Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha’s directorial debut Yodha, backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, is an adrenaline-fueled ride through the skies punctuated by unexpected twists, with Sidharth Malhotra holding the reins.

Sidharth suits up in uniform one more time after his winning performance as war hero Vikram Batra in the 2021 film Shershaah and a not-so-invigorating stint as a cop in Rohit Shetty’s recent web series Indian Police Force. In Yodha, though, Sidharth is in his element as Arun Katyal, a daredevil commando who operates as a one-man army on perilous extraction missions and cares two hoots about the chain of command.

The film wastes no time in thrusting viewers into the action, with a hair-raising opening sequence of Arun neutralising Bangladeshi infiltrators in the Sunderbans. The plot takes a sharp turn when Arun finds himself on sticky ground after his attempt to thwart a plane hijack goes awry and he is charged with insubordination. A few years after the task force is disbanded, Arun, who is still a commando in the Indian Army, gets a shot at redemption when another plane is hijacked.

While Sidharth pulls off the action hero role he is entrusted with, Yodha has a pretty formulaic plot with occasional touches of Hollywood-style hijack thrillers. Arun’s moves to rescue a nuclear scientist, held hostage during the first hijack, might remind you of Die Hard 2, where Bruce Willis’s John McClane worked his way through a similar situation.

Most of the action in Yodha unfolds inside the aircraft and in the first half, Sagar Ambre’s screenplay keeps the atmosphere unpredictable and tense. With the second hijack, the plot shifts gears and keeps you on the edge as it almost seems like Arun could be one of the conspirators — much like Sidharth teaming up with Manoj Bajpayee in Aiyaary (2018) to expose corrupt officials in the Indian Army — laying the foundation for an excellent cat-and-mouse chase.

But the chase never quite takes off as the director duo resort to the kind of jingoism that ails most films of this genre, with the usual terrorists-from-Pakistan-attacking-India narrative taking centre stage. While the baddies mouth dialogues like ‘Agar dono mulko mein shanti ho gayi toh hamara kya hoga’, Arun delivers sermons like ‘Main rahu na rahu, desh rahega’.

There’s Tanuj Virwani, known simply as Khan, as the good Muslim Indian soldier, a character prototype indispensable in patriotism narratives like this.

Sadly, with the film focusing entirely on Sidharth, the supporting characters — be it Tanuj or Disha Patani as air hostess Laila who is in cahoots with the hijackers — are lost in the crowd. Sunny Hinduja, as the antagonist, is forgettable too.

Raashii Khanna, who plays Arun’s wife Priyamvada, a senior bureaucrat at the prime minister’s office, is relegated to the sidelines once the action shifts to the skies, though she and Sidharth have superb chemistry — the duo pay multiple nods to Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s iconic romantic moments, from ‘palat’ (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge) to ‘I don’t like jokes’ (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai).