‘Imagine’ a world without the Beatles? We can never come to think of it, but in Danny Boyle’s comedy – fantasy flick, this actually comes true and we are left fascinated by the turn of events. 

Himesh Patel plays Jack a struggling musician who is fed up with his fledging singing career graph and decides to go back to work as a teacher, but is persuaded by his girlfriend – manager Ellie (Lily James) to keep going. 

On his way home after a gig on his bike, Jack is knocked down by a bus in the middle of a global electricity outage. When he awakens in the hospital bed, Ellie is by his side, recalling the accident and reminding him that he’s missing his two front teeth. He soon discovers, he is the only one who has heard of The Beatles.

A dental visit and Jack is back on his feet, and just how he looked in the beginning. As the only one who remembers the Beatles, his first flash is singing the song Yesterday as his own song and moving on to the entire Beatles back catalogue. Ellie is surprised at his new songs and encourages him to write more such songs.

A Google check doesn’t get him answers as to the Beatles, showing up as ‘beetles’. Even Coke is not found on the Internet. It soon dawns on the audience that the Phenomenal Four or Fab Four and their music have been entirely erased from the collective consciousness by everyone in the world. With one of the world’s finest musical back catalogues at his fingertips, the temptation is all too much for Jack.

There are some great moments with Jack’s parents and his manager. These early scenes are full of meaning, with Jack trying to recall the lyrics of Eleanor Rigby and trying to play Let It Be to his parents. His parents joking with him and interrupting the song as Leave It Be, whiletheir English neighbor stuns Jack by saying Let him Be.

Initially he doesn’t take things seriously and continues with his job in a supermarket warehouse, until he’s spotted by Ed Sheeran (yes the musician is playing himself here) and is invited to be support on the singer’s tour where he sings Back in the USSR at a Moscow gig. He becomes famous taking credit for writing and performing their songs.He’s soon approached by the rather freaky Hollywood agent Hannah (Kate McKinnon) to sign on and meet the requirements to conquer the world and soon enough they’re planning the release of the biggest album in the history of music.

While all his success is taking him places, his romance with Ellie is shot down. He realizes it only too late that his greedy quest for fame and fortune may have cost him his childhood best friend and stalwart supporter who was always with him in his bad days.

With time Jack realizes the truth about the Beatles. Will the weight of the lie make him continue to be an impersonator and rake in millions. Will he be found out? Will it be revealed that his greatest work is actually someone else’s? Will he also make up with Ellie?

‘Yesterday’ plays with the songs of the Beatles all done finely by Jack, with a sprinkling of humor thrown in all around. Patel is a gifted vocalist and gives off a good performance and sings the Beatles songs with real soul, a charming performer as an actor too. Lily James cements her standing as Britain’s and Jack’s sweetheart. The dialogue is pretty catchy too. On another occasion Jack says to Ellie, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”and Ellie replies: “What do you mean? Why 64?”.

Boyle who gave us the Oscar-winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ excels once again and brings on a film that should be remembered for a long time. It also brings a love side to it, which the Beatles were known for (almost all their songs are about love), while introducing the Ed Sheeran generation fans to music they have probably never heard before.

The film releases in India today.

Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry,Kate McKinnon

Directed By: Danny Boyle

Duration: 1. 56 minutes.

Reviewed By Verus Ferreira