‘Ikkis’ review: In tribute to a war hero, a rare plea for peace and empathy

Sriram Raghavan directs Agastya Nanda as Paramvir Chakra winner Arun Khetarpal.

He is barely out of his teens. His face is slathered with cake – it’s his 21st birthday – and his eyes gleam with anticipation. Are we going to war? Ikkis is the story of this cake-smeared young man and the gung-ho valor beneath the icing.

‘Ikkis’ review

It’s the early 1970s. Arun (Agastya Nanda) is training hard to become a tank commander in the Army. He has proven his leadership skills. He has fallen in love with Kiran. His whole life is ahead of him – until war with Pakistan breaks out in 1971.

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Arun is raring to go. He reports for duty with a set of golf clubs, declaring that he will “play golf in Lahore”. His superior officer Hanut (Mukul Dev) is unimpressed, telling him, you know nothing about war.

What is war, indeed? What does it mean to recognize the difference between enemy troops and the humans inside the uniforms, to be decisive in combat but graceful in victory? These are among the questions driving Sriram Raghavan’sIkkis (Twenty One).

The period war drama finds Raghavan in uncharted territory, far from the corpse-littered homes and spy-heaving European hotels that his films usually inhabit. Having buried his fair share of corpses, the Andhadhun director now deals with the moral consequences of a real person’s untimely loss.

Ikkis is based on Arun Khetarpal, who was posthumanly awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his actions during the 1971 war. Since Khetarpal’s life has been amply documented, Ikkis aims higher, trying to understand what unites men who are sworn to kill each other.

The screenplay by Raghavan, Pooja Ladha Surti and Arijit Biswas is divided between Arun’s exploits and its sequel. Thirty years after Arun’s death, his father Madan (Dharmendra) travels to Pakistan for a personal visit. Madan’s tour guide is Nisar (Jaideep Ahlawat), who was amongst the Pakistani soldiers who faced Arun on the battlefield in 1971.

Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat in Ikkis(2026). Courtesy Maddock Films.

When Arun’s tank rolls across the border for the first time, he remarks that Pakistan doesn’t feel any different. Ikkis also plays up Indo-Pak bonhomie, sometimes overdoing the warmth that Madan encounters as he visits old sites and makes new friends.

Do Pakistanis in 2001 listen only to old Hindi movie songs? Can the festering wounds of Partition be healed with a hug and a fond memory?Ikkis is wistful for the times when wars were bitterly fought but the poison caused by these encounters dried up after the last bugle was sounding.

Ikkis sidesteps the revenge-fueled hyperbole that results when Indians run into Pakistanis. Scene after scene reveals Raghavan’s efforts to put his own stamp on a genre that has been lost to jingoism.

Ikkis distinguishes itself from nearly every war movie made in the past few decades. Raghavan downscales as well as cools down the military conflict drama, reducing it to its basic elements of courage and battlefield strategy. The movie proves that it’s possible to recast such stories and rescue them from excess.

The overall feeling is of a production from the 1970s itself.

The pacing is initially slow, the storytelling old-fashioned, the visuals deliberately unmonumental.

The climax battle between lumbering Indian and Pakistani tanks – the film’s showiest section – is transfixing and surprisingly fleet too. The rest of the time, Ikkis eschews varnishing and garnishing. The troops carry out their duties in a business-like manner. Anil Mehta’s cinematography is workmanlike.

The plotting locates Arun’s courage within a larger ethos of discipline and proper conduct, also seen in the other soldiers such as Sagat (Sikandar Kher) and Vijendra (Vivaan Shah). Madan, himself an ex-Army officer, recognizes why his son had to die, even as he movingly declares that Arun will be “forever 21” for him.

Not all of Ikkis’ punts pay off. The stop-start clutter created by repeated flashbacks undercuts the emotional impact upon occasion.

Arun’s relationship with Kiran is cute but overextended, just like the focus on Madaan. It appears that Ikkis has used up every single frame featuring Dharmendra, in his final role before his extinction on November 24.

Rather than a talismanic presence, Dharmendra is the second lead, with many scenes that attract unwanted attention to his advanced age and strained dialogue delivery. Although Jaideep Ahlawat provides a fine foil to Dharmendra, their conversations drag on for too long.

There’s an uneven balance between Arun’s journey, his father’s Pakistan sojourn and Nisar’s regret. Nisar’s lingering regret never quite comes through, given the film’s affirmation that in war, soldiers do what they must do

After a bumpy start,Ikkis inches toward its real goal: to celebrate a 21-year-old soldier’s sacrifice while also daring to ask if it was necessary in the first plan

It marks legendary actor Dharmendra’s final film, and on December 31, his son Sunny Deol shared a heartfelt note remembering his father. The film was released in cinemas on January 1.

About Sunny Deol’s Post

Sunny Deol posted an emotional message aboutIkkis, the biographical war drama featuring senior actor Dharmendra. He said the film holds deep importance for the Deol family and stands as a tribute to his father’s values, life story, and the strong bond he shared with his roots and his fans. Dharmendra died on 24 November.

Sunny wrote, “Our Dad, the man of the soil, Ikkis is his salute, his gift to the earth he loved and to the fans who always stood by him. For our family, it is a treasure filled with his spirit, courage, and his heart. Today, with love and immense pride, we share it with the world, hoping it lives on the way he does, forever.”

About the Film

Directed by Sriram Raghavan, Ikkis tells the story of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, a Param Vir Chakra awardee who sacrificed his life during the Battle of Basantar in the 1971 India–Pakistan War.

Agastya Nanda plays the young officer, while Simar Bhatia portrays Kiran. Dharmendra appeared as Brigadier M.L. Khetarpal (Retd.), Arun’s father. The cast also includes Jaideep Ahlawat, Suhasini Mulay, Sikander Kher, Rahul Dev, and Vivaan Shah in crucial parts.

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