Come to think of it, is there anything new about a self-motivated and/or reckless soldier frustrated by the system, who frustrates it in return? He goes against orders and does what he thinks is the best for the country. And yet, it is a story we ought to know because it or something quite close to it happened in real life, in a real war. Only and only for that, Sky Force, as a film, makes sense to be made and seen. A full 2-hour feature-length film though? Naah.

What if these stories were made into an anthology of short stories of various soldiers’ lives and deeds?

Because were it not true, there wouldn’t be anything to hold your attention. It is a regular ol’, loud, repetitive, run-of-the-mill Hindi war film that glamourises war over peace with Akshay Kumar doing Akshay Kumar things.

That pretty much sums it up. It is a film based on wars between India and Pakistan, so there’s no point talking about jingoism, etc. The writers, unsurprisingly, reduce characters to a tri-coloured tone. It is clearly decided that the audience doesn’t need to know more than Ahuja’s (Akshay Kumar) or Vijaya’s (Veer Pahariya) love for their country. Ahuja is thrown a dash of humanity but is contradictory in that he is shown to have a disdain for peace, but respects the human behind the uniform. I am sure both characteristics can coexist. But here it looks more convenient to have the soldier be shown as frustrated with the politicians of the time.

Other than that, the film comes across as an animated air show. One thing kept catching my eye. The Pakistani soldier’s name was Ahmed Hussain and his helmet had his name spelt as Amzad, the soldier’s name in real life. The film is also filled with weird and annoying spoon-feeding. One instance that stuck was Ahuja’s brother’s photo has his name sketch penned under it. This is clearly for the audience’s benefit. Unless they are suggesting Ahuja would forget his brother’s name.

Such irritants persist throughout the film. The main culprit though is the stale narration. It’s a shame that the martyrs don’t get a better, more involved group of makers. I wondered how cool it would be if these stories were made into an anthology of short stories of various soldiers’ lives and deeds. Crisp, engaging, making more stories accessible.

– meeta, a part of the audience