Intrigue

A gripping tale inspired by true events from one of the deadliest air strikes between India and Pakistan. A hero lost, a comrade's quest for truth-an epic tribute to bravery, sacrifice, and unbreakable courage.

Skyforce unravels a gripping story inspired by extraordinary true events surrounding one of the deadliest air strikes between India and Pakistan. This epic tale of bravery and sacrifice follows the mystery of a hero lost in action and a comrade's unyielding quest for the truth. Packed with emotions, camaraderie, and high-stakes action, Skyforce is a soaring tribute to courage and resilience.

1971 IAF captures Pakistani pilot Ahmed Husaain whereas Wing Commander Kumar Om Ahuja treats him as prisoner of war.Om realizes that Ahmed was part of 1965 war thou Pakistan loosed it he was given gallantry award.Ahmed tells him that he was given the award for eliminating an Indian solider.Om goes six years back during the war time where he had a team of professional pilots and one being T Vijaya (Tabby) with him he had emotional attachment.Vijaya being one of the best pilot's was known to break war protocols.Pakistan plans an air strike on India with modernized fighter plains where Indian fighter planes could hardly survive the attack.Om studies all the possibilities of attack but does not get permission to do the air strike.While Pakistan destroys and Indian air base to which the government decides to do a secret air strike on Pakistan.During this strike Vijaya is left on stand by as he is known to break protocols.But when Om and his team return back successfully destroying Pakistani air base.He realizes that Vijaya is missing who again broke protocols and went to help his team.Since that day Vijaya is termed missing and later dead until in present day Om gets hint from Ahmed and realizes he could be alive.Om tries all his best to trace Vijaya as per the little information received from Ahmed and puts in front of inquiry committee But his case is dismissed due to lack of evidence which can prove Vijaya is alive.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

In 1947, India was partitioned, and the nation of Pakistan was born. Pakistan immediately raided the state of Kashmir to establish control over it. The Indian forces counter attacked and stopped the Pakistani advance, thus creating the Line of Control in Kashmir. India and Pakistan went to war in 1965 on this topic. Pakistan PM believed that they could easily defeat India with the superior weaponry that they had from US. But the Indian Air Force was equal to the task and forced PM Ayub Khan to agree to a ceasefire after losing many territories to India during the war.

In 1971, the tensions flared up again due to the ethic cleansing in East Pakistan which was pushing refugees into India.

In 1971, the Pakistan Air Force suddenly attack an Indian airbase due to the East Pakistan conflict. Several planes and pilots were killed on the ground. In retaliation, one Surface to Air Missile is activated and manages to bring down a Pakistani plane from which the pilot ejected upon impact.

The Indian Air Force captures a Pakistani pilot, Ahmed (Sharad Kelkar). Upon interrogating him, Group Captain Kumar Om / K. O. Ahuja (Akshay Kumar) discovers that he was awarded for killing an Indian officer in the 1965 war.

In 1965, Ahuja and his teammates including T. K. Vijaya / Tabby (Veer Pahariya) are at the Adampur Airbase. The squadron at Adampur is called "Tigers". Other pilots include Duck (Fayaz Khan), Goat (Karan Chaudhary), Rhino (Ramakrishna Dixit), Owl (Ankit Kaushik), Scorpio (Sagar Rana), Shark (Vishal Jinwal), Spider (Lakshay Chawla), Prakash "Panther" Rajput (Ritik Ghanshani), Debashish "Cockroach" Chatterjee (Soham Majumdar) and Fox (Abhishek Mahendra). Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Anupam Joardar) is the President of India and Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan (Jaywant Wadkar).

Ahuja is married to Preeti (Nimrat Kaur), while Tabby is married to Geeta.

Tabby always sets his seniors on edge by breaking flight and training protocols nonetheless is a skilled and patriotic pilot. Tabby argues that there are no rules in war and hence there should be none in training either. He shares a close bond with Ahuja as he considers him as his mentor while Ahuja sees his late brother Monu in Vijaya.

Ahuja's senior Air Commodore David Lawrence (Manish Choudhary) informs him that the United States has strengthened Pakistan by giving them 12 Star Striker fighter planes. India is flying the Mystere aircraft and in comparison, the Star Striker has double the speed, 4 times the climb rate, multi barrel cannons, and air-to-air missiles.

After an attack from Pakistan on Adampur Airbase on 5th Sep 1965, David instructs Ahuja to go on a recce along with one more officer and cross the border at his own risk. During the recce, Ahuja and Tabby discover several weapons and artillery at the Pakistan border. Despite getting noticed by Pakistani officers, Tabby clicks pictures of the weapons. Tabby and Ahuja are attacked by Pakistani forces, but they manage to return back to base without any losses. In the process they also stop one train full of weapons from reaching the border on the Pakistan side.

