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''Yuva'' ( Youth) is a 2004 Indian
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-language political drama film written, produced, and directed by Mani Ratnam''.'' It stars Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor and Esha Deol. It was simultaneously shot in Tamil as '' Aayutha Ezhuthu'' but with a completely different cast, excluding Deol. The film's rights are owned by Red Chillies Entertainment. At the 50th Filmfare Awards, ''Yuva'' won a leading six awards, including Best Film (Critics), Best Supporting Actor (Bachchan), and Best Supporting Actress (Mukerji). ''Yuva'' was also a breakthrough for Bachchan as he won the Stardust Award for Actor of the Year – Male for his performance.


Plot

The film begins with Lallan Singh ( Abhishek Bachchan) shooting Michael "Mike" Mukherjee ( Ajay Devgn) on his bike, resulting in him falling off the Vidyasagar Setu into the water below, which is witnessed by Arjun Balachandran ( Vivek Oberoi). The film then unveils the characters' pre-incident flashbacks. Lallan is a goon, originally from
Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...
but settled in
Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
, West Bengal, because his brother Gopal Singh ( Sonu Sood) has left him alone and he has no option of earning money back home. He loves, marries, and abuses his wife, Shashi Biswas ( Rani Mukerji). He gets into a contract under Gopal's recommendation to run errands and work as a
hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...
for Prosenjit Bhattacharya ( Om Puri), a politician. Michael is an influential student leader who wants politicians like Prosenjit to keep away from college elections. His closest associates are his best friends Vishnu ( Karthik Kumar) and Trilok ( Abhinav Kashyap). Among the two, Vishnu acts as a right-hand man to Michael. Michael, in his personal life, is in love with his neighbour Radhika ( Esha Deol), who lives with her uncle and aunt. Prosenjit is worried when he hears news of students standing in the election. He uses every possible way to get them out of politics. First, he provides a scholarship to a prestigious foreign university to Michael. When Michael refuses the bribe, he orders his goon, Gopal, to take control. Gopal orders Lallan to beat up Trilok, which he does, but faces very strong retaliation from Michael and his fellow students. Arjun Balachandran ( Vivek Oberoi) is the carefree and spoiled son of an IAS officer. He wants to relocate to the U.S. for a better future. He falls in love with Meera ( Kareena Kapoor), whom he just met. Arjun asks Meera for coffee, takes her to the beach, and realizes that Meera loves him back. One day, Arjun proposes to Meera, prompting her to playfully avoid him by getting into a taxi. Arjun gets a lift from Michael, who is travelling in the same direction to catch up with Meera, who is going that way. Suddenly, Michael is hit by three bullets (shot by Lallan) and falls off the bridge. He is critically injured but is saved by Arjun and Meera. Lallan finds out that Michael is recovering from his injuries, and this is witnessed by Arjun, who follows him to apprehend him, only for Lallan to beat him up badly and leave him with a broken arm. After staying by his side until his recovery, Arjun changes his mind and joins hands with Michael to contest in elections. Lallan later kills Gopal when he finds out that he had been instructed by Prosenjit to take him out due to Lallan leaving an eyewitness (Arjun) behind the bridge incident. He confronts Prosenjit, who brainwashes him to work for him and orders him to kidnap Arjun, Vishnu, and Trilok. However, they escape with the help of Lallan's ally Dablu ( Vijay Raaz), who has a change of heart after realizing that their profession was interfering with their personal lives, causing Sashi to leave Lallan for her hometown. He convinces Lallan, however, to no avail, and is killed by him when he aids Arjun's escape. While running, Arjun calls Michael for help, but Lallan easily catches and beats him up. Michael arrives at the nick of time to rescue Arjun at Vidyasagar Setu. A fight ensues between the three men where Lallan is overpowered by Michael, who spares him and leaves him for the police. Lallan is handed to the police. Michael, Arjun, Vishnu, and Trilok win the four seats they had contested for and thus enter politics.


