Customer Reviews

Yuva

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Yuva (Youth, 2004) is yet another Mani Ratnam picture which captures the positive energy of youthful idealism in a realistic modern India, with spontaneity in action and song. Mani returns with his signature Writer-Producer-Director style, small budget, outdoors on location hand-held camera, this time in Calcutta, the Vidyasagar and Howrah bridges and their environs, and the lovely Kidderpore tram.

Some have likened this film in structure to Amores Perros, but in reality this is so Indian as to totally efface that comparison. Yuva does intertwine the stories of three couples, but there the comparison ends. It is both an action drama of student political activism in present day Calcutta, and a development of the relationships of each individual couple.

Bengal/Calcutta has a 100 year long and distinguished student community identity. Tagore first used the term "chatra samaj", student society, in his novel "Chaturanga" (1916) [Chaturanga] and profiled increasing individual emotions in the context of male/female relationships in his novel "Gora" (see John Berwick in Mind, Body and Society: Life and Mentality in Colonial Bengal. "The student community had a life of its own. That, as Tagore saw, shaped a mentality distinct from the outlook of the parental society. But as today's sons become tommorrow's parents, the parental society consolidated many of the characteristics of the "chatrasamaj" as a part of Bengali middle class life."

"Yuva" is an homage to Tagore and that history, and an exhortation to continue its fulfillment in the present day.

This is not your Mughal Bollywood film which normally excludes most things Bengali. But Yuva shows that it deserves a place among historical Hindi movies because it has a heart that beats, the single important criteria in my view of quality Indian filmmaking, which the Bombay Bollywood has no lock on.

Mani Ratnam deserves all the credit for the wonderful writing and development of these characters' chemistries here, and I know this from looking at the rest of his films. But also this is a superb ensemble cast.

Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee develop really challenging and fiery screen chemistry in this film, Rani the high school "graduate" and Abhishek the streetsmart survivor- a classic match. If he had been working in America, I think Abhishek would have been nominated for and Oscar in his role, and maybe Rani too (it takes two..): Best Screen Couple..(a great A.R Rahman song/dance sceen integrated into Mani's plot and street camera.)

Then there is Ajay Devgan who shows here what he has shown in other movies- his geat talent for physical, forceful characters (Omkara) with intellectual integrity (Lajja). Here is a charismatic student leader with a physics education, pairing with a French professor (Esha Deol) who is bouncing around between relatives' houses due to her werstern attitudes..(Best Idealism Couple)(Esha independently declares her affection when she she ties the sacred thread of a sister's love on her "brother's wrist)(Esha gets to consider Ajay's proposal to a another rhythmic number which cuts between her and upcoming events...nice)

But, wait, there is more! There is Vivek Oberoi and Kareena Kapoor, who meet in a Calcutta dance club after graduation and discuss their future plans, Kareena to be married to a rich guy she doesn't know in Kanpur, Vivek to America to Cornell Business Management School. A wonderful youthful romantic story (Best Flirt Couple) A.R. Rahman accompanies with two great musical numbers from the dance club to the beach.

Even the extended families fit seamlessly into the drama without a wrinkle or any dumb humourous concessions to the audience.

And all this before Ajay ....on the Vidyasagar Bridge...

My DVD is another MoserBaer product: for Americans, activate subtitle AFTER you are inside the content of the picture, past the titles, by going back to the main disc menu, then resume viewing.