Yuvasena - 4 The People Review

In many ways, Yuvasena is an amplification of youthful righteous indignation. Most youths, before they fall prey to the inexorable and ineluctable corrupt system, harbor notions of cleaning it. It is a feeling that combines Naxalism, Communism with the wide-eyed enthusiasm for the world.

What when this feeling is carried further? Well, this fantasy is explored in Jayaraj's Yuvasena (4 The People). Aravind (Sarvanand) Vivek (Bharat), Siva (Kishore) and Rafi (Padma Kumar) are four angry and angst-ridden young men who cannot stand the corruption in the system. They form the secretive clique called 4 The People (their dress code is black and everything about them is black) that takes out corrupt officials. So how do they get information on venal officials? Well, they have a website and the public can lodge their complaints on that.

Soon the police are on their tracks. A young cop Sarath Chandra (Suresh Menon) is in hot pursuit of the gang. Though he manages to pin them down, thee is a twist in the tale.

It is a simple story told in an appealing sort of way. In terms of acting, the four boys are adequate, though the girls (especially the now more popular Gopika) have nothing much to do. Suresh Menon cuts a fine impression as an honest cop.

The film has been a hit in Malayalam and Tamil primarily because it convincingly romanticized a youthful dream. The plot cannot work in real life. But such fictitious fantasy is needed to sustain our hopes.

And director Jeyaraj has packaged this utopian dream in an alluring array of songs and dances. The music by Jassie Gift is already rage in the south. Reggae, rap, raga medley has caught the imagination of the youths. The editing and cinematography are also stylized and attractive.

The film works because its speaks a modern idiom even though the story has been told in several films before.