4To talk about Sky Force, you must divide the film into two parts: Pre-interval and post-interval. Let's start with the former. Directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur, the movie initially looks generic. It introduces us to stick figures whose sole purpose here is to leave us teary-eyed. I don't even remember the names of most of the people I saw during the first half of the film. During the pre-interval action sequence, one of them gets crushed by a vehicle, while another is hit by a bullet. The latter's death triggers a brief flashback where this soldier informs Wing Commander Kumar Om Ahuja (Akshay Kumar) about his retirement plans. These stock characters might just as well be carrying a signboard with the words, "Cry, please." What's worse is that this enemy-attack sequence is devoid of energy and choreography. Things explode in the background while the bodies, in slow motion, fly. The slow motion gives you the impression that what you are witnessing is "cool" and "slick." Shouldn't the scene be shocking, tense, and messy? Kewlani and Anil Kapur point the camera towards the ongoing action and, at the "right moment," slow down the time. It's an impersonal technique that drains the life out of the screen. No wonder the directors resort to cheap emotional manipulation to pull at your heartstrings. Sky Force reeks of vulgarity.
And why do so many soldiers die? Because India prioritizes peace. Om Ahuja requests - almost begs - his senior officer to let his team strike the enemy. But the people in power want Pakistan to attack first; only then will they allow the Indian soldiers to use their planes, weapons, and missiles. So when Pakistan launches that air strike before the interval, we are asked to curse the institution that waves the white flag to maintain peace. One can hear Sky Force cursing the liberals for having a broad mind. It wants to narrow it down towards the path of violence. Movies like Sky Force (or the first half in this case) indicate that the only way to serve the country is to join the army, air force, or navy and that the real enemy exists outside. The skills of all the stick figures are displayed through a training session where they are required to lock their target within 60 seconds. This sequence, too, lacks the energy necessary to give the audience a thrill. Kewlani and Anil Kapur's execution is competent but not exciting or outstanding. The images merely depict the ongoing event without infusing them with a sense of danger or delight. And since Sky Force takes the generic route to establish camaraderie (the soldiers do arm-wrestling), we feel absolutely nothing whenever someone dies.
Post-interval, however, Sky Force becomes a slightly different film. It shows a good Pakistani, a defeated (yet determined) Akshay Kumar character, and a system that's quite lazy. Om Ahuja's plea to investigate a missing person is rejected constantly. The Indian officers display zero interest in spending resources on someone's intuition - they want concrete proof. But when you look at them, you see people who don't like "unnecessary stress" in their life. The flaws in these portions resemble the flaws you detect during the first half of the film. The unidimensional soldiers are replaced by unidimensional, cartoonish senior officers. Om Ahuja, like the film, uses emotional manipulation to get closer to his objective. This doesn't mean Sky Force turns into a subtle vehicle. The Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon song is played at the end to milk more tears from the audience. Sky Force also has a penchant for insulting the audience's intelligence. If the first half gives us an explanation regarding how a missile was fooled through the production of heat and that too minutes after seeing this scene, then the second half, through flashbacks, reminds us of a promise when Om Ahuja opens a gift.
The trailers led us to believe that Sky Force would turn out to be a remake of Siddharth Anand's Fighter. The movie's template, however, bears some resemblance to that of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (dumb jokes are replaced with dumb emotional routines). Like Anees Bazmee's horror-comedy, Sky Force consists of a nice twist severely undermined by the rest of the film. Comparisons with Fighter, though, will be inevitable. Which action drama is better? This is a pointless question. It's like choosing between two diseases. Do you prefer stomach ache or leg pain? Diabetes or diarrhea? Cough or headache?
Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times