Flyer Zone:
A year ago, Fighter was the Republic Day release, the Top Gun-inspired movie that used real incidents to let loose air force planes and star glamour on the screen. This year, with Sky Force, it’s more of the same, with the jingoism considerably toned down and the idea of honour among enemies brought up.
Sky Force, directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur is also set on an Indian Air Force Base, and there’s the usual slow motion swaggering to the fighter planes, which, in 1965 when the incidents in the film take place, are reportedly inferior to the planes gifted to Pakistan by the US. Since so many of the more recent surgical strikes against Pakistan and the 1971 war have been used extensively in Hindi films and web shows, this film goes back to the 1965 war against Pakistan, which had been won mainly because of the crippling air strike against Pakistan’s Sargodha air base. This was a difficult mission, because this target was far from the border, and it was only the superior skill of Indian pilots that overcame the shortcoming of the aircrafts they were flying.
Wing Commander KO Ahuja (Akshay Kumar) has a team of young gung ho pilots under his command—all given cute animal code names (Tiger, Bull, Cockroach,etc.), but no time is spent showing any special bonding. Ahuja does have a favourite though, T. Vijaya ‘Tabby’ (Veer Pahariya). His wife (Nimrat Kaur) has a warm relationship with the younger man’s wife, Geeta (Sara Ali Khan).
The men fly on difficult sorties and have dog fights in the air for training, but when their base is attacked, it is time to hit back. The Sargodha mission is a success, but the film is just half way through. Tabby, who had been left on standby, joined the mission against orders and went missing behind enemy lines. It has already been established in an earlier recce mission that he is a fearless hothead.
In keeping with the motto of never leaving anyone behind, Ahuja pursues the matter for years, but this is not Saving Private Ryan. The film has a matter-of-fact tone, and what little theatrics the script comes up with can be seen in the promo. Watching the daredevilry of computer generated planes is all very well, what the film lacks is an emotional quotient. When it does arrive, the catalyst is, surprisingly, a Pakistani pilot (Sharad Kelkar).
When most patriotic films have some degree of political chest thumping, this one sneaks in criticism of the government then, which let pilots go into battle with outdated planes and dragged its bureaucratic feet when quick action was required. The ghus ke marenge kind of belligerent rhetoric is a relatively recent phenomenon on screen.
The nationalism of Sky Force is low key– which is its weakness, as well as its strength– and it does not manipulate the audience into a pre-decided hate-the-enemy response; this particular episode is significant, because Tabby’s reckless action changed aviation history, the how is explained at a later point.
Akshay Kumar could do this role in his sleep; the new actor Veer Pahariya (styled to look like Virat Kohli) is not given much to do, because the film, like so many Akshay Kumar movies, is a one-man show.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
