There are two kinds of filmmakers, one making hard popular escapist cinema, while other make realistic films. Mani Ratnam comes somewhere in between. Mani Ratnam”s films is liked by both masses and classes, and his films come with higher expectation from the critics and audiences
. In yuva Mani has made an experiment, he has divided the film in three stories. Each one is different from others, at one point all these stories met, and changes the lives of main protagonists too. The first part of film revolves around Abhisek and Rani. Abhisek is a hoogalian and working for the corrupt politician Om Puri. Second part is about Micheal (Ajay devgan) and his love interest Isha Deol. In third part there is honey wrapped story of Arjun (Vivek Oberoi) and Kareena Kapoor.
The film is basically about the student politics. Micheal is a student union leader wants to clear corruption in politics by actively participating in general politics. Abhisek got an assignment to kill Micheal. Arjun has dollar dreams and want to settle in US. They all meet on one bridge over the river. Now there are the choices for all of them. What they wanted to do or what they are going to do. Abhisek has given a wonderful performance as a local don and then a henchman of a crook politician. Rani too has given nice performance as a wife loved, hated and abused by her husband. Ajay as usual fit in the character of a student leader. Isha deol has very little to do in the film, but whatever scenes she has got she has done brilliantly. Vivek as a yuppie guy having dreams to settle in America is just okay.
The biggest problem of the movie is that Mani Ratnam has taken too much time in establish the characters. The editing is poor. The romantic sequences between Vivek and Kareina could be edited. When the story comes on track after interval, it was too late. Music by A.R Rahman is passable. Cinematography by Ravi Chandran is outstanding. Photographer has captured kolkota crowd beautifully. Overall yuva is a one time watch able movie