4 Stars (out of 4)
Ikkis (“Twenty-one“) is the best demonstration of filmmaker Sriram Raghavan’s skills yet, despite it being quite different from the other movies in his oeuvre. Though it lacks the physical danger of his earlier thrillers like Johnny Gaddaar, Badlapur, and Andhadhun, Ikkis is still built around a main character’s central tension: am I going to break his heart?
The title refers to the age at which Indian Army 2nd Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal (Agastya Nanda) died in the waning days of the 1971 India-Pakistan War. Thirty years later, Arun’s framed photo hangs on the wall of a house in Lahore, Pakistan belonging to Brigadier Jaan Mohammad Nisar (Jaideep Ahlawat). The photo’s curious existence is made even more intriguing when Nisar hides it before his houseguest arrives.
That guest is Brigadier Madan Lal Khetarpal (Dharmendra), Arun’s father. The elder Khetarpal grew up and studied in Pakistan before Partition drove his family to move to India. He returns for a class reunion and a visit to his hometown, staying with Nisar, his wife Maryam (Ekavali Khanna), and their adult daughter Saba (Avani Rai).
The rapport between the family and their guest is immediate, and Khetarpal is glad to have their company at the reunion. He also speaks freely about his own family, including Arun. Through Khetarpal’s reminiscences, we get to know about his first-born son, and we see Arun’s life in flashbacks.
Though Ikkis is based on a true story, this isn’t a hagiography. During his officer training days, Arun is a capable leader, but he is just as bad at anticipating consequences as most 21-year-olds are. He struggles to balance his military duties with his new romantic relationship with medical student Kiran (Simar Bhatia). He follows rules to a fault.
That’s why Arun’s death in combat has always been a mystery to his father. The official report states that Arun — who was assigned to be a tank commander when sent to the front in 1971 — turned off his radio and disobeyed orders in his final moments. That doesn’t sound like the Arun his father knew.
Questions linger over Ikkis: Why does Nisar have a photo of Arun? Why is he hiding it from Khetarpal? What really happened to Arun on the battlefield? The answers are decades old and pose no immediate danger, but they create a tension that propels the story forward, building as Nisar’s fondness for the elderly Khetarpal grows.
That affection is what makes the film so special. This is Dharmendra’s last movie, and his tremendous talent shines through as a father searching for something to finally help him make sense of his son’s death. Ahlawat deftly portrays the internal conflict between Nisar’s respect for Khetarwal and his guilt at keeping secrets from him. The warmth between the two actors is a joy to watch.
After a forgettable debut in The Archies, Nanda shows much more promise playing Arun. He’s a competent guide through history, showing us a war that looks much like any other war. Young men raised on heroic stories are eager to make a name for themselves, even though many of them won’t survive to tell their own tales. One of Arun’s senior officers Risaldar Sagat Singh (Sikander Kher) warns Arun not to “go looking for death,” but Singh later repairs a tank tread with a fresh bullet wound to the shoulder. He makes heroism look easy, so of course it would appeal to Arun and his classmates.
That’s the trick with anti-war movies: they always end up showing the cool parts of war. Tanks are cool. Getting shot and acting like it’s no big deal is cool. Raghavan does his best not to glamorize war, but it’s ultimately up to the older characters like Khetarpal and Nisar to explain that war is bad for everyone.
Hindi films about cross-border relationships used to be far more common, which makes Ikkis not just unique but important. There’s truth in the film’s central idea that India and Pakistan are more alike than they are different. The first thing Arun and his tank crew remake upon when they roll across the border is that it looks the same as the land on the other side. Frequent reminders about our shared humanity are vital.
Links
- Ikkis at Wikipedia
- Ikkis at IMDb
- My review of Johnny Gaddaar
- My review of Badlapur
- My review of Andhadhun
- My review of The Archies
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