't go well with him.
Among the troika of actresses, Rani Mukherjee plays her part too well, while Kareena Kapoor has only underplayed her character. Esha Deol's role is limited, but she has done justice to it. Om Puri has come up very well as a politician from Bengal. What else to expect from a supporting actor?
The greatest weaknesses of the film is director Mani Ratnam himself. He is responsible both for the story and the screenplay. In Yuva, the crucial point is the moment when the lives of the three young men intersect -- but the screenplay has placed it in the beginning of the film. Then three quarters of the film's length is devoted towards introducing the three young men, leaving the director less than half an hour to tell the story. So the entire story is finished in one extended fight scene, followed though by the announcement of result. Mani's strength in his earlier movies has been missing here. If the movie succeeds at the box office, it might be due to external factors rather than those pertaining to Mani Ratnam.
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