Yellow Board movie review: An interesting idea gets buried in Pradeep’s latest commercial potboiler

2.5/5

Story: Kiran (Pradeep) is an honest cab driver, whose life revolves around his love, Priya (Ahalya Suresh), a few regular passengers and, of course, his friends. When Kiran becomes a suspect in an attack on a woman, he comes up with a plan that he believes will be beneficial in ensuring the safety of women. Unfortunately for him, the case against him gets stronger. Can he prove his innocence, while also implementing his master plan?

Review: On paper, the premise on which Pradeep’s film Yellow Board, directed b y Trilok Reddy, is based sounds interesting. In a city like Bengaluru, there are only about 250 Hoysala police vehicles on patrol, which would mean that in the case of a distress call, it could take at least 10 minutes for the nearest one to reach the spot. Namma ooru, however, is also populated with at least a lakh cabs, which, if connected to one network could reduce the response time to about three minutes. Cab drivers also often bear the brunt of unreasonable passenger behaviour, perhaps owing to a few rotten apples, but this can’t be reason to generalize and brand them all bad.

But when you take this and make a pucca commercial film of it, the intent, sadly, is not really going to register. I watched Yellow Board today at the only show available in the nearest multiplex. The rest of the crowd, which was, surprisingly, fairly large, seemed to be an unruly bunch of college kids, who had no idea who the hero was, had something to say for every dialogue and scene and even guessed certain lines before it was actually said. Not the most conducive environment you may think, but it was actually quite entertaining, given that the film wasn’t doing a great job at that.

The film opens with a few young women abducted in a potential human trafficking racket. A female journalist, who chances upon the getaway vehicle, follows them and inadvertently gets locked in with the victims, one of who is a school girl, in the temporary hideout they are kept at without access to her mobile phone. Urging the victims to be brave and stand up for themselves, she proceeds to tell them the story of a cab driver, who inspired her. I shook my head in disbelief that a bunch of women would be game to listen to a love story – romantic duet included – while their own lives are under threat.

Amid all this, in the second half, even Sadhu Kokila gets a few minutes in a role that anyone could have done. I fail to understand this penchant for a forced comedy track that does little for the narrative or story in Kannada films. Yellow Board is a Pradeep ‘vehicle’, quite literally, from start-to-finish, and the actor gives it his all, although, he could do with some refinement in the romantic sequences. It is, however, unfortunate that this effort comes in a film that falters at many levels. Imagine a jail break out scene in which Pradeep scales the boundary wall with the support of only a bamboo pole. Ahalya Suresh and Sneha Singh do their best in their limited roles. The film could have benefited with a better villain in the tale, as well as some fresh action sequences. The stunts here remind you of every other commercial film – group of thugs take turns to get beaten up by hero; they manage to get a blows on him too and even when he is down and out, a pep talk is all it takes to have him back on his feet to finish the job.

Verdict: Truth be told, am not sure if this film was meant to be a tribute to cab drivers or a call to action. Either which way, it seems doubtful that the objective was met.