Movie Name : Yuvvraaj
Movie Cast : Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif and Boman Irani
Movie Director : Subhash Ghai
Music Director : A R Rahman
Rating : 2.5 / 5
Yuvvraaj basically begins as the story of Deven Yuvraaj (Salman) who is madly in love with Anushka (Katrina). He is a chorus singer where and she is a cello player in a musical group based in Prague. Her rich dad Mr. Banton (Boman) is completely against marrying her off to Deven given his poor financial condition and tormenting past. Deven is the son of a London based multi billionaire, Yogendra Yuvraaj (Javed Sheikh) who was thrown out of the house by him for beating up his dim-wit older step brother, Gyanesh (Anil) when young. As Banton fixes his daughter’s engagement within a rich family, Deven comes to know about his father’s death and instead of getting sad becomes very happy. He gets under the impression that now he will be inherit a part of his late father’s huge empire. In excitement he enters into a contract with Banton that within 40 days if he does not become a billionaire then he can marry of his daughter to someone else. But as Deven reaches his ancestral home, destiny has other plans. His youngest brother, Danny (Zayed) a spoilt rich brat is busy living life in the fast lane with little care about his older brother Gyanesh. As their dead father’s will is opened by their old trusted lawyer, Sikander Mirza (Mithun Chakravorty) they all get a shock of their life to learn that almost the entire property is given to the autistic Gyanesh with just peanuts left for Danny and Deven and some other relatives who have been hanging around with them with a hope of a bigger pie for themselves. Desperate, both Danny and Deven unwillingly join hands to cheat their innocent older brother. As a part of his plan, Deven overnight takes Gyanesh back to Prague. Gyanesh gets exposed to his only passion in life – Music all thanks to Anushka. What happens after that forms rest of the film.
The basic premise of the film is nice with music well entwined into as a character in itself. But where the film falters is the narrative. Ghai has been a master storyteller in the past but here he somehow fails to hold your attention in the first half. Things move at a snails pace and not entirely convincingly. Anil Kapoor’s character is the most important character of the film but barring the last few reels it has not been handled well. Also what was the need of those 80s style plotting relatives in a film like this? The second half however has a lot of drama in store and some really touching moments like those interactions between Anil and Salman in Prague and also when Zayed joins them. But then again the impact is not as much it could have been because suddenly the film gains too much pace. The cinematography by Kabir Lal is marvelous whereas Omung Kumar’s set designs are absolutely out of this world. Being a musical, much was expected from A.R. Rahman but barring Tu Meri Dost Hain and Mastam Mastam none of the numbers are really great. But one must hand it to Ghai for mind blowing picturisations of them all.
Amongst the actors, Anil Kapoor impresses the most with his innocent act. Salman does well but is badly presented at times with inconsistencies in hair style and clothes. Katrina manages to hold her own in the crowd of actors. She never looked so beautiful before. Zayed suits his part perfectly. Boman does well.
Though the film doesn’t entirely disappoint, it remains an average entertainer. Watch it for some vintage Ghai moments if you want to.