Star Cast: Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Tillotama Shome, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Dia Mirza
Director: Siddharth P Malhotra
What’s Good: Tillotama Shome fighting and standing out amidst such stalwarts!
What’s Bad: Sunny Deol & Akshaye Khanna coming together but not bringing anything substantial!
Loo Break: Anytime you want
Watch or Not?: You might skip!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Netflix
Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes
User Rating:
When Netflix decided to bring Sunny Deol and Akshaye Khanna together, I expected a blast! But as they arrive on Netflix in Siddharth P Malhotra’s Ikka, I have mixed feelings! I love how they are trying so hard to convince us that this is some Sherlock-level courtroom drama, but on the other hand, no amount of twists and turns is able to make sense at any point in time, and I am seriously disappointed with this story!
My movie enthusiast was super excited for this one. I mean, you have Sunny Deol’s Dhai Kilo Ka Haath, and you have Akshaye Khanna’s Dakait moves and expressions. But I guess nothing works if you do not have something very solid written on paper! This Netflix original probably gets intimidated by its own ambitions!
Ikka Movie Review: Script Analysis
The story follows Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol), a righteous and one of the most famous defense lawyers of the city, who is forced to defend a murderer, Akshaye Khanna, due to a personal crisis. Gaur is an entitled, sleazy, and manipulative heir of a filthy rich politician, accused of brutally stabbing a young woman (Akanksha Ranjan Kapoor) and throwing her out of a speeding car. Arjun is in a dilemma – he knows his client is the ultimate devil, but to save his own family, he must find a way to make the guilty look innocent. He makes a deal with Shauryamann Gaur after putting his pride aside. Does he manage to win the case? Did Akshaye Khanna’s Shauryamann Gaur really murder the woman? Who wins and who loses this game of cards? All of this forms the premise of Ikka!
Ikka Movie Review: Star Performance
The main reason Ikka doesn’t completely crash and burn is the sheer gravitational pull of its cast. Sunny Deol brings a sincerity to Arjun Mehra. It’s refreshing to see him play a vulnerable man caught in a moral dilemma rather than a larger-than-life superhero. Akshaye Khanna looks irritated and irritating both at the same time. Though his performance now looks repetitive. The actual show puller here is Tillotama Shome as the public prosecutor! Watching her carry the entire weight of this film is celebratory! Even Sanjeeda Sheikh impresses with her layered performance. Dia Mirza forms the emotional core of the film with her internal sincerity!
Ikka Movie Review: Direction, Music
Siddharth P Malhotra’s script suffers from a major identity crisis. It does not even know what genre it is? Is it a thriller? Is it a social drama? Is it a film high on morals? Or is it a simple courtroom drama? It aims to be all at once and fails to become any of them! The writing by Althea Kaushal and Mayank Tiwari is still in the Damini era, where only Dhai Kilo Ka Haath sounds cool! At one point, in one of the scenes, Sunny Deol starts shouting in the court out of the blue, and I have no idea why?!
In one of the scenes, one of the dialogues says, “When lawyers don’t convince, they confuse.” But the same goes for the film as well. It builds its story on moral dilemmas but never ever makes a clean segregation to hit any emotion right, be it the moral values or the professional ethics! The background music is so loud to pump the thrill, but does not work at all!
Ikka Movie Review: The Last Word
On paper, Ikka might have looked fantastic, but it is very ignorantly pulled off. By the end, the film looks desperate to explain its twists and turns since they lose poorly despite having a trail of Aces in Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna, and Tillotama Shome! This could have been such a better game, but I guess the story got lucked out!
2 stars!
Ikka Trailer
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