Yodha

A hero with a sizable following, a heroine who doesn’t mind wearing skimpy dresses, a bunch of supporting cast who are mere props, fights that pump up the adrenaline, and yes, a story... ‘Yodha’ has all these but little else.

 The promise of an action film with patriotic overtones falls flat with the film turning out to be a treat strictly for Darshan fans who get their quota of the smashing star in short, quick doses.

Senthil Kumar gets his due for the story (‘Bose’ in Tamil). The story was perhaps novel five years ago, but care should have been taken in adapting it to suit the nativity of the Kannada milieu. As such, ‘Yodha’ fights a lonely battle to win audience affection. All is not lost, however. Action scenes, particularly the opening ones are a notch better, trying to ape other films. Darshan as the commando Captain Ram fills each frame, and gets to deliver his set of dialogues that appeal to the masses.

Ashish Vidyarthi reduces his repertoire to a bumbling caricature. Rahul Dev has nothing much to do except speak crap in Hindi and promptly fall to a spray of bullets. Srinivasamurthy, Lokanath, Avinash, Padma Vasanthi, Rekha, Ravindranath — the supporting cast makes up the scenes alright.

The director continues his perverse fantasy of a former leading lady by presenting heroine Nikita, a promising actress, as an object of sexual gratification to a bored audience.

Nikita had better be careful in future.

Hamsalekha also sinks to a personal low with his tunes and lyrics — the task of lifting an otherwise disgusting fare is given a go-by.

Vishnuvardhan’s work is somewhat marred by the finishing given to it.

The dialogues make liberal use of names like Afzal Guru, Dr Abdul Kalam and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan with devastating effect — any feeling of patriotism will die a quick death. And so, Yodha’s mission remains unfulfilled.