Yashoda Movie Review: Samantha Ruth Prabhu's Thriller Is Engaging!

Cast: Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Rao Ramesh, Murali Sharma, Unni Mukundan, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sampath Raj, Shatru
Directors: Haresh Narayan K, Hari Shankar

Introduction:
Yashoda is a movie written and directed by Hari and Harish as their Tollywood debut. The movie is the first pan-India film of the actress to be released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam. Samantha dubbed her own words for Tamil and Telugu. Yashoda is based on real-life crimes around surrogacy. An underprivileged woman becomes a surrogate and unearths a crime. How she saves herself and puts an end to the entire situation is to be seen on the big screen. Samantha comes as a surprise package in the film.

Yashoda is the first feature film to be released in theatres post-Samantha's divorce from Naga Chaitanya. She has been away from the media and her fans due to her prolonged autoimmune disorder, which she only made public recently.

Director duo Hari and Harish made all the right attempts in translating the story from paper to celluloid. They took their sweet time to establish the background of Yashoda, the Eva facility and her initial days at the facility as a surrogate. The first half was rather slow but the interval bang was befitiing. The second half was interesting and the directors unwrapped their twists one after the other, in a racy screenplay. It would have been better if they had given some time in the second half for the viewer to connect to the emotional aspect that they showcased.

Story:

Yashoda, a woman living in a lower-middle-class neighborhood is shown in need of money for her dear sister's operation. She agrees to be a surrogate to fulfill the requirement. Yashoda then is taken to Eva, a facility for surrogate mothers. On the other side, the movie begins with the death of a Hollywood actress Olivia, due to a spiked drink laced with a mysterious drug. Also, a business tycoon Shiv Reddy and her girlfriend, the probable winner of the Miss India pageant, Arushi die in a car crash which turns out to be a murder. The people behind the crime, the cause, the reason, and their connection to Eva's facility are revealed towards the end with a big twist.

Performances:

As usual, Samantha shed her blood and sweat to bring out the best of herself and the character of Yashoda. She managed to pull off the entire female-centric subject with great ease and delivered a power-packed performance as Yashoda, switching from a docile woman to a fierce ninja.

Varalaxmi Sarathkumar had a role that was designed to implicate an evil woman- all the characteristics of being okay to go to any lengths for money and beauty are shoved into the role, which was a cakewalk for the actress.

Murali Sharma as Commissioner, Rao Ramesh as Central Minister Giridhar, Unni Mukundan as a Gynaecologist Gowtam, and Sampath Raj as mental fitness coach with the police department have been impeccable in their respective roles.

Comedian Josh Ravi appeared on the screen after a long time and was barely there in two scenes, which were still impactful.

Artists Madhurima, Divya Sripada, Kalpika Ganesh, and Priyanka Sharma, who are inmates at the Eva facility have been used appropriately for character build-up in the film.

Technical Aspects:

The cinematography by M Sukumar is quite adequate and the visuals looked fresh, due to the Art Director's visionary sets of Eva facility. Mani Sharma's background score is the heart of the film without which the movie wouldn't have made an impact. However, the length and duration could have been crisped to ensure the movie proceeds at a uniform pace throughout.

Stunt choreographer Yannick Ben, from Hollywood, was flown in to compose fights for Samantha in the film which flowed quite like a breeze and didn't seem over the top. Samantha, who did her stunts in the film appealed to the audience with her work.

What's Yay:
Samantha's performance
Film's sets
Background score
Varalaxmi's role
Direction
Concept

What's Nay:
Lengthy first half
Lack of emotional connection in the second half
Graphics could have been better, especially during the climax

Verdict:
Samantha's Yashoda is a well-made thriller with adequate elements of thrill, twists, and turns, put together by solid writing and top-notch performances. However, the movie ends on a regular staple formula of good Vs bad and the bad being captured/punished eventually, in a conventional way.