Yuva carries a rawness in terms of characterisation and visualisation that is seldom seen in movies that focus on bringing in a commercial aspect to it. The film might start off as an abrupt mixture of three different incidents happening simultaneously and seem a little messy, but only as the film proceeds do we realise that the interconnection of these scenes happens at the crucial moments of the characters’ lives.
The narrative shuffles between a socio-political drama and a romantic movie and the essence of the movie wouldn’t have been the same if the romantic aspect would have been left out, as that is when we get to peak into the personal lives of the characters. The dynamic between the duos shows the importance of the role that a female plays in terms of shaping the male characters. The arrival and departure of the women on the trains brought about a new aspect to their character arcs. With the undue support of his open-minded girlfriend, ‘Michael’ was encouraged to pursue his fights for social rights, while the encouragement from ‘Shasi’ to change ‘Samba’ into a better person only frustrated his misogynistic self. A carefree playboy like ‘Arjun’ didn’t have to think twice to abandon his dreams of settling abroad for the love of his life and also for the newly discovered love towards his country due to ‘Michael’. This behaviour also shows how the characterisation is typically true in association with the classes they belong to. With ‘Samba’ coming from the lower-middle class, ‘Michael’ belonging to a middle-class family and, ‘Arjun’ coming from an upper-middle class family, the story appeals to the different strata of the society.
While every other character lived up to what I had expected of them, the characterisation of ‘Samba’ took me by surprise, as when I first witnessed the toxic masculinity being projected so outrageously, a part of me expected this trait to take a turn eventually and follow the typical transformation arc of a character, but Samba stuck true to his traits throughout- where his individual goals blind him to see the chaos that he’s responsible for. Although, it left me a little confused as to what made him hold his ground so firmly about being the bad guy when all his dear ones were drifting apart from him.
The story shines a light upon the primal instinct of men to fight and be a dominant part of the society till the end- ignorance of Shasi’s constant advices to lead a good life, ‘Durgamma’ not contesting in the elections until her brother encouraged her while the other members of the society were a little hesitant about it, and Suchitra being the only female member in the Assembly.
What I really liked about the end is that it doesn’t leave the audience with a false hope that typically every film about nationalism does- that change begins with just one action, typically fighting a petition or standing up in the elections. Maniratnam doesn’t paint such a pretty and peaceful picture into the minds of the audience with the dialogue he ends the movie with: “We have witnessed many people enter politics being motivated by the progress it can bring, but politics changes people. You’ll find out eventually. Welcome!” Youth standing up in the elections isn’t enough with the huge predators of political play that can sway and drain one away from the actual motive they were there for in the first place. Surviving and sticking around through all of the dirty tricks is what matters.
Overall, there is a good balance of showing realism aesthetically. In the end, while everyone else in the Assembly wore the same whites, the newly elected youth gang bring in some colour to the assembly. The soundtracks are beautiful and ‘Sankurathri Kodi’ is the only song that I can recollect during that time period that talked so openly about females’ sexual desires. The editing style of shifting between time periods and different stories brilliantly brings out the perspectives of the different characters involved and keeps the audience hooked throughout.