Abhishek Anil Kapur, Abhishek Mahendra, action, Akshay Kumar, Ankit Kaushik, Fayaz Khan, India, Karan Chaudhary, Lakshay Chawla, Manish Choudhary, movies, Nimrat Kaur, reviews, Ritik Ghanshani, Sagar Rana, Sandeep Kewlani, Sara Ali Khan, Sky Force, Soham Majmudar, Veer Pahariya, Vishal Jinwal
February 9, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place from 1965 to 1991, in India and in Pakistan, the action film “Sky Force” (based on a true story) features an Indian and Pakistani cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A wing commander in the Indian Air Force is haunted by the disappearance of his close friend/protégé, who went missing during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.
Culture Audience: “Sky Force” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and formulaic war movies.
“Sky Force” has noble intentions to celebrate Indian Air Force heroes of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. However, this action flick (based on real events) is too routine and too bloated for a story that deserves a better movie. The acting and visual effects are very mediocre, considering the large budget for this film.
Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur, “Sky Force” (which takes place in India and Pakistan) was written by Kewlani, Aamil Keeyan Khan, Carl Austin and Niren Bhatt. The movie’s time period ranges from 1965 to 1991. “Sky Force” is based on the true story of Indian Air Force members Om Prakash Taneja and Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya.
In “Sky Force,” Wing Commander Kumar Om “K.O.” Ahuja (played by Akshay Kumar), who is this movie’s version of Taneja, is a respected leader in the Indian Air Force. K.O. is a mentor to T. Krishna Vijaya (played by Veer Pahariya), a rebellious younger pilot who reminds K.O. of Kumar’s deceased younger brother Monu. Krishna’s Air Force nickname is Tabby, which is the name he prefers to be called in his everyday life. Tabby is this movie’s version of Devayya.
K.O. and Tabby are both stationed at Adampur Air Force Station, where group captain David Lawrence (played by Manish Choudhary) is their supervisor. (David will later be promoted Air Commodore in the 1970s.) K.O.’s Air Force nickname is Tiger, which is also the name of the squad that he leads. David is strong-willed and considers himself to be ethical when it comes to war rules of engagement. Unfortunately, “Sky Force” makes the other Indian Air Force colleagues utterly generic.
The other members of the Tiger Squad of Air Force pilots (who all have animal nicknames) are Debashish “Cockroach” Chatterjee (played by Soham Majmudar), Prakash “Panther” Rajput (played by Ritik Ghanshani), Duck (played by Fayaz Khan), Goat (played by Karan Chaudhary), Rhino (played by Ramakrishna Dixit), Owl (played by Ankit Kaushik), Scorpio (played by Sagar Rana), Shark (played by Vishal Jinwal), Spider (played by Lakshay Chawla) and Fox (played by Abhishek Mahendra). Viewers won’t remember much about these supporting characters because they don’t have personalities that stand out from each other.
In the Indo-Pakistani air war of 1965, Pakistan attacks India in nighttime battles on Adampur Air Force Station and other Indian Air Force stations on September 6. It’s considered an unfair fight because Pakistan knew that India had outdated planes that were ill-equipped to do combat at night. Pakistan also had an advantage because the United States had recently gifted Pakistan with 12 Star Striker fighter planes.
K.O. had warned David that Pakistan would use this strategy, but David did not take K.O.’s advice to have India attack first. “We are a peace-loving country,” David tells K.O. when explaining that India will only attack in self-defense.
K.O. is put in charge of a mission for the self-defense attack on Sargodha, the most powerful military air base in Pakistan. The mission—set to take place on September 7, 1965—is called Sky Force. There’s some drama between Tabby and K.O. because Tabby objects to being put on standby for the Sky Force mission because Tabby is considered too much of an unpredictable loose cannon. It was David’s decision to put Tabby on standby, but K.O. refuses to tell Tabby who made the decision when Tabby asks K.O.
Tabby is eventually allowed to participate in air combat, but he goes missing during combat. K.O. feels tremendous guilt about it, and he vows to find out what happened to Tabby. Tabby’s wife Geeta Vijaya (played by Sara Ali Khan), who is pregnant with their daughter, bitterly blames K.O. for Tabby’s disappearance. Geeta decides to end her friendship with K.O. and K.O.’s wife Preeti Ahuja (played by Nimrat Kaur) and remains estranged from them for years.
Years later, in 1971, a Pakistani military plot named Ahmed Hussain (played by Sharad Kelkar) is captured by the Indian military. (Ahmed is this movie’s version of Amjad Hussain.) K.O. interrogates Ahmed and finds out that Ahmed was given an award for killing an Indian officer during the 1965 war. Ahmed has a story to tell that might have clues to the mystery of what happened to Tabby.
“Sky Force” lumbers along with typical combat scenes, which often don’t look believable because of the questionable visual effects. These action scenes also have numerous slow-motion shots that look very hokey. Highlights of the action are the aerial views, which are breathtaking but fleeting. The movie’s dialogue is average at best and silly at worst. And because the story is told in non-chronological order, some of the movie’s timeline is messy.
Worst of all, this 125-minute movie (which could have been at least 30 minutes shorter) wastes a lot of time on unnecessary scenes and then rushes through the storyline about what happened to Tabby. “Sky Force” isn’t overly jingoistic, but the main characters don’t have much depth beyond predictable stereotypes. “Sky Force” ultimately comes across like a big-budget video game instead of a meaningful cinematic event about Indian war history.
PVR Inox Pictures released “Sky Force” in U.S. cinemas and in India on January 24, 2025.