Ikkis movie review: A Heartfelt Salute To The Braveheart And A bidding farewell To The Legend

Ikkis movie review

‘Ikkis’ - The year 2026 begins on a humanitarian note where love and forgiveness get intimate with patriotism, valor and subtle nationalism. In the same month just before India observes its 77^th Republic Day, a ‘war film’ ‘Border 2’ will be released while Aditya Dhar’s realistic espionage thriller ‘Dhurandhar’ is enjoying its thunderous record-breaking run for being the exception of a movie that has understood the nations sentiment.

The question is in such a scenario were does Sriram Raghavan’s proposed humanitarian stand will stand? The answer is - First of all, these three films which has its nationalisms expressed in different ways are not same in genre, culture and taste. As said earlier ‘Dhurandhar’ is a raw, rustic, brutal and brilliantly made ‘espionage spy thriller’, ‘War 2’ is expected to be a proper/quintessential ‘War saga’ and ‘Ikkis’ though not entirely an ‘Anti War’ film, it’s a humanitarian film with emotions at its core.

Adapting a nonlinear approach, Sriram Raghavan takes a paradigm shift from its noir/de noir crime murder mysteries, psychological thrillers to an emotional ‘war’ saga with humanity at its core needs conviction and belief. The writer director of masterpieces like ‘Andhadhun’ and terrific dark psychological crime thrillers like ‘Ek Haseena Thi’ along with its writers Arijit Biswas and Pooja Ladha Surti create a pleasant and absorbing cinema that has its emotional moments and stays away from chest beating jingoism.

The moments with Agastya Nanda at the Poona Horse regiment with his team and romance with Simar Bhatia (Akshay Kumar niece) are good. There is enough fodder for nepotism trollers here – Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson (Agastya Nanda) and Akshay Kumar’s niece (Simar Bhatia).

However, the training scenes and the Indo Pak war scenes involving Mukul Dev, Sikander Kher and Vivaan Shah are fine but not great.

The tank battles are well picturized especially the one where Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal (Agastya Nanda) destroys ten Pakistani trucks is extraordinary.

The movie begins with the brief info about the glory of Hanut Singh Rathore played by Rahul Dev in the film and the story of the Poona Horse and opens with Jaideep Ahlawat (Brigadier Khawaja Mohammad Naser) making arrangements for the visit of Brigadier M. L. Khetarpal (Dharmendra).

Obviously, Sriram Raghavan has taken cinematic liberties and dramatized the events between Jaideep Ahlawat and Dharmendra in the film which actually for me didn’t work the way it should have, if they have reconstructed it in the way, it actually happened, I would have been overwhelmed or even swept away.

But, for those who don’t know what actually happen, the final moments between Jaideep and Dharmendra still will touch their hearts.

Performances

Dharmendra

In his final good bye, the legend, the actor is excellent and will bring tears to his fans as he becomes immortal.

Agastya Nanda is charming, endearing, the actor wins heart with his natural and striking portrayal as Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal.

Jaideep Ahlawat as Brigadier Khawaja Mohammad Naser spins a surprise, you have never seen him in such an avatar before on screen and he is fabulous.

Simar Bhatia impresses

Ekavali Khanna as Maryam Nisar -Jaideep Ahlawat’s wife in the film does a fine job.

Sikandar Kher is very good

Vivaan Shah is fine

Rahul Dev has his moments

and Asrani also makes a cameo making Ikkis his last screen appereance as well 

Ikkis movie review final words

Sriram Raghavan’s paradigm shift from noir/de noir crime murder mysteries, psychological thrillers to an emotional ‘war’ saga with humanity at its core does achieves two goals – it offers a heartfelt salute to the young Indian brave heart - Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal and bids a bidding farewell to the legend, the icon, the star, the actor loved generations after generations – Dharmendra.

In short Ikkis is two thumps up

One for the young brave heart – Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal

One for the legend loved by generations after generations – Dharamendra

Going with an emotional 3.5 stars (3.5 out of 5).

Produced by Maddock Films and Distributed by Jio Studios, ‘Ikkis’ is running in theatres from Jan 01, 2026.