Directors: Sagar Ambre, Pushkar Ojha
Writer: Sagar Ambre
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Raashii Khanna, Disha Patani, Tanuj Virwani
Duration: 133 mins
Available in: Theatres
Yodha is helmed by newcomers Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha. This is as much a factual statement as it is a descriptive one. Let me explain. Writer-director Ambre is credited as assistant director (AD) and script supervisor on films like Pathaan (2023), Uri: The Surgical Strike (2018) and Mardaani 2 (2019). Ojha’s credits as AD feature War (2019), Pathaan and Kick (2014). Yodha is not exactly a shaken-and-stirred blend of all these movies, but the mishmash of influences is hard to deny. For instance, there’s War and Pathaan-maker Siddarth Anand’s brand of stupid-smart action, trashy twists and phantom-liberal politics: A hijacked Indian plane defies the laws of physics against the earthly backdrop of an India-Pakistan peace meet in the mid-2000s. A disgraced task-force commando, Arun Katyal (Sidharth Malhotra), has the Hrithik-in-War arc: He is believed to be a traitor who might have turned on his own country – but you know that’s just a cool smokescreen.
Some hammy touches invoke Mardaani 2. Whenever the real baddies reveal themselves during the film – three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in this case – they immediately start acting wonky, swaggy and deranged. One of them removes their wig and coos: “It’s so hot!” Another cackles while caressing the head of the Indian head of state. Another behaves as if his favourite ‘villain’ is Fahadh Fasil in Kumbalangi Nights (2019) or, well, Vishal Jethwa in Mardaani 2. There’s a bit of Uri in the film’s aggressive Kashmir-claiming rhetoric and slick combat sequences. For every flashy one-liner, however, there’s a terrorist that scowls “Kashmir is a business; war is our religion”.
