The first time since we started Cogito TV, the three of us bunked work to go and see a film. ’twas Mani Ratnam’s Yuva.

It is, say the publicity material, a film of three men whose lives intersect on Hoogly Bridge. And the chain reaction brought about by the incident..

For me, however, it was the story of Lallan Singh, played brilliantly by Abhishek Bachchan and his downward spiral from a petty goon to an enforcer and a murderer. Bachchan pulls off an amazing performance resonating with power, pathos, and passion. His scenes with Rani Mukherjee – who plays his wife Sashi – are alternatively tender and violent. And the switchover between them is quite something else. Rani turns in yet another superb performance as Sashi – who loves Lallan deeply, even though he abuses her. The chemistry between Rani and Abhishek is superb, and they had both slipped into their characters very well.

http://123india.santabanta.com/rating.asp?catid=1031006

The others in the film are Ajay Devgan – as Michael – a studentleader who wants to change the system and stand for elections. Ajay Devgan – as in much of his recent films – turns in yet another lazy performance. He isn’t Michael, he is Ajay Devgan. Esha Deol, who plays his love interest is decent. Though there was no chemistry between them.

The surprise package was Vivek Oberoi and Kareena Kapoor. Vivek , plays Arjun, a smooth talking yuppie who wants to take the next flight to the US. and do nothing more than earn, have fun, get laid – normal stuff that half the students in India want to do. Kareena plays Mira who is going to Kanpur to get married in a few weeks. And how they quite simply fall in love over a four day period. Both played their parts well.

I loved Ravichandran’s camerawork. And i like the separate tonal quality that established each of the men. And i loved the way he has shot Calcutta. The old, decaying, official and post modern structures all come across brilliantly – establishing a contemporary yet ancient city. The edit pattern was again extemely good.

Where the film is a let down is the scirpt and characterisation. You really don’t care for anyone appart form Lallan and Sashi. The political arena around which the stories take place is not really established. but i guess that since these are supposed to be vignettes in each the lives of Lallan, Michael and Arjun – that is ok. Om Puri as the corrupt minister who uses muscle power to keep his opponents out is terribly miscast. He attempts at Hindi with a Bangla accent was atrocious. Surely they could have found a Bengali Actor to play the character.

But the thing that i hated most about the film was A.R.Rehman’s music. It almost seemed that he made the music for a separate film.