Director: Pranay Meshram
Cast: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Tsahi Halevi, Amir Boutrous, Nishant Dahiya, and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 3 stars
This film is based on a real incident which occurred in Iraq in 2014 when Islamic State made the entire country a war-torn region. There are factual reports that state about 39 Indian people were abducted in Iraq by ISIS, alongside which 46 nurses survived from a hospital-based in Tikrit and safely returned to their home country — a bonafide inspiration of filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar’s Tiger Zinda Hai (2017).
Debutant director Pranay Meshram, who earlier assisted in light-hearted films Queen (2013) and Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), chose to tell a story of an Indian girl through his lens set at the backdrop of ISIS abduction. In an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal (Dated. August 15, 2023), he revealed the seeding thought to make Akelli was merely his meeting with a Middle Eastern woman, who stood against the Islamic State and escaped.
A narrative that also holds the national sentiment, Pranay delves into a dramatised series of events associated with the actual history.
To repay the loan of her missing brother during the Kedarnath floods that wreaked havoc in 2013, Jyoti (Nushrratt Bharuccha) takes up a supervisor position in a garment factory in Mosul, Iraq. She moves there leaving her grieving mother and niece Mahi back in India. She befriends her colleague Rafiq (Nishant Dahiya), who secretly likes her romantically. In the middle of her ongoing life, she gets abducted by ruthless assassins Wahab (Amir Boutrous) and later by Asaad (Tsahi Halevi). But, does Jyoti have a game plan to escape?
Co-written by Pranay, Gunjan Saxena and Ayush Tiwari, Akelli is quite taut pre-interval. The amalgamation of the flashback to the present day is noticeable. After the interval, the writers and director take enough creative liberty to recreate the original mood but Akelli is watchable.
Such stories have a lesser grace period than the fictional ones, still, Pranay manages to arise tense moments around his premise. However, he could have worked a bit harder in making Jyoti’s escape more palatable.
Nushrratt, who is synonymous with rom-coms, surely aims to go out of her comfort zone and it is evident. She tries too hard to be Jyoti and even succeeds in the majority of it. Here, she even gets a bigger playground than Vishal Furia’s Chhorii (2021), which acted as a performance catalyst in her career back then.
Popular Israeli actor of Fauda fame Tsahi Halevi marks his Indian (Hindi) debut and is a treat to watch. He is sinful, lethal and cruel as the vicious commander Asaad. He made his presence felt throughout. Amir Boutrous, as the cold-hearted terrorist Wahab, does justice to his small yet powerful role.
Nishant Dahiya, our very own Roger Binny of 83 (2021), plays a romantic, friendly and progressive man (he can cook yummy chole bhature) named Rafiq. He brings relief amidst a disturbing watch. He is pleasing to the eyes as he emotes well — both in lighter and heavier scenes.
Casting director Vicky Sidana ventures into production for the first time. While he launched Nushrratt in Luv Ranjan’s Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011), he now co-produces her toughest roles by far — the Punchnama success magic doesn’t look unbelievable. DOP Pushkar Singh shot the by-lanes of Uzbekistan (called Mosul, Iraq in the film) fairly well. His aerial shots are breathtaking.
Akelli unleashes the journey of a survivor that might be a misfit for a Friday bumper opening but Pranay’s film seems like a definite winner through a solid word of mouth or a trending OTT watch.
