General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Yodha

Yodha (योद्धा) is a 1991 Hindi-language action drama film directed by Rahul Rawail, starring Sunny Deol as the lawyer Karan Srivastav and Sanjay Dutt as Suraj Singh, a man drawn into working for an underworld don who hides behind a judge's respectability.¹^•² It was released in India on 22 February 1991 and was produced by Karim Morani, Bunty Soorma, and Aly Morani for Cineyug Films.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Release	22 February 1991 (India), Hindi language, action drama¹
Director and writer	Rahul Rawail; screenplay by K.K. Singh¹
Lead cast	Sunny Deol (Advocate Karan Srivastav), Sanjay Dutt (Suraj Singh), Sangeeta Bijlani (Vidya Agnihotri)¹
Antagonist	Danny Denzongpa as Daaga, also known as Justice Dharmesh Agnihotri, a judge secretly running an underworld operation²
Music	Bappi Lahiri; lyrics by Anand Bakshi; four songs plus an instrumental theme⁴
Runtime	142 minutes per IMDb; Box Office India lists 144 minutes¹^•⁵
Box office	Budget of ₹28.5 million (₹2.85 crore); the film failed commercially⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The film follows two men on a collision course. Karan Srivastav is a respected lawyer whose honesty has earned him many enemies, including Suraj Singh. Karan's father, the journalist Chandrakant Srivastav (played by Shafi Inamdar), dies in circumstances officially called suicide, and Karan is convinced he was murdered; at one point he gets himself arrested to get close to the imprisoned criminals who might be responsible.¹^•³^•⁷

Suraj Singh, addicted to drugs, watches his girlfriend being assaulted while helpless to intervene, and afterwards vows to end drug dealing, becoming a hit man for the underworld don Daaga, who is in fact Justice Dharmesh Agnihotri operating under a veil of respectability.² The don exploits the rivalry between Karan and Suraj, turning them into bitter enemies, while both remain unaware that a single man is responsible for the ruin of both their lives.² In Apple TV's summary, the plot is described in broader strokes: Karan works as a lawyer and Suraj is portrayed as someone fate has treated badly, yet both end up on the same side of a struggle, confronting lawless elements in an effort to cleanse society of its problems.⁷

Cast

Sunny Deol plays Advocate Karan Srivastav and Sanjay Dutt plays Suraj Singh, with Sangeeta Bijlani as Vidya Agnihotri, Paresh Rawal as Chagganlal, Danny Denzongpa as Daaga, Shafi Inamdar as Chandrakant Srivastav, Annu Kapoor as Umeed Singh, and Shilpa Shirodkar in a special appearance.¹^•⁸ A contemporary retrospective account describes Shilpa Shirodkar's role as a cameo cast opposite Sanjay Dutt, with Danny (Denzongpa) as the main antagonist.⁹

Production and release

The film was produced under Cineyug Films by Karim Morani, Bunty Soorma, and Aly Morani, with Pravin Bhatt as director of photography.³^•⁸ According to Moviebuff, the film was initially titled Be-Naqaab, and its production was delayed because Sanjay Dutt had to make repeated trips to New York for the cancer treatment of his wife Richa Sharma.⁸ A Hindi-language retrospective gives the budget as ₹28.5 million (₹2.85 crore) and states that the film lost money at the box office.⁶

A second Deol–Dutt failure. Yodha was the second time Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt acted together, after Kroadh (1990). IMDb's trivia notes that after Kroadh flopped, the pair returned with this film, which also failed at the box office.¹ A retrospective review published in 2021 places the release at Alankar Cinema, Mumbai, on 22 February 1991, and calls it below average at the box office, adding that expectations had been high because the Deol–Dutt pairing had given a decent earner in Kroadh less than a year earlier.⁹ The same review judges Rawail's direction as not on the level of his earlier Arjun (1985) and Dacait (1987), though not bad for 1991, when multistarrer action films still worked commercially.⁹

Music

The soundtrack was composed by Bappi Lahiri with lyrics by Anand Bakshi. The album contains four songs and an instrumental theme:⁴

"Duniya Mein Jeena Hai To", performed by Amit Kumar, Kumar Sanu, and Anupama Deshpande⁴
"Pyar Bada Mushkil Hai", performed by Amit Kumar and Alka Yagnik⁴
"Whole Day Whole Night", performed by Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik⁴
"Ladka Kunwara", performed by Asha Bhosle⁴
"Yodha Theme", instrumental⁴

Reception and availability

The film holds a 4.6/10 rating on IMDb from 358 user votes, and it is referenced in the 2009 film 99.¹ Rotten Tomatoes lists no critic reviews or audience ratings for it.³ The film has remained available on streaming platforms: it streams on Netflix in India, and Apple TV offers it for rent or purchase in the United States, with Sun NXT and Google Play among other outlets listed by filmi.ai.¹⁰^•³^•¹¹

The title Yodha (meaning warrior) has also been used for other Indian films, including a 2024 Hindi film starring Sidharth Malhotra, which is a separate work.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1990s › Action and thriller films › Released 1990 to 1995

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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