Rather than blaming the politicians… it’s high time that our voters particularly from educated and affluent class wake up and take an oath to vote with 100% voting , as against 45% as in the past.

We all must judge and select right kind of educated politicians to change the quality of our Parliament and The Government of India. Each and every citizen must vote rather than sitting at home on the day of voting-holiday.

Leaving the final outcome on only 45% of the voters, to select poor quality of policy makers who influence them to vote more on communal or individual issues.

Please remember we choose our Politicians and the Government and shape our fate.
Not getting 100% votes from the educated class will bring poor quality of leaders which is the root issue that we need to understand today.

Subhash Ghai

Well, I don’t blame them because this is their mindset and their choices are influenced by today’s trends. It is a Subhash Ghai film, critics will judge it, find faults, compare it with the ‘great’ films I made earlier like Karz and Taal… quite forgetting that they also ruthlessly bashed these films on the days of their release. But critics have their likes and dislikes. While a section of the media in Mumbai wrote off the film as being “ordinary”, critics in many other cities loved Yuvvraaj and gave it three and four stars, with one renowned film journalist declaring it as “one of the finest films of 2008”. What can I say, now?

But, yes… even for me, the film did below expectations, I thought it would be a huge hit on Day One. The pace of the screenplay is slow, true, but people have appreciated its scale, and also the cinematic work, the good emotional moments and big music on screen. The narrative of the film’s music has classical dimensions and brings Indian classical and western classical together. I could not go with a speedy flick like Race, 36 China Town or any popcorn film. In Yuvvraaj, everything was executed very carefully with a stay-on screen, whether it was the set, colour, dances, locales… and it was my decision to create a family drama laced with unusual visuals and big music and song picturisation like never before. I know the collections were slow to begin with, but the film has settled down and is, in fact, picking up.

What do you expect with this present day musical drama involving three brothers that is neat and clean and has no sex or action, from a senior filmmaker like me? Yuvvraaj is not a weekender but is going to live for years to come.

People are also curious to know whether I had any differences with my stars. I can now share that Salman Khan called me at night after watching the complete film in a dubbing theatre and he said it was “outstanding”. Anil Kapoor attended the Delhi premiere and said the film was “mind-blowing”. But, really, I find it tough to judge my own film after I have been working on it for a year. And… this year has been pretty taxing for me because I had two releases in Black and White and Yuvvraaj, both of different sensibilities and genre, whereas I’m used to making one film in two years! But Black and White ran for 100 days in Mumbai and was critically acclaimed. That’s what I wanted. It gave me great pride to make this kind of film … it was so unlike Subhash Ghai! Though I never really mind it when the industry attacks me. I say, God bless those who do not know what they are saying. I am a happy man, I enjoy other directors’ films, I saw Dostana and Golmaal, I appreciate young directors like Karan Johar with young thoughts and young blood. As for me… I move on, I have two scripts in hand, three productions, a film with Abbas Mastan to launch soon, Mukta Arts and Whistling Woods… and so much to write in such a short time…

Yuvraaj Review
By Subhash K Jha

Starring Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif
Directed by Subhash Ghai
Rating: ***

Cello, yeh film chalegi. How tender is the night when the stars shimmer down in a camera-reflected glory !

Subhash Ghai’s loveliest film in years has a symphonic texture, feel and movement to it .

From the opening shots of Katrina Kaif labouring lusciously over the cello to the near-closing montage when Boman Irani, playing a zany surgeon, hops skips and jumps in the hospital corridor to announce the hero’s recovery, Yuvraaj constantly reworks old themes such as family ties and unequal love-matches, to suit a new climate and clientele. It says it’s okay to want money. But it’s not okay to sacrifice family for funds. The palate is passionate. The look feel and flavour of the presentation are near-exquisite. Subhash Ghai’s hard-earned reputation as a showman is on show here with shimmering austerity. Less is constantly more in Yuvraaj. The story of three wealthy brothers battling for the billions after their tycoon Babuji’s death, cannot be entirely exonerated of excesses. The supporting characters of ghoulish wealth- diggers and cleavage-revealing sirens seem straight of Ghai’s Ram Lakhan and Trimurti. But all said and done there’s a delicacy to the narration that most cinema today is unable to a achieve.

Yuvraaj is not a film in a hurry. Though the pacing is even and stable and feelings are frequently created out of the background score, it seldom gets cumbersome to watch. Cinematographer Kabir Lal and art designer Oomang Kumar make sure our interest level in the incidents in the Yuvraaj family never flags.

The performances are frequently charming and at times intruiging in their shadowy suggestions. The writer, played by Aushima Sawhney flits in and out with stealth and grace serving as both narrator and equalizer in this tumultuous tale of greed and redemption. And that kid Bala who plays our autistic hero Anil Kapoor’s loyal friend. He seldom speaks and remains an innocent mute spectators to the selfserving avarice of the rest of the characters. After over-the-top performances in some hideous comedies Anil Kapoor is in full form as a psychologically impaired musical genius . The character’s vulnerability and lack of man-made manoeuvrings are expressed in the tenderest heart-melting expressions of a mind that doesn’t understand money materialism and manipulation.

Kapoor holds the film and its loose ends together and serves as a reference point for this morality tale of our times. Lower down the cast Zayed Khan as his kid brother pumps in the right amount of hedonistic confusion into his spoilt-rick brat’s act.

But clearly the double stars of the show are A R Rahman’s music and Gulzar’s lyrics. Blending into the supremely - mellow fabric of Ghai’s culturally-contradictory characters’ chaotic inner worlds the music blends symphonic elements into a big large epic desi sound.The songs and music often echo the characters’ inner worlds. Seamless in its splendid synthesis of feelings and sounds, and avoiding over-punctation except in the eye-catching Broadway-like broad and bubbly choregraphy Yuvraaj catches the characters’ inner world in a state of reposeful grace. The excesses, when they occur are often doubly embarrassing because of the film’s continually fine structure and style . Often as the narration take steep cultural swerves from Prague to Austria to London Ghai puts in interior sequences on badly-done-up sets that intrude on the narration’s streamlined motivations. It’s not often that we come across a film where the written word is replicated by the visuals. Yuvraajallows us a view into troubled and torn characters’ souls. The beauty of its presentation is in its high level of aesthetics that frequently appear in unexpected areas of emphatic cinematic expression.

Some moments such as the one where Anil Kapoor sings publicly for the first time are heartstopping in their sensitivity. At times Subhash Ghai loses a gripover the narration specially when some of the actors choose to do their own thing rather than remain in character. But let’s not quibble. There’s so much in Yuvraaj to be thankful for. The splendour of the locales never overpowers the characters’ right to be where they are. As in Pardes and the underrated Yaadein, Subhash Ghai questions joint-family values and the rapidly-changing equations in modern times. At one point in the later-half Zayed’s character can’t look at itself in the mirror. While pricking our collective conscience Yuvraaj rarely throws up a moment when we can’t look Ghai’s vision straight in the eye. He knows his craft only to well. And how to keep the characters within a morally-correct range of vision without making them look caricatural.

Yuvraaj is among the finest films of 2008.

Anybody who loves salman should see yuvvraaj and all those who hate salman should watch yuvraaj and you will start loving him

hi sir, iam big fan of salman hw ur experience with working with him, u said right in ur previous interview that most of filmmaker dont capitalize salman acting well, they only uses his star power,my humble reguest to u that to tell them hw excellent performer n actor is salman ,sallu n kat look amazing ,i think they r made 4 each other,mr. ghai plz increase freguency of yuvvraaj promos in all channel n give more n more interview n promotion ,n thanks 4 yuvvraaj gr8 music looking forward to see it in first day first show, sir do u think this film give salman first filmfare award 4 best actor. Thanks

you are so right ‘salman has a lot of talent yet to be exploited on the screen. I am glad that he has given a great performance along with his stardom status that he enjoys. KK and Salman exibit a great chemistry on screen in Yuvvraaj.

Love - SG

Dear all, thank you so much for your wishes and support on the film as well as the blog.  Please do mention the name of your city  along with your name :love: SG

‘Yuvvraaj’ is an interesting play of mind games of young ones of today’s time but woven with grand music all the way which gives you goose bumps at many junctions of the screenplay with great moments and performances from my lead stars Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Zayed Khan and Katrina Kaif. Katrina plays the love interest of Salman. Both of them display the finest chemistry on screen ever. Katrina plays a musician of International repute and a catalyst in this film. It packs in enough complex emotions making it an entertaining drama.

 And I have left no stone unturned to showcase the film and picturize the songs on a grand scale. No tiny screen can give you the rich visual experience and orchestral sound that you would experience only on the big screen. So my appeal to you is to experience this motion picture only on  a big screen. ‘Yuvvraaj’ has been designed by my ace technicians like A. R. Rahman (music director & background music),Gulzar (lyricist), Kabir Lal (cinematographer) and Omung Kumar (art director) . ‘Yuvvraaj’ is more of a feel-good-film rather than a great film. Coz all great films happen by accidents… not by conscious attempts, isn’t it?

I will be frequently visiting the Yuvvraaj blog and you will hear a lot more from me on Yuvvraaj. So happy blogging!