Sky Force (2025) – Some Force Some Farce

Genre – War Movie (based on true stories)

Time: 2 Hours

Platform: Theatrical release

Cast: Akshay Kumar. Veer Pahariya. Sharad Kelkar. Nimrat Kaur. Sara Ali Khan.

Fact: On September 7, 1965, 12  Mystere combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force attacked the Sargodha Airfield Complex of Pakistani Air Force. One of the attacking pilots Squadron Leader A.B.Devayya was intercepted by a Pakistani Air Force F-104 Starfighter which had twice the armament and speed of the subsonic Mystere. Even though being hit, Devayya in his subsonic Mystere, entered into a dogfight and damaged the F-104, that the Pakistani pilot Amjad Hussain had to eject. In the process Sq Ldr Devayya’s Mystere crashed and he lost his life.

The entire incident wouldn’t have come to anyone’s notice if the Pakistani Air Force had not commissioned a self laudatory book in 1979 by a British writer John Fricker titled Battle for Pakistan: The Air War of 1965 which detailed the lopsided dogfight between a Mystere and the much more capable Starfighter. The records were matched and in an extremely rare event. Sqdn. Ldr Devayya was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra in 1988 – 23 years after the incident.

That , as they say , are the facts. and available at this link 

Fillum: Now we come to the film Sky Farce – er – I mean Sky Force. So who is the force? One word – sorry – two. Akshay Kumar is the force that sometimes leads to farce and then back to force. He hogs the screen from the first frame to the last frame and those who are ra-ra flag wavers will obviously like the film and there is a good possibility that it will be even declared a hit, since the story is decent but the script nosedives to project Akshay  and his ‘herogiri’. He is such a super hero that he breaks radio silence and answers the Pakistani ATC asking for his identity this way:

Pakistani ATC : janaab, kaun hai ? Kaun hai?

Akshay : tera baap. Hindustan

Naturally, the Pak ATC presses the alarm bell that awakens the AAA at Sargodha. Some Force eh ?

But then how much of the core story is is true? Was T.K.Vijaya (the onscreen Devayya) really such a brash undisciplined fighter pilot that he will do,  only what he wants to do and not as per  the orders given to him ? You can blame Pete Maverick (Of Top Gun fame) and others of his ilk before him, as ‘air warfare’ cinema is mostly about ‘lone wolves’ who go against the grain but are finally proved to be right. In this case Vijaya (newcomer Veer Pahariya), the best pilot in the squadron, does an unauthorized take off to get BDA – Bomb Damage assessment – and that is how Wing Commander Ahmed Hussain (Sharad Kelkar good in a tiny scene) shoots him down. Ahmed is the man who lets the cat out of the bag to Akshay – sorry Wing Commander Taneja – that he was most probably shot down in the 1965 war by Vijaya, when he is captured as a POW in the 1971 war.

The film is full of herogiri  and the actual historical events are centred around Akshay to boost his status. Some examples:

• Pakistani  AF attacked and destroyed an Anti-Aircraft gun ? Hello – Akshay; you have a job to do. Get on that AAA and fire at them (which he does of course).
• In the same attack, the airfield is lit up and so who will switch OFF the main lights of the airfield? Yes – you guessed it. Akshay.
• Who will lead the strike against Sargodha complex where the dreaded Starfighters are based? Akshay.
• Who teaches Vijaya to use the Pakistani F104 Starfighter’s ‘superiority’ as its weakness? Hurrah – only Akshay.
• Who will promise the mumbling wife Geeta (Sara Ali Khan) to take care of Vijaya? Akshay.
• Who promised to search heaven and earth and the world for proof of Vijaya , flies abroad to meet the writer of the book Pakistan Air Battle ? Akshay.
• Who convinces the reluctant board made of dull babus and snooty superiors to given an award to Vijaya? Surprise – it’s Akshay.

In short, this is yet another Akshay Kumar herogiri film that will surely enthrall his die-hard fans and make the ordinary viewer (like yours truly) question the script writers as to whether they were under some sort of pressure for presenting such a lop sided view of the events. The women – as in all war films – have minuscule roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, they at least sang some good songs. Here Sara mumbles all the time to Akshay, about his promise to bring Vijaya back , like a child denied a favorite ice cream; the poignancy is totally missing. As if telling Akshay, I danced with everyone, in the dance sequence led by you , even though I was visibly pregnant ! (hello ? What do we have here ?)

To be fair, the computer effects are excellent. There are no Mysteres flying anywhere in the world today. Though we can make out that these are visual effects, they are well rendered – especially the closeups and the flight line. There are minor goofs like Akshay telling his C.O , “we should attack Rafiqui”. The base was renamed Rafiqui AFTER the 1965 war in honor of one of the leading Pakistani fighter pilots.

It can also be argued that to anchor a story, a star presence is required and who better than Akshay . But from first frame to last frame ? There is such a thing as familiarity breeding something called contempt.

So, what could have been a truly brilliant war film turns into yet another “Akshay Kumar hero-giri” film which swings  from one end of the spectrum to the other. It is fair to say that it is absorbing at times and at other times suffers from too much visual effects and too much Akshay Kumar who is the only intelligent human in the entire Indian air force and all other characters are all part of the overall theater of farce. Don’t forget the clanging heavy style guitar music –  Harold Faltermeyer of Top Gun; what have you started ? 

Watch it if you must in theater – recommended purely for the visual effects and some partial adherence to history. Or wait for it to arrive on OTT. Force or Farce. Upto you.

For those seriously interested in the real air war, do check out the brilliant Indian book by two Indian writers PVS Jagan Mohan and Samir Chopra about the 1965 Air War. It is one of the most balanced books I have ever read , granting praise to the Indian Air Force for some hard hitting missions against the Pakistanis and at other times criticising them, in the same way that praise and critique are heaped on the Pakistani Air Force, operating against the Indians. This book is very balanced and strongly recommended. Both sides behaved courageously and foolishly and at the times , the factor known as “fog of war’ contributed to both ‘force’ and ‘farce’. 

Historical Background – 3 out of 5

Script – 2 out of 5

Story – 3 out of 5

Direction – 3 out of 5

Special effects – 4 out of 5

Total – 3 out of 5