It’s normal to watch a film only for the director. And therefore, Sriram Raghavan, attempting a war drama inspired by some real-life events, was enough to get our hopes high. Titled Ikkis, starring Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra, and Jaideep Ahlawat, revolves around the life of the Param Veer Chakra awardee, Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who lost his life in the Battle of Basantar during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Interestingly, this film carries an anti-war message, but unfortunately, the kind of emotions one would expect from such a subject are completely missing, and it’s the writing to blame for that. Read our review as I elaborate on the same!
Plot
The story keeps switching between the past and present. Past here is set in the 1970s when the Indo-Pak happened. The events are inspired by the life of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal (Agastya Nanda), a tank commander who lost his life while displaying immense courage on the battlefield. The film shows us his journey from his days at the NDA and his determination to become the best tank commander. The love interest of Arun Khetarpal is played by debutante Simar Bhatia. The other half of the film revolves around Arun’s father, late Brigadier M.L Khetarpal (Dharmendra) who visits Pakistan for his school reunion, and stays at Pakistan’s Major Nassar’s (Jaideep Ahlawat) house. During his three-day visit to Pakistan, M.L Khetarpal also visits his hometown where they resided before partition, and the place where his son was martyred. There is also something that Nasser wants to tell him, but that revelation is reserved for the end of the film. This two major developments forms the basic premise of Ikkis!
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues
The screenplay becomes the weakest point of Ikkis and it obstructs many emotions that are expected from a war film dealing with emotions of patriotism, loss, pride, loss and so much more. The transition between the past and present is so haphazard, and this is felt mainly in the first half of the film where major plot development takes place. The impact of the story would have been so much more if it wasn’t this scattered. The on-screen love story between Agastya Nanda and Simar Bhatia is an unnecessary distraction which does nothing substantial for the plot. Good dialogues are lacking big time in the film. There are several scenes that comes out of nowhere and one questions if it was just a deliberate attempt to evoke empathy in the audience. One of them features Deepak Dobriyal!
It’s also the the scenes of Dharamendra and Jaideep Ahlawat that brings some heartlfelt human emotions in the movie, and most of the credit goes to their performances. Agastya’s story as Arun Kheterpal which should have been the major highlight feels underwhelming and loosely stitched. And since that is is given little to no effort, the end, despite knowing that it’s a sad does not leave you with any kinds of afterthoughts. The film attempts to sends across the message for peace and anti-war through Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat’s story, and white that bit is effective because of the actors’ performances, the films tends a to lose track of the plot due to many loopholes in its storytelling.
Visuals
It’s very important for us to have an immersive experience while watching a war film, but Ikkis fails to give us that. Most of the scenes, especially the ones on the battlefield look so staged, whitewashed, and edited that it takes away even the slightest hope that you are watching anything real on the screen. There is a scene where the camera stops to show us a dead soldier, and yet there is no emotion felt because the film absolutely ignores the idea of making it look real, raw and excrutiatingly painful, as battlefields are. We’ve have watched several war films to know that.
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Performances
Agastya Nanda has given his best, however, the actor does look stiff in many frames. The conviction in the dialogue delivery and expressions is absolutely missing.
It’s Dharmendra’s last film, and it’s a reminder why he holds such a special place in our hearts. It’s when the actor is not acting moment on the screen whenever the veteran star appears. Every dialogue he speaks is delivered with so much love, passion and warmth. His camaraderie with Jaideep Ahlawat is quite heartwarming. Both the actors bring authentic charm to their respective characters. It’s their scenes that evoke all the feelings!
Sikandar Kher and Simar Bhatia have also played their parts well.
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Verdict
Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis is thoughtful and has a very important story to tell, a message to convey. However, the film needed better execution in terms of writing, direction, and screenplay. While it does not choose the usual way of telling us a war film, and avoids filling it with jingoisms, however, the impact still goes missing due to the loosely stitched plot and lack of good dialogues. Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat deliver impressive performances and do absolute justice to their roles. It’s currently running in theatres.