Producer: Nikhil Advani, Monisha Advani, Aruna Bhatia, Madhu G Bhojwani, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar & Vikram Malhotra
Director: Raja Krishna Menon
Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, Feryna Wazheir, Inamulhaq, Lena, Prakash Belwadi, Kumud Mishra & Purab Kohli
Genre: War Thriller
Verdict: BLOCKBUSTER
Director Raja Krishna Menon has dabbled with humane stories in his 1st 2 outings namely Bus Yun Hi & Barah Anna and yet he had the guts to continue with his endeavor of emotional saga in his hat trick outing Airlift too. Besides producers Nikhil Advani, Monisha Advani, Aruna Bhatia, Madhu G Bhojwani, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar & Vikram Malhotra deserve plaudits for backing this offbeat film.
Plot: a Kuwait based businessman Ranjeet Katyal (Akshay Kumar), along with 2 noble souls Ibrahim (Purab Kohli) in Kuwait & an Indian officer (Kumud Mishra) in the Indian Ministry in New Delhi in lieu with his better half (Nimrat Kaur), carries out a biggest civil operation of evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Iraq – Kuwait war carried out during the reign of the evil Iraqi emperor Saddam Hussein. In 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait, leaving approx 1,70,000 Indians trapped. This is a true story of how Ranjit Katyal and India facilitate the largest human evacuation.
Aces: Firstly director Raja Krishnan Menon has surpassed his own par excellence directional skills considering his previous two offbeat ventures Bus Yun Hi & Barah Anna, secondly all the actors have delivered a very earnest, sincere, honest, enduring & realistic performance with Akshay Kumar (his life’s career best performance) leading the performer’s brigade and followed by Nimrat Kaur, Feryna Wazheir, Inamulhaq, Lena, Prakash Belwadi, Kumud Mishra & Purab Kohli (very sensitive act) and lastly all the technicians too deserves a special mention for their humanitarian efforts.
Minuses: The main problem is that for the common masses Airlift is devoid of any commercial trappings and even the only one belly dance number with a bevy of beautiful Iranian dancers seems out of place & out of context. Not to forget that the film moves ahead slowly with a few over repeated scenes.
Last Word: Airlift is one classy film well suited for the globe – trotting film festival circuit. And for its popularity amongst the Indian mass audiences it certainly needs a lot of encouragement.
