Between giving Akshay Kumar yet another opportunity to speechify on patriotism, launching the latest Bollywood hopeful Veer Pahariya and celebrating the Indian Air Force, Sky Force has a lot going on. The movie takes on added responsibility by chasing two targets rather than one: recreating an IAF squadron’s blitz on an airbase in Sargodha in Pakistan in 1965 and commemorating IAF pilot and Maha Vir Chakra awardee AB Devayya.
Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur and written by Paul Austin, Sandeep Kelwani and Aamil Keeyan Khan, Sky Force fictionalises Devayya as well as other members of his IAF unit. In Sky Force, Devayya is Vijaya (Veer Pahariya), a brilliant but reckless pilot who pushes his luck in the same manner as Maverick from the Top Gun movies.
Vijaya’s impatience earns him official reprimands from his commanding officer Ahuja (Akshay Kumar) but also Ahuja’s unofficial admiration. When Vijaya is presumed dead during the Sargodha attack, Ahuja takes it upon himself to find out what happened to his favourite protege, turning the film into something of a murder mystery.
The events that precede the Sargodha strike and the attack itself are reduced to a bunch of fast-paced dogfights and fiery tableaux. At least on this score, the 125-minute movie delivers, with the smoothly staged action set pieces revealing how the IAF pilots outsmarted Pakistan’s vastly superior planes through sheer dexterity and a fighting spirit.
The catfights on the ground are less engaging. Ahuja is incensed at the reluctance of his bosses to respond aggressively to a pre-emptive Pakistani attack. When stonewalled about Vijaya, Ahuja even recites an IAF slogan – we pledge never to leave one of us behind – back to his Air Force chief. The IAF top brass – played variously by Manish Chaudhuri and Varun Badola – come off as insensitive bureaucrats rather than thoughtful officers trying to avoid cross-border tensions.
Why negotiate when you can drop a bomb or two? The contest to decide the best response to Vijaya’s disappearance ultimately benefits only Akshay Kumar.
The veteran patron of patriotism is in better form than in recent outings, managing to look suitably bashful when Vijaya calls him a “genius” and anguished when confronted with Vijaya’s wife Geeta.
Relegated to an adoring sidekick, Vijaya is further undermined when his courage is attributed to a hot tip from Ahuja. All that can be said about Veer Pahariya’s performance is that anybody else could have played Vijaya.
The women – Sara Ali Khan as Geeta, Nimrat Kaur as Ahuja’s wife – are entirely disposable. Sharad Kelkar has a neat cameo as Ahmed, a Pakistani pilot who helps clear up the mystery of Vijaya’s fate.
The mutual respect between Ahuja and Ahmed despite the war between their countries softens the film’s insistent tenor. In these scenes as well as in the aerial set pieces, there are flashes of what works for Sky Force – the sense of a code of honour and military values that go beyond politics or diplomacy.
Unfortunately, what should have been jettisoned, like fuel during an emergency, is what constitutes the bulk of the plot. By flying into different directions at the same time, Sky Force does itself a disservice.
