By
RUBY ZAIDI
SKY FORCE :
Jio Studios, Maddock Films, and Leo Films’ Sky Force (UA) is a true story about braveheart fighter pilots.
Kumar Om Ahuja (Akshay Kumar) is a fighter pilot who leads Mission Sky Force to bomb the main ammunition base of Pakistan in Sargodha. T. Krishnan Vijaya alias Tabby (Veer Pahariya) is his subordinate.
Tabby is a diehard patriot who will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting the honor of his country.
Although Tabby is selected as a standby in Mission Sky Force, he on his own takes off in his fighter plane to give cover to the team members of Mission Sky Force — of course, without consulting anyone. Anyway, Kumar Om Ahuja’s team returns home victorious and they are honored with the Vir Chakra for their bravery.
However, Tabby is presumed dead or missing because he never returns. Tabby’s name is intentionally left out from the list of awardees, by Kumar’s boss, Lawrence (Manish Chaudhari), because he had gone against protocol and without orders. Years later, Ahuja gets a hint of Tabby’s acts of bravery in the air when Team Sky Force is accomplishing its mission. What happens thereafter?
Carl Austin and Sandeep Kewlani have written a fine story which is based on true-life incidents. The duo’s screenplay, with an additional screenplay by Niren Bhatt, is engrossing, especially after the interval. Even the first half has some fine moments and sequences but the portions in the beginning slacken the pace. Some scenes stand out for their emotional undercurrent.
Instances: death of admin officer Mehta (Gurpal Singh); breakdown of Tabby’s wife, Geeta (Sara Ali Khan), with her baby in her arms; the revelation about Tabby’s heroic deeds during Mission Sky Force; and, the best of all, the honor given to Geeta and her grown-up daughter by not just members of Team Sky Force but by all their seniors too.
The good part of the screenplay is that the drama keeps moving and involving the viewers, even in mid-air action scenes.
But the initial part of the film seems difficult to comprehend because of technical jargon and also lack of clarity in speech (maybe, because of the mixing).
Once those glitches are taken care of, the comprehension doesn’t remain a problem. Carl Austin, Sandeep Kewlani, and Niren Bhatt’s dialogues are very good and weighty.
Akshay Kumar lives the character of Kumar Om Ahuja. He lends a good touch of maturity to the role. Veer Pahariya makes an impressive debut as Tabby.
He is free in front of the camera. But he doesn’t have the looks of a dashing hero. Nimrat Kaur is as natural as Kumar’s wife, Preeti Ahuja.
However, she doesn’t have much to do. Sara Ali Khan impresses as Geeta. She lends dignity to her character. Soham Majumdar stands his own as Chatterjee alias Cockroach.
Sharad Kelkar leaves a fine mark as Pakistani Fl. Lt. Ahmed Hussain. Manish Chaudhari makes his presence felt as Group Captain Lawrence.
Varun Badola is natural as Air Vice Marshal Amit Narang. Mohit Chauhan is as realistic as Air Chief Marshal Arun Sinha. Gurpal Singh is endearing as admin officer Mehta.
Rajat Kaul (as Bull), Ritik Ghanshani (as Panther), Abhinav Bhattacharjee (as Amod Pandit), Fayaz Khan (as Duck), Abhishek Mahendru (as Fox), Karan Chaudhary (as Goat), Rama Krishna Dixit (as Rhino), Ankit Kaushik (as Owl), Sagar Rana (as Scorpio), Vishal Jinwal (as Shark), Lakshay Chawla (as Spider), Lakshay Khetarpal (as Fl. Lt. Faisal Ali), Gulzar (as Pakistani Major), Jaywant Wadkar (as defense minister Yeshwantrao Chavan), Anupam Jordar (as President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan), and the others are adequate.
Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur’s direction is mature. The music (Tanishk Bagchi) is good.
The Maaye song is lovely and its rendition by B. Praak makes it even better. Yaad aati hai is also a good number.
Tu hai toh main hoon and Rang songs are quite appealing. Lyrics (Manoj Muntashir for Maaye; Irshad Kamil for Yaad aati hai and Tu hai toh main hoon; Shloke Lal for Rang) are weighty.
Vijay Ganguly’s choreography is all right. Justin Varghese’s background music is impactful.
Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran’s cinematography is lovely. Action and stunt scenes, choreographed by Craig Macrae and Parvez Shaikh, are thrilling.
Production designing (by Sujeet Subhash Sawant and Sriram Kannan Iyengar) is appropriate. A. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Sky Force is a fair entertainer but the lack of momentum for the film (which has translated into terribly poor booking) will adversely affect its business.
Collections will see a jump on Republic Day (Sunday) because the film is all about patriotism. But in the final tally, the film will remain a dull fare, business-wise.
Released on 24-1-’25 at Inox (daily 14 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay through Inox Pictures. Publicity: good, quantitatively, but below the mark in terms of impact. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. The opening was weak almost everywhere.
Ramayana :
Nippon Ramayana Film Co.’s Ramayana: The Legend Of Prince Rama (animation) is the epic Ramayana narrated in animation format.
It is based on Valmiki’s Ramayana.
The story, of course, has a lot of drama and emotions, but the screenplay (written by Narendra Sharma, Rani Burra, Ram Mohan, Koichi Sasaki, Hiroshi Onogi, and Yugo Sako) is not too engaging.
The emotional quotient simply doesn’t come through — and that is the biggest drawback of the film. The drama neither evokes sentiments nor laughter.
For that matter, it doesn’t evoke any kind of emotion because it moves without involving the viewers. Dialogues are dull.
The voice acting is good. Dishi Duggal’s narration is fairly nice. Voice acting by Yudhvir Dahiya (for Rama), Sonal Kaushal (Sita), Rajesh Jolly (Ravana), Uplaksh Kochhar (Laxman), and Archit Maurya (Hanuman) ranges from fair to good.
Koichi Sasaki, Ram Mohan, and Yugo Sako’s direction is average. The narration doesn’t hold the audience’s attention. Vanraj Bhatia’s music is functional.
Kazuyuki Kobayashi’s animation is very ordinary. Editing is loose.
On the whole, Ramayana: The Legend Of Prince Rama is a poor fare.
Released on 24-1-’25 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombaythroughu AA Films. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. The opening was weak everywhere.
