Yodha review: A chaotic blend of familiar tropes offers nothing new and defies logic

Yodha is a Sidharth Malhotra show through and through and we all know how this one ends!

Yodha review: The film begins with Sidharth Malhotra’s voice narrating how his father started the ‘Yodha’ task force who are the best of the best for national security. But one fateful day his father martyrs himself for the sake of the country and since then he decides to continue his father’s dream by joining the task force himself. The narration ends with him saying ‘Yaa toh ye vardi pehenunga ya toh tiranga’ which is a reference to his previous film Shershaah which has a very similar dialogue. Since then you only see glimpses of Shershaah and many other films in this genre we have watched before that have worked at the box office. 

For instance, Sidharth Malhotra’s character, Arun Nautiyal has a similar arc to what Hrithik Roshan had in Fighter. The prodigy who never follows orders and is then questioned by the system, so he goes on another mission to prove his worth and innocence. You also see glimpses of Jawan and Pathaan as those films also have heroes who go rogue for a while to save the country. But above all, the love story between Arun and Priya (Rashii Khanna) looks uncanny to the one between Sidharth and Kiara in Shershaah. Because the latter worked so well and was so loved, you just can’t buy the former. As it is, the film reminds you of so many things and if that wasn’t enough, Sidharth’s character also constantly quotes iconic lines from YRF and Dharma films to his wife. When they’re shown together for the first time on-screen, there’s the iconic ‘palat’ dialogue from DDLJ, somehow at the end of the film, they’ve forcefully also added the ‘I don’t like jokes, I don’t like you’ banter from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and weirdly he also uses the ‘Jaa jee le apni zindagi’ line from DDLJ again right before defeating the enemy at the end. 

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It is packaged to praise the absolute savior of the day that Sidharth Malhotra is trying to be in his content lately, and in the process of that, every cliché trope that has worked so far is being used to see if it sticks and gives Dharma another blockbuster at the box office. You also see hints of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible where Sidharth’s character can do everything from flying a plane, fight and negotiate with the terrorists all at the same time. He actually can even fix a plane’s right wheel so it can land, and of course the story also defies all laws of physics because the plane can just change its direction anytime it wants, on autopilot it can go round like a roller coaster and finally be on ground while one of wings is set on fire. 

In the middle of all of this, every other character revolves around Sidharth and has zero arc of their own. They're all just there to make him look good which is why this feels like a Sidharth Malhotra show from the first frame to the last. Disha Patani as the air hostess is so unconvincing and the plot twist around her also is pretty done and dusted. So in the process of just doing what’s worked so far and inserting melodramatic dialogues every second, Yodha fails to impress and is well worn.

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