Yuvvraaj/Raja

Yuvvraaj, is heavily inspired by Barry Levinson's Dustin Hoffman-Tom Cruise starrer, Rain Man (1988), which had, in 1995, been Indianised into Raja by Indra Kumar. The story, is, simply, about the relationship between two brothers, one of whom is mentally challenged.

In Raja, the Brijnath or Birju (Paresh Rawal) is already disturbed by the refusal of his friend Rana Mahendra Pratap Garewal (Mukesh Khanna) to accept his brother Raja's marriage proposal for his (Rana's) younger sister Madhu. The two has been promised to each other as children, but Rana's refuses to consider it, since Birju's status does not match his own. Later, an accident causes Birju to become mentally handicapped and Raja has to look after him.

Raja (Sanjay Kapoor) and Madhu (Madhuri Dixit) meet each other again as grown-ups and fall in love. Rana and his wicked brother Vishwa (Dalip Tahil) want to keep the two apart. But when Raja suffers all kinds of humiliation and torture but does not waver in his love for Madhu, Rana pretends to give in and accept Raja as Madhu's suitor. While Raja is away, Rana invites Birju to stay with them. When he is there, they have one of their henchmen dress like Birju and attempt to rape Madhu. Rana and Vishwa forcibly send Birju to a mental hospital.

Now Raja has to choose between his brother and Madhu. She genuinely believes it was Birju who attacked her. But Raja believes his brother, who says he is innocent, and sets out to reveal Rana's evil plot. Even Madhu has to concede, finally, that she was mistaken, and her brothers had set her up. To the story of two brothers, Indra Kumar had added the romantic track and all the melodramatic masalato appeal to Indian audiences and the film did click at the box-office, helped in no small measure by Madhuri Dixit's superstar status then, and Nadeem-Shravan's hit score. The Nazrein mili.. love you Raja (with Madhuri dressed in just a kurta) was a chart-buster, along with Kisi din banoongi main Raja ki Rani.

Madhuri Dixit and Paresh Rawal were nominated for awards for their performances, and both won the Screen Awards that year. Rajawas a hit, but can't say that it was a memorable film, and it certainly didn't do anything for Sanjay Kapoor's career.