Akshay delivers after long!. Review on Sky Force

After a long time went to watch a movie on theatre- SKYFORCE by Abhishek Anil Kapur. Honestly from initial times I was not interested in this war based film as initial looks made it feel like one of the forgettable propaganda or just another Akshay Kumar flop film, which he has been doing since last 5 years. However with the good reviews, I changed my mind to watch this now appreciated film on big screen. The film is set in the air force battle of India-Pakistan 1965 war with references to 1971 war as well. The makers have held true to the intention and made a war film with emotional angle and handling the subject with maturity. The war scenes are very fast paced but the effects are not that great and I missed the real shot air force sagas of Bollywood- Vijeta(Shashi Kapoor) and Hindustan Ki Kasam(Raaj Kumar). The extremely fast pace in first half having huge Top Gun hangover also means that the impact is not that one got from JP Dutta's Border or even LOC. However, the strength of the film I felt was that though they showed Pakistan as enemy for 1965 war yet they didn't show over the top villanous angle and showed the war with maturity. Also the last 45 minutes after war ended is well written and lifts the movie emotionally. The direction is fine and the editing and short duration of 2.05 hours makes it a tight watch. The new actor Veer Pahariya plays the character inspired by real life war veteran Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya quite competently. Though the film is based on him but he has less screen time as such so cannot comment on how far he will go in Bollywood after this successful debut. Sara Ali Khan is good in her role but Nimrat Kaur was kind of misfit as per me. Sharad Kelkar does well as the Pakistani air force pilot but I found Varun Badola a bit uncomfortable as Air Vice Marshal. The film to be fair belongs to Akshay Kumar who is in form after longgggggg! He is fine in battle scenes, competent in training sequences and shines in the emotional scenes. After several years a patriotic film of his has come which really brings honour to the forgotten heroes of India and the treatment doesn't have jingoism or fake propaganda. A well made film which has been now appreciated by the audience!