New Delhi, Jan. 15 -- Ikkis, meaning twenty-one in Hindi, is the recently released Indian war movie centred around the valour of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who, during the 1971 India-Pakistan War, when he was just 21 years old, became India's youngest recipient of the Param Vir Chakra (posthumous), the nation's highest gallantry award in war.

Arun Khetarpal, Foxtrot Squadron, 38th Course, National Defence Academy (NDA), evokes memories of exciting swimming competitions, of paddling neck to neck in sprints till I beat him only in the last few yards, and of blocking each other in water polo. Being my senior by a year, when we parted company in June 1969, little did I know then that we would never meet in the Armoured Corps of the In...