Yuvvraaj the Musical

Hire the prettiest face in the industry, the best music director and the best lyricist, and shoot in picturesque European locales and grand, opulent sets. Take an Oscar-winning script, beat the shit out of it, and add a shallow direction to it. Insert an extra 'v' in the family name, and you have Yuvvraaj. And yes, I forgot, add some jokers and crappy acting according to taste, and you have the full recipe.

Even though you have the recipe, it is not easy to waste big names like Allah Rakha Rehman and Sampoorna Singh Gulzar on the pretext of creating a musical movie. Music did they create, and quite good one at that, but using it inappropriately at the wrong places, with gaudy and tawdry costumes and portly female side dancers spoilt the fun. Yuvvraaj does not look like a musical at all, only the Manmohini track seemed to fit, and to some extent Zindagi. The others could have been not in the movie at all.

The storyline has no meat at all; I was trying at interval to recap and realised to my utter disbelief that the plot hadn't moved. The second half brought no surprise. Katrina Kaif had nothing to do but look pretty as always, and beau Salman Khan couldn't stop hamming. Anil Kapoor tried to copy Dustin 'Rain Man' Hoffman, but he was not even close. The only good part was Mithun, and the three new faces, who were hot, especially Aimee Maghera. Even Boman Irani sucked.

One mystery I was unable to solve was how does everyone in Prague, London, and Austria speak Hindi? And those who spoke English were vexingly subtitled in Devanagiri. Now who does that and why? And who translates 'sexy' as 'jaaneman'?

Subhash Ghai said in an interview he has more competition than Subhash Ghai (whatever that means); he has competition with Khalnayak and Ram Lakhan. You are partially right Mr Ghai, but you have competition with Kisna and Yaadein. And congratulations, Yuvvraaj wins. Your golden period was the 80's where you gave memorable hits. The 90's have been an advent of your downfall. Except Black & White earlier this year. Now that was a movie that had an interesting plot and did not call for unnecessary display of grandeur. That is why I liked it, and perhaps that is why it did not do well at the box office. But yes, movies like Aitraaz and Iqbal were good. Good that you only produced them. You are getting older and senile, why don't you sit back and sign cheques and hire someone else for the director's chair?

Overall, a huge let down. Watch it at your own risk. You might want to walk out after the Tu Hi Meri Dost Hai track. I'd suggest buy the music CD instead.

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