Ikkis: Sriram Raghavan Never Misses
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With Ikkis, Raghavan doesn't limit the story of a soldier to the act of his sacrifice. Instead, he offers the beats of his heart, the arc of his living, and the picture of his youth that perished too soon, Ishita Sengupta reviews.
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| | | Cast: Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra, Jaideep Ahlawat | | | | ONE SIDE WINS A BATTLE, but both sides lose in a war. Hindi films of late, committed to depicting historical warfare, have been relaying stories of battles. Neatly structured narratives keep pitting men — and nations — against each other as hyperstylised filmmaking and hypermasculine action nourish an appetite to roar for one and ridicule the other. Bravery in these tales is distinct and calibrated, above moral probing and beyond mortal restraint. In his war drama, Ikkis, filmmaker Sriram Raghavan looks in the eyes of onlookers, trained to bay for blood, and offers them water. This feels radical because Ikkis is ripe with trappings that could be, and are, weaponised for provocation. Raghavan’s latest documents the life of Arun Khetarpal, an Indian army officer who died on duty at the age of 21. Coming from an army lineage, Khetarpal was deployed in the 1971 India-Pakistan War as part of the Poona Horse Regiment and had famously refused to abandon his blazing tank, even when ordered. His fight till the end posthumously earned him the distinct military decoration, Param Vir Chakra. It immortalised his role in the Battle of Basantar, a key army operation during the ‘71 conflict. In the retelling, Raghavan trains the camera on the battlefield only to look beyond. Stream the latest films and shows with OTTplay's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. The shift alters everything. It refuses to limit Ikkis to a biopic, a genre notorious for being self-serving, without shortchanging on the protagonist’s personhood. It makes space to include scenes from a battle without overlooking the human cost incurred; it allows the outing to unfold as a portrait of a martyr without losing sight of those who were left behind. More crucially, the expansion of gaze, which looks at the ground soaked with blood and the grass that grew on it later, makes Ikkis a war film that, most decisively, cautions against its cyclicity. |
| | The Housemaid: B-Movie Erotica For Nobody
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In a parallel world, The Housemaid might have been a smutty satire of itself. But it is now a sleazy joke without a punchline, writes Rahul Desai.
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| | | Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar | | | | THERE'S A NEW SUBGENRE OF TRASHY MOVIES that try to sell trashiness and mediocrity by pretending to be wink-wink throwbacks to lurid 1980s and 1990s pulp. The ‘self-awareness’ is supposed to be their USP; the kitschy storytelling is supposed to be deliberate; the B-movie-ness is supposed to be part of the plan. Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, a psychological thriller based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel of the same name, squarely belongs in this category. It’s intense and erotic in a bad-literature sort of way, twisty and clumsy in a we-know-what-we’re-doing way, and incredibly corny for how smart and edgy it thinks it is. Every character looks porn-fantasy-coded hot, because how can they not? The gender commentary makes it worse. Every filmmaking choice is littered with tradwife riffs, over-the-top cliches and clunky red herrings to ‘fool’ the average viewer. The Housemaid appears to revolve around a young hustler named Millie — cosplayed by none other than Sydney Sweeney — who is hired as a live-in housemaid by a wealthy couple, Neena (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar). Millie has a criminal record, which she keeps a secret, so the film obviously wants us to believe that she’s going to be trouble. She dresses skimpily around the house, of course, because Andrew is quite the hunk, as is the Italian gardener Enzo. She soon realises that she is no match for Neena, who seems to be schizophrenic, mercurial and has violent mood swings. Neena lashes out at everyone and everything, so it’s only a matter of time before poor hubby Andrew starts hitting on the blonde housemaid who cooks like she’s a male fantasy. The real twist arrives in the final act, when Millie discovers that the secret of the Winchesters has less to do with Neena than she thought. Watch psychological thrillers like Sharp Objects and Vivarium with OTTplay Premium. Get JioHotstar + Zee5 + Sony LIV + Fancode + 25 OTTs at only Rs 149 per month. |
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