'Uvaa' - Movie review

'Uvaa'
U/A; Comedy-drama
Director: Jasbir B Bhaati
Cast: Vikrant Roy, Rohan Mehra, Lavin Gothi, Mohit Baghel, Meghvrat Singh

There's nothing in the storyboard that enthralls you even for a few minutes

One of the tracks in the film, Jiyo Lalla, has a line that goes: ‘Lagake taaron mein tadka, chalo maggi banate hain'. Like the now infamous two-minute noodles, the makers seem to have had an instant recipe for a film -- take a social evil as the premise, stir in some real-life incidents, throw in some juveniles and season it with a bunch of assorted characters. The end result is a hard-to-digest khichdi.

The film's title is Uvaa, meaning youth - the distinct spelling so as not to be confused with Mani Ratnam's Yuva (2004). It revolves around the antics of a group of boisterous youngsters, one of them being telly actor Rohan Mehra (Naksh of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai) who has a penchant for red T-shirts. The first half is a showreel to display that they can sing, dance and act. It drags on insipidly, leaving you exasperated by the intentions. When things reach a boiling point due to their waywardness, the youngsters are whisked away to another school to instill in them a sense of discipline.

In the second half, an unfortunate event alters their life -- they become responsible and become everyone's idols.

The story then gets a direction, but in vain due to the bitter aftertaste left by the first half.

A lot of thought has gone into the production values -- from the locations to the photography, but there's nothing in the storyboard that enthralls you even for a few minutes. The presence of a host of talented character actors -- Om Puri, Sanjay Mishra, Jimmy Sheirgill, Archana Puran Singh, Parikshit Sahni and Rajit Kapoor -- does little to salvage the plot. Then there is wrestler Sargam Singh who displays only his brawns and starlet Elena Kazan her curves, which does not help the story either.

The youngsters in the film might have burned the midnight oil to become an example for others, but Uvaa does not even deserve grace marks.