The ‘Leaders’ in Yuva
Mani Ratnam’s Yuva, which depicted the relationship between India’s youth and politics, is relevant even today. The filmmaker divided Yuva into three segments, each charting the male protagonist’s journey till they intersect at the climax.
The protagonist of the first story is Abhishek Bachchan aka Lallan Singh, a young man who is financially challenged. Despite the energy, Lallan’s lack of ambition fails to get him a job. That’s when he gets introduced to Gopal Singh (Sonu Sood), a local leader and right-hand man of politician Prosonjit Bhattacharya (Om Puri). Lallan forgets about his family and gravitates towards Singh, even landing behind the bars twice.
The second character is a college union leader Michael Mukherjee (Ajay Devgn). Steeped in idealism, Michael has bigger political aspirations. He played the role of an ‘ideal’ leader in a Kolkata university, but didn’t shy away from taking on Prosonjit’s…