Karan’s note read, “IKKIS is a love letter to peace… an honestly and earnestly told story about the absolute redundancy of war….i was so moved by so many moments of the film … it silently screams … and that’s where Sriram Raghavan gets it so right… i was moist eyed every time Dharamji was on screen…. He has the most towering screen presence and yet can be so gentle and your heart goes out to his immensely dignified portrayal of a grieving father …. @jaideepahlawat proves time and again what an outstanding force of nature he is…he is ROCK SOLID!! (sic)”
The filmmaker also urged people to watch the film.
Filmfare’s reviewer gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, “All war films, when honest, are essentially anti-war films. Ikkis is another reminder of that truth. Though it recounts one of India’s most heroic wartime chapters, it is never interested in chest-thumping or spectacle for its own sake. Reality, after all, hits harder than fiction. The film traces the life and death of 2nd Lt. Arun Khetarpal, who was just 21 when he laid down his life on December 16, 1971, at the Battle of Basantar, one of the largest tank battles since World War II. Serving with the 17 Poona Horse, Arun destroyed ten Pakistani tanks before a shell ended his life. Raghavan stages these sequences with grit and restraint, placing the viewer inside the chaos rather than above it. The tank warfare, much like Pippa (2023), is detailed, immersive, and sobering. But Ikkis finds its deepest resonance away from the battlefield. Dharmendra’s Madan Lal Khetarpal belongs to a generation shaped by Partition, men who saw displacement, loss, and fractured identities up close. Born in 1935, Dharmendra would have witnessed those horrors as a child, and that memory seems to seep into his performance.”
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