New Delhi: Dharmendra’s final Hindi film, Ikkis, now carries a farewell in his own voice. The makers of the soon-to-be-released movie have shared a stirring poem from the movie—a quiet, earthy meditation on home and memory—written and recited by the actor and set to shots of him returning to his ancestral village.
Shared by Maddock Films on social media, the video shows Dharmendra stepping into a Punjab village home, reuniting with familiar faces, and touching the soil he longed for. The couplet is about village ponds, mustard fields, and the pull of childhood. Titled ‘Aj Bhi Ji Karda Hai, Pind Apne Nu Jaanwa’, which translates to ‘I still yearn to return to my village’, the verse reads like a final tribute—a legend bidding goodbye in his own words.
“Dharam Ji was a true son of the soil, and his words carry the essence of that soil. This poem by him is a yearning; a tribute from one legend to another. Thank you for gifting us this timeless verse,” read the caption of the clip on Instagram.
The video starts with the veteran actor in a car, accompanied by characters from the film played by Jaideep Ahlawat and Simar Bhatia, heading to his village in Punjab.
He enters a sprawling, old house full of people and laughs into the night with Asrani, who also passed away in October this year.
Dharmendra talks about wanting to go back home, bathe in the pond with the cattle, and play kabaddi with friends like he used to as a kid.
In one scene, as he recites the lines that talk about him missing his mother, and there being no match to the pind or village life, he places a hand on his heart.
The veteran actor passed away at 89 on 24 November at his Mumbai home, days after being discharged from the Breach Candy hospital.
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‘He has become a story’
Ikkis is based on the life of India’s youngest Param Vir Chakra awardee, Arun Khetarpal, played by Agastya Nanda. Dharmendra plays Khetarpal’s grandfather, Brigadier ML Khetarpal, whose stories of valour inspired the young man to join the Army.
“Now he has become a story,” Dharmendra said in the film’s trailer, released on 3 November.
The film will show his character investigating what took place in the final moments of his grandson’s life as he defied a direct order from his superior.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)