VUE’s Manish Gajjar Shares His Film of The Month
This feel good thriller is based on real life incident which happened when Suddam Hussain invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Whilst the Royal family managed to flee to Saudi Arabia living behind a country without a ruler, a total of 170,000 Indians based in Kuwait lost all that they had – their home, money and much more.
It is during these trying times that a wealthy businessman Ranjit Katyal decides to help evacuate thousands of Indians to the neighboring country Jordan.
Over 59 days, the Indian government systematically flew over 488 Air India commercial flights into a war zone to evacuate and safely bring them back home.
Airlift is an uplifting and entertaining edge-of-the-seat thriller yet patriotic and deeply moving depicting the biggest evacuation ever witness by mankind.
The film stars Akshay Kumar in the lead role who is already riding high from his box office success of Baby.
Actress Nimrat Kaur who appeared in the acclaimed film Lunchbox plays Akshay’s wife in the film. According to the director he needed someone with a strong persona and Nimrat fitted the bill perfectly.
The film has been shot on a lavish scale on various locations including Gujarat, United Arab Emirates and Rajasthan to depict 1990’s Kuwait and Baghdad.
Every minute detail was recreated to add realism to the film. For example a mansion, complete with Arabic carpets and interiors resembling a wealthy Middle-Eastern house was created for the shoot where the character Ranjit Katyal resided.
Even Akshay has gone that extra mile by learning Arabic so that he can deliver his lines accurately with the right pronunciation.
Airlift is a tense film but the director has been able to add song sequences which fit perfectly well with the film’s narrative and do not break the tension which the story depicts.
On the whole Airlift is an epic tale based on real life experiences and triumph of the human spirit set against the backdrop of war. A definite must-see!
