Absolute Review: Yashoda: Samantha puts her best but a dragged storyline comes as a disappointment

By Shachi Chaturvedi

Cast: Samantha as Yashoda, Unni Mukundan as Dr Gautham, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar as Madhubala and ensembles

Director: Hari and Haresh

Runtime: 2h 14m

Rating: 2/5

Synopsis

A pregnant woman named Yashodha is advised to follow a few guidelines about her physical and mental well-being and safety. However, a set of events occur that make Yashoda live on the edge, risking her well-being.

Review

The film starts with the death of a supermodel and a Miss India finalist. This causes a chain of events to unfold, culminating in the exposure of a ring that kills foetuses and uses their plasma to make beauty products.

The film’s logical problems are one of its major flaws. The film is set in a surrogacy centre that is depicted as high-tech and packed with cameras. But Sam easily eludes them. Such scenes abound and appear a little over the top.

The film begins on a promising note until Samantha arrives at the surrogacy centre. The film then falls flat as scenes about ragging and centre details drag on for no apparent reason.
A more linear screenplay and a more concise narrative would have helped.

The film could have been more emotionally powerful because the true cause of Varalaxmi’s transformation and Vrinda’s journey to the surrogacy centre is not well depicted. More depth and pain in her role would have heightened the villain’s motivation. In some ways, the bond between key characters is frail.

Casting Samantha in such a role is a battle half won because she possesses the aura of both a normal poor girl who is enamoured with the beauty of a Hitech surrogacy centre and a badass. When it comes to Unni Mukundan and Varalaxmi’s roles, they have put their best foot forward, but the characters could use some grooming because they are a little loosely written. Despite the fact that the entire cast gives their all, the dragged screenplay and sloppy storyline disappoint.

The film does manage to deliver some emotionally charged scenes that will leave you in tears. One such scene is when the women in the centre explain why they chose the deal. At the same time, the film has too many flaws, such as the criminal easily accepting the crime in front of the deals and the security guard not using their guns and waiting for Samantha to snatch it.

When it comes to the film’s music, it manages to stand out because it conveys the idea and feeling to the audience. Moving on to the technical aspects of the film, the runtime appears to be too stretched, and a few scenes are over-exaggerated and difficult to believe. There are times when animated objects clearly appear to be animated.

Final Verdict

The movie is a dragged screenplay about an important issue, which can be skipped.