After analyzing the pictures, it is clear that Pakistan has moved a considerable number of arms and ammunition close to the border to prepare for an attack. Ahuja suggests that India should attack before Pakistan can execute their plan. Lawrence dismisses the idea as the government would not agree with India attacking first as a result of human rights.

Soon after, on 6th Sep 1965, Pakistan attacks the Indian airbase at night, knowing that India does not have any planes that can fight at night. They destroy the airbase, stationed fighter planes, and kill Indian soldiers. India loses 28 aircraft, 7 runways, and many soldiers and civilians in 30 minutes of mayhem.

In retaliation, the Indian government decide upon a counterattack to destroy Pakistan's important air bases and their Star Striker planes. While making the strategy, Ahuja gets to know from the Pakistani PM's speech that the Star Striker planes are placed in the central part of the country, at the Sargodha Airbase. Ahuja argues that even the Pakistani forces know that India cannot reach Sargodha air base with the range of their fighters and hence would have kept all their Star Strikers at that base.

The mission is named "Sky Force". Ahuja plans to increase the range of Indian fighters by adding 2 external fuel tanks. Sargodha has a natural mountain cover around it, has radar coverage for 200 Kms and the greatest number of anti-aircraft guns on any base.

The mission is tough for India, due to the existing planes not having the fuel capacity which can bring them back to Adampur after attacking Sargodha. Ahuja assembles three teams for the mission but on Lawrence's order, he keeps Tabby on standby and not as part of the three core teams. The mission gets accomplished and all the officers return to their bases. Turns out the 3rd team of 4 aircraft never took off as a dust cloud had formed on the runway, and by the time it cleared they had lost fuel as well as their navigation cues from the lead aircraft.

On returning, Ahuja learns that Tabby took off a few minutes after his designated time and has gone missing. Tabby was headed to Sargodha when the 8 fighters of the mission were coming back. The only news received is that one Mystere aircraft crashed over Sargodha.

The Indian government including Air Chief Marshal Arjun Sinha (Mohit Chauhan) turns a blind eye to finding Tabby, labeling him as rebellious for not following orders. They refuse to engage Pakistan to understand if Tabby was captured inside their territory. In the meantime, Tabby's wife Geeta (Sara Ali Khan) urges Ahuja to find him as he had earlier promised her that he will take care of Tabby as his younger brother. Despite his best efforts, he does not receive any support from the government, who try to label his disappearance as his own fault.

In the present in 1971, after several years, Ahuja is guilt-stricken for failing to keep his promise to Geeta and losing another brother in a war. While all the soldiers involved in the mission received Vir Chakra, the authorities leave out Tabby despite his contributions to the mission. Heartbroken, Ahuja removes his Vir Chakra and places it on Tabby's portrait. After interrogating Ahmed, he comes closer to locating Tabby but receives no support from the government to facilitate the investigation.

Ahmed informs Ahuja that the Mystere he had shot down was at 6:12 am on 7th Sep 1965, which was after Ahuja's group had completed the mission and returned. This meant it was Tabby's plane that Ahmed shot down. Lawrence says that Ahmed is baiting Ahuja, so the Indian Government is forced to beg Pakistan to return its pilot.

20 years later, a retired Group captain Ahuja, receives a parcel from Ahmed, which contains a book regarding the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. The book is Battle for Pakistan, The Air War of 1965 authored by John Peterson (Tim Hudson).

With more evidence, Ahuja successfully reopens the case and even becomes part of the investigating team. They travel across the world to inquire with several people. Ahuja found out that the US were also worried about their Star Striker losing to a sub sonic aircraft, which they attributed to the pilot's superior flying skills. They also found from the encounter that it was possible to misguide the heat seeking technology in the Striker's missiles, and they were later changed to infra-red based seeking technology. Dassault also sold their old Mystere aircraft to middle east nations by calling it the "Star Striker Killer".

He finally meets Ahmed in Pakistan, who tells them the true story. He recalls having the best fight of his life with an unknown Indian soldier, who dodged US technology and saved himself twice from the US heat seeker missiles. He reveals that the unknown pilot was Tabby, whom he presumed to be dead since the first missile launch. However, with his skills and bravery, shot down Ahmed's aircraft by sacrificing himself and died in Pakistani territory when he could not eject from his plane.

After being presented with proof of his bravery, Tabby is awarded the Maha Vir Chakra and becomes the only Indian soldier to be posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra.