Ikkis movie review: Ikkis topon ki salaami, really!

Director Sriram RaghavanCast Agastya Nanda Dharmendra Jaideep Ahlawat Simar BhatiaRating 4 starsI COULD watch Ikkis twice The second time on to notice more The first time of course was to simply feel and observeForemost Dharmendra 1 have to sayAs if it was a demise foretold this is the most fitting tribute to a lead actor who served his audiences for multiple generations and for multiple reasons without quite acquiring the same auraacclaim as some superstars of his vintage did perhapsSomehow I assumed hed have an extended cameo in the film Its a fullfledged part worthy of second billing Wherein Dharmendra also a retired BrigadierArmy man plays the father of late 1971 IndoPak warhero 2nd Lt Arun KhetarpalKhetarpal was 21 So is the warfilm on himIn what can also be seen as a road movie for a trip down memory lane Brigadier Khetarpal visits Pakistan to attend the centenary celebration of his alma mater Le Government College Lahore the alumni of which you can see in portraits include the likes of Balraj Sahni Dev Anand BR ChopraTechnically if it wasnt for the beloved nostalgia that viscerally looms over you as an audience one could deem Dharmendras casting as an inspired but poor choice tooConsider scenes from the early 1970s in the film when he was easily the handsomest young Indian onscreen he appears unflatteringly old in these sequences as well VFXAl can only fix that muchA tightly woven Ikkis smartly scripted by Arijit Biswas Pooja Ladha Surti and director Sriram Raghavan simultaneously flits between three timelines As in 1970 1971 and 2001The latter portions involve Brig Khetarpal fondly recalling even his childhood crush in Lahore a girl named Husna that in turn reminds you of Piyush Mishras Coke Studio song by the same name thats a letter to a beloved in what is today PakistanThe other thing you observe in Ikkis decidedly a war film make no mistakeis the immersive claustrophobic insides of a bloody battletank as the Indian Army advances across the borderKhetarpals formation enters Pakistan through the western front most likely headed toward LahoreAs against the cavalry in Raja Menons recent Pippa 2023 where the armoured regiment charges through the eastern side namely East Pakistan or whats now Bangladesh during the same warI felt Pippa starring Ishaan Khatter for its stunning war sequences with the tank regiment wading through watermarshy lands was a fairly underrated film that sadly went straight to OTT Prime VideoWhat connects it to Ikkis is likewise a fairly green officer going from training straight to war Captain Balram Singh Mehta in that caseWhat separates the two films is chiefly the writerdirector I mean Raghavan Andhad hun He layers this war drama enough to even shine a light on a lot of his musesOne of which is the city of Pune Raghavan if Im not mistaken read film direction at FTII Pune2nd Lt Khetarpal of course went to National Defence Academy Khadakwasla thats technically Punerecreated here from 1970That is 20yearold cadet going on dates at the local cinema watching Billy Wilders romcom Irma la Douce 1963 John Guillermins warfilm The Bridge at Ramagen 1969 picking up a copy of Ernest Hemingways warnovel For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 from Manneys bookstore the rockandroll song at the ballroom is Jaan pehchaan ho from Gumnaam 1965 that became a huge hit outside India after the film Ghost World 2001The humanising of the characters is complete The young boy is in love with the niece Simar Bhatia of the academys adjutant These portions somehow brought to memory my favourite Indian military movie growing up the equally sobering Govind Nihalanis Vijeta 1982 also set in the 71 warFurthermore on the films flip side is a gentle Pakistani Brigadier Jaideep Ahlawat hosting Dharmendra as in Khetarpal Sr picking him from the plane to Pakistan driving him aroundDecades ago hes the guy on the tank who took on young Khetarpal It was December 16 1971 Which I thought was the day the war ended TIL The ceasefire was declared on December 17Be that as it may the socalled enemy in this rare warpic has a human face and an empathetic brain By all accounts Ikkis is a true story It feels unusually intimate Sure wars are political But deaths and lives remain personal stillThis is to take away nothing from the crackerjack battle scenes starring among others Vivaan Shah Sikandar Kher The exhilaration is undeniable As is the subversion The Dop Anil Mehta is dopeAt the centre of Ikkis is of course young Agastya Nanda The Archies playing the similarly young dauntless Arun Khetarpal Indias youngest the Param Vir ChakraSuch a daringly devoted kid although as his boss Rahul Dev on the battlefield tells him only Jung decides the distinction between bravery and stupidity This characters maternal grandfather also served the Army The same can be said for the actors nana Amitabh Bachchan who is indeed Indias greatest superstar Still acting is so much about range that only gets proven over time isnt itThat said simply as a casting choice its hard to imagine anyone better for this partTheres such an unvarnished innocence about Nandas sincere screen presence that no extra drama could so viscerally drive home the films point You say yes to the boy You say no to war

Ikkis movie review: Ikkis topon ki salaami, really!

Director: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra. Jaideep Ahlawat, Simar Bhatia
Rating: 4 stars

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / Ikkis movie review: Ikkis topon ki salaami, really!

Ikkis movie review: Ikkis topon ki salaami, really!

Director: Sriram RaghavanCast: Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra. Jaideep Ahlawat, Simar BhatiaRating: 4 stars

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Director: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra. Jaideep Ahlawat, Simar Bhatia
Rating: 4 stars