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Depending on your age and viewpoint, you may have varying recollections of the three Rambo movies. While the initial installment took a cautious approach towards America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the subsequent sequels fully embraced a pro-nationalistic attitude that blended high-octane action, bulging biceps, and unrealistic scenarios with unsettling political themes. The new Hindi action film, Yodha, follows a similar formula.
We meet our protagonist, Arun (played by Sidharth Malhotra), as a young boy idolizing his father, a soldier. However, his father is tragically killed, leaving Arun with the challenge to fill his father’s shoes. Arun promises to either become worthy of his father’s elite task force, known as the “Yodha,” or die trying and have his body wrapped in the national flag. The next two hours showcase numerous acts of intense patriotism as Arun’s uncanny fighting skills and teleportation abilities help him defeat enemies.
Directors Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha go all in with their approach: employing camera zooms and intense musical cues that would feel right at home in a action-comedy film like Hot Fuzz. In fact, the main storyline can be compared to those seen in sitcoms when Alan Partridge or Michael Scott try to come up with their own action movie ideas, essentially boiling down to a group of criminals on a plane facing off against the protagonist. Malhotra delivers a convincingly charming performance in the lead role, portraying a man who can withstand a bullet wound without breaking down, and delivering lines smoothly, such as: “My country will always stand strong.”
Malhotra faces some tough competition in the second half as new, entertaining villains are introduced. This highlights how dull and unmemorable the supporting characters were in the first half. Much like the Rambo movies, the focus is on the main character, his exceptional fighting abilities, and his patriotic inclinations, which may be viewed as controversial.
Source: theguardian.com
