Movie Name: Yaara
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
A friendship that has its foundation set in the late 1950s sustains the test of time. Yaara promises to tell that story. Essentially, Yaara is the story of four friends who leave no stones unturned to help each other. Just like other Tigmanshu Dhulia films, this film too treads back and forth between friendship and betrayal, but in a rather slow pace, which plays a spoilsport.
Based on the 2011 French crime drama Les Lyonnais (A Gang Story), Yaara narrates the story of the chaukadi gang comprising of Phagun Gadoliya aka Paramvir, Mubarak Mitwa Shahariya, Rizwan and Bahadur, who become best of friends doing everything illegal. From smuggling guns, making country liquor and looting a bank, the friends are there for each other through thick and thin. But, like any action drama, one incident changes the course of their life.
Right from the beginning till the very end, Yaara boasts of friendship. Vidyut Jammwal and Amit Sadh play Phagun and Mitwa, respectively, who meet because their fathers were friends. Soon after losing their fathers, the young boys step into the world of crime. From the sand dunes of Rajasthan they reach the India-Nepal border and get involved in cross-border smuggling. There they meet Bahadur (Kenny Basumatary) and Rizwan (Vijay Varma) and thus form their “chaukadi”. Their friendship grows stronger as they grow older. Sanjay Mishra is also seen in a cameo as Chaman.
As young and handsome lads, their endeavours lead them to Delhi, where they meet Sukanya (Shruti Haasan), who is involved with a leftist militant outfit. Phagun develops a soft spot for Sukanya and the entire gang find themselves in between the police and the leftist militant outfit. The boys are eventually sent behind the bars, and while Phagun, Bahadur and Rizwan reunite after serving their terms, Mitwa starts a life abroad, only to return years later and wreak havoc in the lives of the three friends, who till now have created a peaceful world of their own.
Watch the trailer of Yaara here:
While Yaara promises interesting and quirky characters, their execution fails the audience. The numerous Hindi cinema cross-references ignite interest and adds the expected laughter quotient. In between, you experience light moments among the friends, which makes you envious of their camaraderie. You want to join their banters and fun fights.
Tigmanshu Dhulia, who is the writer-director of the film, uses his expertise in Indian history and fabricates this story around major historical events. One can see the newly-independent India and her struggles post-liberalisation in the backdrop, while the characters on screen live their destiny. Posters and slogans of Jayaprakash Narayan on the walls across Patna (where the gang pulls off a bank robbery) or a photograph of Mao Zedong in a room of a Delhi college where leftist students meet to decide their course of action, shows you how the film has moved forward from the 50s to now the 1970s.
The director-writer also shows the influence cinema had in the lives of the youth of the time. Be it posters of Sholay and Amar Akbar Anthony or a radio newsreader announcing the death of singer Mukesh, Hindi film references helped Tigmanshu Dhulia connect with the current generation, who maybe knows of the bygone era only through Hindi cinema. Vijay Varma’s Amitabh Bachchan gait and him mimicking the megastar’s popular dialogue from the film Trishul is funny and charming.
While Yaara slightly disappoints when it comes to the screenplay, the performances by the actors are not exceptional. Vidyut Jammwal is seen performing stunts, which seem extremely out of place. Amit Sadh is believable but loses his charm in between. Vijay Varma is failed by poor writing and editing. Kenny Basumatary and Shruti Haasan leave no impact.
Yaara has its moments, though sporadically, which will keep you wanting for more till the end. However, the slow pace of the film, poor editing and screenplay make it less impressive.
2.5 out of 5 stars
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