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Youngistaan Catches The Right Flavour
I'm going to stick my neck out and say, hey, this one ain't too bad.
To be honest, I went in with all the usual reservations about watching a Jackky Bhagnani
film. But once Youngistaan gets going, you start feeling, this guy's at least attempting
something endearing. It's a political saga that draws heavily from
the first family of the Congress Party and the politics of the government in power. A
dead Prime Minister's son is brought in from abroad and sworn in as the new PM until elections
six months later. It's a hot seat nobody else in the Akhil Bharatiya Kranti Party wants
at this moment and 28-year-old Abhimanyu Kaul is everybody's sacrificial goat. His live-in
girlfriend from Japan fights him for going against his promise of never entering politics
until she gets drawn into it too. The real life Rajiv Gandhi-Sonia story is an obvious
inspiration out here. Like Indira Gandhi who was chosen by the elders
to be the goongi gudiya but soon grew into the post and shut up the rest of the party,
Abhimanyu plays his politics well. And the politics is all too familiar with a senior
Bengali minister being anointed the President of India to shunt him out of aspirational
politics for ever. You don't have to look beyond Pranab Mukherjee for the source of
this track. If there are several such reference points
that are identifiable, there is also plenty to annoy. Abhimanyu's girlfriend Anwita Chauhan
is pretty Neha Sharma who declares that she's not the "sad types." But she has a permanent
petulance posted on her mouth and all she does is whine, throw tantrums and interrupt
his meetings. You reach a point where you wonder why the nice guy who loves her so dearly
doesn't simply dump her. But this Prime Minister is no cad and that's what makes him endearing
ultimately. It's also naïve when the PM and his girl go romping around but they're shattered
that their intimacy is all over the media. Did they think cameras would conveniently
shut off and go to sleep in a vibrant democracy? The politics Abhimanyu is drawn into and his
shrewd handling of opponents to finally emerge the victor is simplistic, perhaps also uninteresting
for the average viewer. Especially since it comes from a star cast that does not have
the appeal to hold its audience. But three points work for Youngistaan: it's
election time, politics is in the air and Youngistaan catches the youthful flavor of
the season. In particular, the idea of a well-intentioned political leader who truly wants to play a
clean game, will find resonance with the young voter.
The whole idea of a young Prime Minister who is noble and ballsy enough to stand by his
live-in girlfriend irrespective of how traditional Hindustan functions, gives the central character
an interesting contemporary edge. And finally, Abhimanyu Kaul's character does
begin to grow on you, a little like Rajiv Gandhi of yore when he held promise as Mr
Clean, or a little like Neil Bhoopalam in the TV serial 24. And even if histrionics
is not part of the package, Jackky does look the part, gym-toned and togged up like Sachin
Pilot. There's also some interesting music like Kaife
alam and Suno na sangemarmar... A decent story, simplistically and conveniently
written with a few plus points, fetches Youngistaan a 3* rating.