Ikka Story
Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol) is a righteous lawyer who has always stood up in defence of those with lesser means to pursue legal help. He firmly believes that law and justice are not co-related. Meanwhile, he and his wife Avantika (Dia Mirza) are racing against time as they learn about an inevitable predicament with their young daughter, who needs immediate treatment.
His ideals are put to test when he has to defend the rich and affluent Shauryamann Gaur (Akshaye Khanna) in an attempt-to-murder case. The latter is accused of attempting to murder Soma Mittal (Akanksha Ranjan in a special appearance), following an evening over drinks and dinner. A shared past forces the two men to team up together against the lesser-experienced lawyer Madhura Banerjee (Tillotama Shome), who is also the sole earning member in her family. The stakes are high. Will truth emerge triumphant over the battle between right and wrong?
Ikka Review
For a cinephile like yours truly, courtroom dramas qualify very high on entertainment and storytelling. Across Indian languages, we’ve witnessed some incredible courtroom films and shows including ‘Pink’, ‘Court’, ‘Talvar’, ‘Jai Bhim’, ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and ‘Haq’. A delightful series like ‘Maamla Legal Hai’ too carries heft despite seeking inspiration from bizarre real-life events. Written by Althea Kaushal and Mayank Tewari, ‘Ikka’, on the other hand, hopes to construct a telling legal thriller but the treatment by director Siddharth P Malhotra, is awfully outdated.
The arguments presented during the court proceedings carry a language and tone that belongs to badly-done Indian TV shows from the 90s, but seem to have been rehashed for the sake of relevance, nearly three decades later. The ‘Damini’ hangover looms large over the narrative. In a scene that would make anyone empathise with Shome, her character Madhura Banerjee is seen sporting a cast only to flex her ‘Dhai Kilo Ka Haath’, a recall to Deol’s famed imagery. In another hilarious moment, when a key witness attempts to assassinate the character of the victim, Deol screams aloud to silence him in an attempt to recreate moments from the 1993 film, which also fetched him his second National Film Award.
Sunny Deol in Ikka
The plot tries hard to engage its audience in a game of twists and turns, holding its cards close, even as the bluff can be called out. Courtroom tensions, a running observation on class and privilege, the moral dilemma that lies between personal calling and professional pursuit, the intent to tie each narrative together is noble, but the execution comes across as a checklist. As you hope the payoff would be worth, the eventual twist is painfully predictable, watching the film itself feels like an unintended crime.
The performances don’t help either. ‘Ikka’ is determined to ride high on the popularity of the men and while Deol tries to infuse emotion and gravitas earnestly, Khanna appears to have landed on the sets of ‘Ikka’, straight from ‘Dhurandhar’. It becomes uncomfortable to watch a 50-year-old actor being passed off as a privileged brat, seeking associations with women outside the realms of his marriage. The ladies, though, are saddled with breadcrumbs in the guise of screentime.
As Avantika, Dia is effective as the mother torn between her past and present, while attending to her ailing daughter. Speaking of goof-ups, in a scene where her daughter is browsing through her pictures from her younger days, a photo from Dia’s wedding to husband Vaibhav Rekhi is presented as it is from her Instagram feed, without editing it to impose Deol’s face, instead. Tillotama is sincere as Madhura, a middle-class woman who must make ends meet for her family while dealing with the pressures that follow a volatile case, involving a prolific adversary. Sanjeeda Shaikh (also in a special appearance) as Shauryamann’s wife Gauri gets little to do and her character is mostly in service of the former’s plans.
Ikka verdict
Politely speaking, ‘Ikka’ hopes to play a fair hand, but turns its audience into jokers of the pack. Quite the losing gamble, to add.
