Akelli (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – An ordinary Indian girl gets trapped in a war-torn land and survival is her battle.

My Take – While we have seen various chapters of Indians trapped in war-torn lands in the form of Airlift (2016), Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), and the propaganda piece money spinner The Kerala Story (2023), for his debut feature writer-director Pranay Meshram, along with co-writers Gunjan Saxena and Ayush Tiwari, aims to familiarize us once again with the brutal ways of the ISIS with maximum creative liberties.

Though by focusing on a single ordinary Indian girl who finds herself trapped in a combat zone, forcing her to battle for her life, he sets the stage for a compelling survivor drama, but sadly also plots it in such a clumsy way that the film becomes quite the uncomfortable watch.

Suggesting that the project has emerged from neither proper research nor knowledge, never truly making us as a viewer afraid or anxious about the fate of our lead protagonist.

Hobbled by clichés visible in most escape thrillers and geopolitical dramas that it aspires to be, the film doesn’t let you breathe, literally and metaphorically, particularly due to the jarring narrative shortcuts it is forced to take, all in order to compress the against-all-odds journey into its 127 minute run time.

And given its odd pacing, it honestly feels much longer. Leaving the always competent Nushrratt Bharuccha to shoulder the film with her undeniably extraordinary performance.

Set in 2014, the story follows Jyoti (Nushrratt Bharuccha), a young woman living in Punjab, who in her desperation to shave off the massive loans of her deceased brother and provide for her aging mother and orphaned teenage niece, accepts a well-paying supervisory position at a garments factory in Mosul, Iraq. But upon landing she finds that the land is anything but peaceful. With the Iraqi Army caught in a bloody game of hide and seek with the Islamic State, the civilians easily getting caught in the crossfire.

However, as she slowly adjusts into the job, particularly due to the unlikely romance blooming between her and her manager Raafiq (Nishant Dahiya), Jyoti suddenly finds herself in a nightmarish situation when the factory is raided by members of the ISIS, and she along with her female colleagues are taken away, to be turned into a sex slave.

Soon landing at the home of Assad (Tsahi Halevi), an ISIS commander, Jyoti finds herself looking for the right moment to make her escape and return to her country.

Inspired by the true story of a Middle Eastern woman, the film aims to be a story of grit, conviction and determination. It depicts the atrocities women face at the hands of terrorist organization ISIS. Unfortunately, after a stirring introduction to the terror-infested terrain where a girl child is turned into a ticking bomb, the writing and execution struggles to hold on to the tension.

While director Pranay Meshram displays ample blood and gore to evoke shock value it is rarely convincing. Chases across the dusty landscape, a few gunfights, a protracted cat and mouse game inside an airport terminal and a final dash across a tarmac engulfed in darkness are the action set pieces that the film assembles in a rather mechanical, if not entirely dreary, way. Much as it tries to steady itself, the film fumbles and falters.

What lets the film mainly down is its inability to fully utilize the conventions of a tale of survival in exceedingly hostile terrain and infuse the narrative with a genuine sense of the damage that war wreaks on humanity. The film plays instead like a straightforward tale of an innocent caught in a battle that she has strayed into for no fault of her own.

Sure, the presentation of Jyoti’s will and strength are admirable, the scripting contrivances invariably get her to the right place at the right time. The film gets so enamored of its heroine’s resourcefulness and pluck that it underplays the plight of other women trapped in the war. Just when the story looks like it’s ending, a long episode is tacked on, and by which time Jyoti’s adventure has curdled into get-it-over-with tedium.

What stands out here is Nushrratt Bharuccha‘s stellar performance. Here, she steps out of her comfort zone to get into the skin of this character from the word go, and she shines in every single frame. Nushrratt‘s rendition navigates a spectrum of emotions: from poignant vulnerability to fiery determination, each facet exquisitely depicted.

Nishant Dahiya makes for a charming screen presence in whatever limited screen time he gets. Tsahi Halevi and Amir Boutrous, stars of the popular Israeli Netflix series, Fauda, are decent enough as antagonists. On the whole, ‘Akelli’ is a lackluster survival thriller led by an outstanding Nushrratt Bharuccha.