With International Women’s Day just around the corner, Trilok Reddy’s Yellow Board, which revolves around a cab driver and his concern for women’s safety, couldn’t have been released at a better time. While sending a strong message across with his film, the director also sprinkles romance, comedy, friendship, and a murder mystery into the narrative, which entertains and keeps the audience captivated throughout.
The story is stitched around Kiran (Pradeep), a middle-class youngster and a no-nonsense cab driver, who tries to develop a rapport with his passengers. While he is content with his life and is happy spending time with his love interest Priya (Ahalya Suresh) and fellow cabbie friends, Kiran’s life turns topsy-turvy when he is arrested for the murder of his friend, Monisha (Sneha Kushi).
Parallelly, we also see how Kiran’s initiative to improve the safety of women gets very little support. This is where we see how the equation between Monisha and Kiran was developed, and how he is finally accused of her murder.
How Kiran goes about proving his innocence is what makes the rest of the story, which also touches upon the utility of an app that acts as an emergency alert for women. Yellow Board is a rare mix of being a clean entertainer and informative to boot. Although Trilok successfully manages to mostly avoid loopholes, he does succumb to the commercial film template and dilutes the script at certain places.
Pradeep as a cab driver has shouldered many responsibilities and he gets good support from Ahalya Suresh, Sadhu Kokila, Chandana Raghavendra, Sneha Kushi, Bhavani Prakash, and Srinivas. Macroscopically, Yellow Board might be about cab drivers, their lives, and their relationship with passengers, but when you go close enough, we understand that the film’s biggest takeaway is its commentary on women’s safety.
Yellow Board
Cast: Pradeep, Ahalya Suresh, Chandana Raghavendra, Sneha Kushi, and Bhavani Prakash
Directed by: Trilok Reddy
Rating: 3/5