I will never judge a Ram Gopal Varma or a Maniratnam movie from a review that I read. First things first, this is not the run of the mill commercial story like the normal bollywood movie, this is a daring step in taking Indian cinema a step ahead,
So what?s so different about Yuva, The narration.
It is told starting from an incident, and what circumstances have led to that situation from all the 3 characters point of view.
The story starts off by showing Michael riding on a bike on the howrah bridge, there is Lallan following him in a four wheeler, suddenly you see Arjun begging Mira, saying that he loves her and so, as she leave in a taxi leaving Arjun, Arjun stops Michael who comes by and asks for a lift, Michael gives a lift and stops the taxi that Mira is in, and Michael just goes a small distance from Arjun when Lallan opens fire on Michael, Michael collapses, Arjun is startled, Lallan is beaming with glee??? you take some time to realize what is going on, This starts off a series of 3 stories, that of Lallan, Michael and Arjuns, out of which Arjuns story is finished as the movie climaxes because he has more to do with the aftermath of the incidents from the point of Lallan firing at Michael.
Lallans Story
Lallan suffers from split personality, he is good at heart but is still after power and money and wants to get what he want in what ever way possible, Lallan is shown playing Kabbadi in very physical way in a jail. He receives bail orders and is sent from jail, he immediately goes to Sashis place, her parents try to stop her from returning with Lallan, but she leaves with him. Some romance is shown between them, not very elegant though, a song follows shortly after, Gopal, brother of Lallan comes home to meet Lallan, Sashi tries to stop him from going back in to the lurch but he doesn?t stop, instead hits out at Sashi and asks her to leave.
In the meanwhile Gopal wants Lallan to stop a student group which may disturb their leaders meeting, OmPuri, Lallan goes a distance and thrashes the students to create fear amongst them, as it happens that the meeting passes off peacefully which is a success, although the minister and Gopal try to acknowledge Lallan that the way he did the job wasn?t the right one, Lallan insists what he had done was right, the minister starts admiring Lallan, he gives him a share in a gas distribution.
Sashi thinks the violent days are gone, she is pregnant which is revealed when Lallan makes up after beating up Sashi. But Lallan becomes more involved into the black world, when Lallan doesn?t return home as he is sent underground for a month, Sashi gets worried and gets aborted, by which Lallan is really upset, things really heat up when Gopal is startled by the student group and the minister asks Lallan to take over whatever Gopal had done. Lallan is sent to assassinate Michael which is shown at the start of the movie, we find that the scene that was shown to us at the starting is shown again.
Michaels Story
Michael is passionate about his cause, his father was a fighter who fought for the social cause, he has a childhood girlfriend Radhika, Michaels dream is to bring enlightenment to all the politics ignorant public, he wants educated young people to step into politics to clear the dirt. He receives a scholarship from a Nobel laureate from America, which the minister who also is the college chancellor offers to Michael, Michael refuses the scholarship.
Michael and his group go from village to village, in one such village when they find that the nominated candidate is being kidnapped, they rescue him, and persuade a lady to stand up, she wins the election, the minister realizes the threat and feels that Michael needs to be wiped out of the way. These circumstances lead to the scene that is shown to us in the starting of the movie, they are repeated once again.
Arjuns Story The climax
Arjun returns home after completion of his studies, he is a total jovial character who loves to flirt, he is totally selfish, he is in a dream that he is going to America, He is the character which will lead us to the end of the movie, he meets a girl, Mira in a discotheque and is instantly amazed at her beauty, somehow she gives him her phone number, and tell his that she is going to get married, Arjun calls Mira the next day, and asks her for a coffee which she agrees for, she is attracted to him, she doesn?t realize that, they start going out, but maintain that she is going to marry the kanpur guy and Arjun is leaving to the US.
However Arjun really feels that he is in love with Mira when she tells him that this is the last meeting between them, he goes after he begging for her to consider marrying him, this is the event that is shown in the beginning to us, things take a huge turn in Arjun?s life when Michael is shot by Lallan and Michael falls into the river, after much hesitance Arjun jumps in and saves Michael from drowning, Michael is hit by 2 bullets and is gazed by one, Arjun stays with Michael, and slowly knows of his cause and the number of students supporting that cause.
Arjun sees Lallan staring at Michael in the hospital room and follows Lallan, Lallan outwits Arjun and gives him a good thrashing, when Arjun is in bed, Mira comes and says a final good bye to him, so they part ways. Arjun gets involved In Michaels activities, and becomes a very active member of their group, Michael decides that enough is enough and announces that they are going to stand in the coming elections as an independent party, at first everyone hesitates but all come together again.
In between all this, In the meanwhile seeing Arjun in television Mira returns back realizing that Arjun is not a selfish guy, In this happy moments Lallan is sent to kidnap the main 4 supporters of Michael, including Arjun, however the ministers plan is foiled when an associate and close friend of Lallan helps them to escape from there, Lallan turns a real beast when he shoots his friend, and the last hope the audience have that Lallan will turn a good human are vanished.
Lallan chases Arjun, Arjun calls Michael, Michael comes to the aid of Arjun, and both together floor Lallan, This action sequence is being raved about as one of the best ever, and it is true, it is picturised on the bridge with traffic, its simply amazing. Michael and his associates win the election, it is a picture that Maniratnam shows that might one day be possible by someone like Michael in real life, it is that of 4 students entering the parliament In jeans. Lallan is sent to court. Sasi returns to her village without Lallan, Radhika lives in with Michael,
Artist Performance
Everyone does well, Kareena is really cute.
Music and songs
If someone says the songs are not up to the mark, just ignore them, the music by AR is superb, it compliments Manis direction, the background score is really amazing, all the songs are beautifully picturised along with great music, I cannot say that about the lyrics though, some lyrics are not up to the mark.
Analysis
It is a technically sound movie, if you can put up with some slow narration, you also feel the movie is being stretched, but once the pace picks up, you are all awe for the movie, and we must remember that this is the first time this kind of direction has been attempted in Indian cinema, so maybe we need not be too critical of the movie, go watch it guys, you have to???. because if someone says this movie is bad, I can assure you that you have seen 1000 worse movies.