Cast – Agastya Nanda, Simar Bhatia, Dharamendra, Jaideep Alhawat, Deepak Dobriyal, and others
Duration – 2 Hours and 27 Minutes
Ikkis is a biography that highlights the contribution of a young soldier, Arun Khetripal, who was martyred during the 1971 Indo-Pak war at the age of 21. Along with how he was as a person and how he got into the army, the movie throws light on what his life was like.
If I talk about the previous 5 years, we have seen a couple of army officer biopics, like Shershah in 2022 starring Siddharth Malhotra. Major in 2021 starring Advii Shesh these movies were enough impactful still fresh in our minds. Both these movies had impactful stories, with an equally well presented war-based movie always having a certain kind of punch. Vice Versa Ikkis lacks that, although the story is inspiring and interesting, but not that much it should be like. As people say about Lakshya (2004), almost 20 thousand people joined the army, but not in the case of Ikkis; despite having many goosebump moments, due to average presentation, the movie doesn’t hit hard enough.
The movie highlights the bravery and sacrifices of soldiers with cinematic experience but the screenplay loses grip on many occasions. Actually, Ikkis can be seen from two perspectives: one of an audience, and cinephiles who go to cinema and just movies for entertainment might work for them. On the other hand, usually a war- or army based movie has a long-lasting impact on viewers minds.
Direction and Other Aspects
It's for the first time. Sriram Raghavan is usually known for suspense thriller movies like Andhadhun. Agent Vinod, Ek Haseena: This is the first time directing a war movie, and after seeing the movie No, Dear, he is a brilliant director in his genre. It is the first time he has brought a war movie. The direction was fine, but I have seen better movies from him, along with the story and screenplay, which are also well written
After direction. Cinemotography is decent. It is a well shot movie as the movie is shot on locations Lucknow and other adds an authenticity and supports the theme in the movie. Other then that VFX and CGI work is also fine but nothing exceptional movies like Lakshya offers a far better experience then this. Background score supports the movie
Since it’s a war-based movie have lots of action usually gun shots as expected was an enjoyable fare. On the other side, a section of audience might found some scenes starchy, Dialogues are also well written and the way Agastya Nanda has delivered also looks impressive.