Cast

* Ajay Devgn as Michael "Mike" Mukherjee, an activist who wants to encourage students to enter politics (Loosely based on George Reddy) * Abhishek Bachchan as Lallan Singh, a goon working as muscle for politician Prosenjit Bhattacharya * Vivek Oberoi as Arjun Balachandran, a wealthy young man who dreams of going to America * Rani Mukerji as Shashi Biswas Singh, Lallan's wife who gets abused every day by him * Kareena Kapoor as Meera, a girl who is going to Kanpur and Arjun's love interest * Esha Deol as Professor Radhika, Michael's neighbor and also his love interest * Om Puri as Prosenjit Bhattacharya, a ruthless politician and Lallan's boss who wants to get the college students out of politics * Anant Nag as IAS Avinash Balachandran, Arjun's father * Vijay Raaz as Dablu, Lallan's friend who helps Arjun, Vishnu, and Trilok escape * Sonu Sood as Gopal Singh, Lallan's brother, a goon who had left his brother alone and later gets killed by him *
Saurabh Shukla Saurabh Shukla (born 5 March 1963) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, and film director who works in Hindi and a few Tamil language, Tamil and Telugu language, Telugu films. He is best known for his roles in ''Satya (1998 film), Satya'' (1998), ...
as Dr. Gopal, Radhika's uncle * Karthik Kumar as Vishnu, Michael's close associate who acts as a right-hand man to him * Abhinav Kashyap as Trilok, Michael's close associate who once gets beaten up by Lallan Singh * Paras Arora as Arvind Balachandran, Arjun's younger brother * Tanusree Chakraborty as Arjun's classmate * Kharaj Mukherjee as Advocate Vishal Ghoshal * Brijendra Kala as Sheshadri, a newspaper editor * Sujata Sehgal as Joe Mukherjee, Michael's sister * Lekha Washington as the girl at the embassy * Simran (uncredited) * Meera Jasmine (uncredited)


Production

Hrithik Roshan was initially offered the role of Lallan Singh, but was replaced by Abhishek Bachchan. The film was shot at different locations including
Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
,
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
,
Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...
, Theni,
Pollachi Pollachi is a town and municipality in Coimbatore district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Pollachi taluk. It is situated near the center of the South Indian Peninsula, surrounded by Western Gha ...
and other areas of
West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
. During the shoot in Chennai, ambassador cars were painted yellow to make them look like Kolkata taxis.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack features six songs by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Mehboob. The rap and lyrics for the song "Dol Dol" were written by Blaaze.


Reception


Critical reception

The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with Bachchan and Mukerji's performances receiving particular praise. A critic from ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote that the film "has a sharp political edge that is rare in Hindi-language films, celebrated as they are for their wildly exuberant production numbers and sugary love stories". It was reported that the movie had the narrative style of the 2000 Mexican film '' Amores Perros''.


Box office

''Yuva'' grossed at Indian box office. ''Yuva'' did well in multiplexes. But it did not do well in single-screen theatres. Compared to other parts of the country, it fared better in
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
. The Mumbai distributors recovered the cost of the film, but the sub-territory distributors in places like Surat and Baroda lost money. In places like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and even South India, distributors lost around 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) to 1 crore ( 10 million). In states like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the viewers couldn't relate to the film, hence leading to dismal business. Overseas, too, the film did below-average business.


Accolades

The film received several accolades, including a leading 6
Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Indian cinema.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were introduced by Filmfare magazine of The Times G ...
, one IIFA Award, one Producers Guild Film Awards, four Screen Awards and two Stardust Awards.


References


External links

* * {{Madras Talkies 2004 films 2000s Hindi-language films 2000s political drama films 2000s political thriller films Indian multilingual films Indian nonlinear narrative films Films directed by Mani Ratnam Indian political thriller films Hyperlink films Films set in Kolkata Films set in West Bengal Films scored by A. R. Rahman 2004 multilingual films Films shot in Kolkata Films shot in Chennai Films shot in Madhya Pradesh Films shot in Pollachi Films shot in West Bengal Student politics in India Films set in universities and colleges Films produced by Mani Ratnam Hindi-language drama films