Ikkis is based on the real-life heroism of Arun Khetarpal, the Param Vir Chakra recipient who laid down his life just after turning 21.
Directed by Sriram Raghavan and produced by Dinesh Vijan and Binny Padda, Ikkis is a biographical war drama film based on the life of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal and revolving around the Battle of Basantar during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The film stars Agastya Nanda as Arun Khetarpal, Dharmendra (in his posthumous film debut) and Jaideep Ahlawat
Arun Khetarpal’s father M L Khetarpal (Dharmendra) goes to revisit those places after his son is dead. A brilliant film, but my only worry is that this kind of a film may not find audience as people are now saturated with war movies. Rather over-saturated.
The story has war, action, emotions and is in a linear narrative about the war which happened at that time (the Indo-Pak war of 1971).
The film will earn a good name, critically it will be appreciated but commercially it may not be a success.
Every frame speaks of Sriram Raghavan’s prowess as a director. He has been a journalist, was my junior for quite some time when he was working with Stardust (few decades ago).
Yes, this was movie keeps the viewer engaged, though this 1971 war story appears dull. What works for the film is the sequence of screenplay and the hero resembles is his uncle Abhishek Bachchan.
It has quite a few songs, though not memorable but the film is filled with patriotism. For a change the Pakistani civilians are not shown in a bad light. I would say that they are portrayed in a balanced light. Because certain Pakistani characters are very friendly towards Dharmendra when the father revisits the places where his young boy Wlaid down his life for the nation.
The Indian soldiers infiltrated into the Pakistan territory and nobody amongst the civilians there antagonizes them. However this young soldier is killed by one stray bullet which is sent towards their enemy (Indian armed forces).
As Ikkis is purely based on facts, I would say that this is sort of a documentation of the events that unfolded back then. There are several striking moments and it is difficult to pinpoint, but one thing is certain that the viewer would come out of the cinema hall with a heavy heart.
As for the performances, it was Dharmendraji’s last performance and wow it was truly a wonderful performance for an actor of his age (he was 88-89 at that time). It was actually an emotional performance, and wow, that means really truly good performance by 88-89 year old man.
There are many moments that make you teary eyed, particularly those of Dharamji. Overall, Ikkis is that war film that reminds you of classics like Border (1997) or even Haqeekat (1964) and this movie leaves them all behind in terms of production quality and it’s impact.
However, I feel that maybe the new generation might not go with it because it is a story about 1972 that has tanks and the older generation type of a warfare, unlike the latest wars that we now see on television such as missiles, mach 2 and 3 war fighters and the modern warfare weaponry.
– Review by JYOTHI VENKATESH
Cast of Ikkis –
Dharmendra as M L Khetarpal
Jaideep Ahlawat as Brigadier Khwaja Mohammed Naseer (Pakistani)
Agastya Nanda as Arun Khetarpal
Simar Bhatia
Shree Bishnoi as SWR Parag Singh
Ekavali Khanna as Maryam Nisar
Mansi Chawla as Kiran’s friend
Sikandar Kher
Aryan Pushkar as Avtar Ahlawat
Mohan Godara as Labh Singh
Kunal Mann as Harsha Gupta
Vinay Chhoker as Sher Singh
Kailash Gowthaman as Brijendra Singh
Kuldeep Singh Thakur as G.V. Kulkarni
Yogesh Bhardwaj as Airforce officer
Madhusudan Bishnoi as SWR Bishwanath Singh
Chittavasu Prakash as Shivam Diwan (NDA Cadet)
Pragati Anand as Kiran’s friend
Ajaypal Singh as Rajinder Singh
Vivaan Shah
Aadyanshi Kapoor
Narinder Singh
Pankaj Rajput
Hardeep Singh
Rajdeep Bhattacharya
Ashok Anand
Krish Singh Chauhan
Credits of Ikkis –
Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Antara Banerjee
Executive producers – Ashish Chauhan, Jaspal Dogra
Co-producer – Sidhu Manpreet
Writers – Arijit Biswas, Sriram Raghavan, Pooja Ladha Surti
Cinematographer – Anil Mehta
Editors – Monisha R Baldawa, Pooja Ladha Surti
