Airlift – a movie with a heroic attempts by an Indian-
Kuwaiti businessman to evacuate 1.75 lakhs Indian from Kuwait via Jordan.
First of all, commendable job by Akshay Kumar and Raja
Menon, for bringing into highlight, one of the best and largest evacuation
effort by a country.
The story starts with a racist joke “How do you fit 20 Iraqis
in a telephone booth?” showing Ranjeet(Akshay Kumar), imbibed in Kuwaiti
colours.
We don’t get to see more colours of his character as soon
enough, the Iraqi forces invade Kuwait and render the inhabitants homeless. In
these tough times, Ranjeet finds himself on a crossroad, as he has to decide
between his responsibility towards family or towards the people who are
dependent on him. The moment of decision has been shown very subtly and simply.
Ranjeet realizes that he is more Indian than he gives
himself credit for, as he takes on camp preparation for the dependents and tries to find ways of evacuation.
Nimrat impresses yet again in her portrayal of strong wife.
Though cynical of Ranjeet’s actions initially, but she comes on board later as
she realizes that Ranjeet is not going to leave anyone behind.
Purab Kohli, playing Ibrahim stands out in the crowd full of
Indians in the camp. His cool and calm portrayal yet again shows his immense
talent in bringing justice to any role he is trusted with.
The screenplay is balanced with apt focus on the internal
struggle of Ranjeet and Amrita(Nimrat) while focusing mostly on the issue at
hand.
Some scenes have been portrayed so well, they will get you
emotional. A applaud-worthy effort, ending in a clichéd slow-motion waving of Indian
flag, but that still works. J
We would have loved it more if it was based more on real
life characters. Though we see some names like “Mathunny Matthews” and “Vedi” in
credits, but they could have been portrayed in the movie itself. But, I won’t
take credit away from Akshay, as this was a brave and flawless effort from his
side.
In an era, where directors really shy away from making
movies on historic events, due to fear of backlash from intolerant India, this
is definitely a good start. We hope to see more of it.
I would definitely advise you to watch once and revive this genre of movies.
Image credit: Google Images
