Monday 3 November 2014

Yoddha : The Warrior :: Punjabi Movie Review





Yoddha : The Warrior, is a Punjabi flick that stays honest to its genre with its focus on the nexus between drug mafia & politicians prevalent in Punjab with some of the Cops being a part of it. In fact, right in the beginning it is proclaimed that the movie is based on True Incidents. The recent case of a Punjab Police Cop who was shot dead in broad daylight at Amritsar when he was trying to protect his daughter from some eve teasers which included a political party leader has been incorporated into the storyline. The best part about this movie is that it never deviates from its path in any way which is a seldom case especially in Punjabi movies. There are no extra comic characters introduced in-between to provide so called comic punches, there is no extra rona-dhonaa or un-necessary naach-gaana apart from an item number which has been placed in the movie. I mean, when i went to see the movie, i was expecting all these frivolous elements to come as a package with the movie but surprisingly I was more than delighted to see none of them appear on-screen. Full credit goes to the director, Mandeep Benipal for putting up a good show and making a well knit movie which never looses its focus. This movie can definitely be called different in true terms when compared to other Pollywood offerings we have seen lately. 

STORY & SCREENPLAY                                                ::                 The story of the movie has been co-written by Kuljinder Singh Sidhu and Ambardeep Singh Gill. They have very cleverly amalgmated some recent incidents of Punjab that hit the headlines in this story of a common man who transforms into a warrior to take revenge and fight against the injustice. It is those real incidents that make you relate to the movie and keep you engrossed in the proceedings. The movie begins in border area of Punjab where drug mafia rules under the patronage of MLA Sucha Singh ( Girija Shankar ) and his illegal activities are kept under the wrap by DSP Dogra ( Nissar Khan ). Our hero Ranjodh ( Kuljinder Singh Sidhu ) who is a N.R.I. comes back to his village from U.K. & falls in love at first sight with Navdeep ( Unnati Davara ) who is daughter of A.S.I. Balwinder Singh (Hardeep Gill). Ranjodh manages to convince Navdeep & her parents and they get engaged. Now, comes the twist in the tale. Goga ( Rahul Dev) who is younger brother of MLA is smitten by Navdeep & gets enraged with fury on her getting engaged with someone else. He tries to abduct her from marketplace but her father comes in-between and in rage of anger Goga shoots her father point blank. Now, the official machinery ( Cops ) work at the behest of MLA & someone else is implicated for the murder letting Goga scot free. Ranjodh & Navdeep file a petition in the court and an independent inquiry is marked to an honest IPS Officer. But, even he gets killed in a road accident staged by henchmen of MLA and Ranjodh & Navdeep are kidnapped. Navdeep is killed & she along with Ranjodh are thrown into a river. Ranjodh is rescued by a sect of Khalsa cult & his life changes from there as he transforms himself into a new avatar of a Yoddha. Embodying the qualities of courage, strength & determination he becomes a forceful soul and decides to fight against the injustice, corruption prevalent in the society. 

STARCAST                                                                             ::        Kuljinder Singh Sidhu has portrayed his character to utmost perfection. He seems to have worked really hard not only on his chiseled body but also his acting skills which is evident on screen. The ease with which he transforms from a carefree N.RI. unto a man on mission with fire in his belly is commendable. He is soft, mellow in romantic scenes and breathes fire in confrontation scenes. Unnati Davara as the leading lady has played her part well and given a good performance. Rahul Dev has put up a great act as Goga. His expressions, body language as a villain are impeccable. The best way to judge an effective portrayal of a villain by an actor is to see how much audience hate him when he appears on screen & in Yoddha he has been able to do that with distinction. Girija Shankar has done justice to his character of mean and menacing MLA Sucha Singh. Amongst ensemble cast some noticeable performances have been given by Nissar Khan, Hector Sandhu & Dinesh Sood.

TECHNICAL FINESSE                                ::     The soundtrack of Yoddha has been composed by Gurmeet Singh who has cut out a fine album. Couple of tracks which stand out are the title track Yoddha sung by Daler Mehndi & the other track is Ghoda sung by Jazzy B. The cinematographer of the movie is Dhirender Shukla and the guy deserves applause for his fine work behind the camera. His frames are rich, vibrant, full of visual opulence and some of the aerial shots have been captured beautifully. The editor of the movie is Vikrant Sidhu who has done his job well and kept the runtime of the movie to 123 minutes. The editing is edgy n sharp and the movie does not seem to linger on at any point of time. Now, coming to captain of the ship i.e. Director Mandeep Benipal, he has done an outstanding job. He gets straight to the business right from the first frame and never looses the grip on the narrative all through the movie. He has ably extracted the best out from his cast n crew. He keeps you engrossed in the movie with his no-nonsense approach towards the subject and this dedication has resulted in delivering a different entertainer in the form of Yoddha.

CONCLUSION                                                ::      I'll say that Yoddha is a must watch movie especially for Punjabi movie connoisseurs. It is an honest take on the prevalent rampant corruption in Punjab albeit in an entertaining way. 
   
Embodying the qualities of strength, courage and determination he becomes a forceful soul. Upholding the reality of his life, with his new avatar he raises his voice against corruption and fights a social and personal battle. As a true warrior Ranjod Singh knows there are causes to serve, battles to win and struggles to be overcome which is why Ranjod Singh fights against people promoting drugs and also take many steps for the welfare of society. - See more at: http://punjabigrooves.com/movie-review-yoddha/#prettyPhoto
 
ROHIT SHARMA.
Follow me on twitter at  https://twitter.com/smgr105
rohitreview@gmail.com
 
f the screenplay and dialogues(Amardeep Gill & Kuljinder Sidhu) are par excellence, the performances of the actors are out-of-the-world! Kuljinder Sidhu, it would seem, was born to play this role. He is absolutely extraordinary as yoddha and breathes fire in the scen - See more at: http://punjabigrooves.com/movie-review-yoddha/#prettyPhoto

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