Hope in the darkest hours

Rating: 9/10 (3 July 2016)

Very few Bollywood movies are as moving and stirring as Airlift. Due to Akshay Kumar movies like this are seeing the light of the day and are getting the publicity which is necessary for these kind of non-commercial movies. I am reducing one star from this movie only because of the songs. Bollywood's love of songs are very harmful to a serious movie, and in this case, a documentary. Real life doesn't have any songs and documentaries should also be treated the same so that we don't snap out of the serious moments in the movies.
The movie is pretty much flawless. Akshay Kumar immerses himself completely into the character. Every year he makes one such movie which begs you to ask him personally that why does he make all those mindless comedies which have no cinematic value. If you rate him on the basis of his commercial movies you will definitely rate him a 3/10. Then he comes up with a "Special 26" or "Baby" and you are completely thrown off-balance. He lets go of all his mannerisms and digs deep and gives such a convincing performance. Actors like Nimrat Kaur, Poorab Kohli or Kumud Mishra are completely in their zone and are almost taken for granted that they are going to do well and they do well.
The direction is flawless. The CGI in the war affected areas are used aptly. Often producers go cheap on small scenes like that and they take you out of the moment because you start searching for the flaws. The director Raja Menon, didn't go for much gore or display of devastation. Instead he trusted his actors to portray the helplessness through their performance. The work of the Indian Government has been both sneered and praised. It is almost like a wake-up call for the Government to do their job by citing an incident which had occurred 26 years ago. It is a wake-up call to humanity in general, showing us that even though evolution has made us smart and technologically advanced but what do we become during times of desperation. This movie shows us that there is hope during the darkest times and also that there is hope for Indian cinema to come out of the trend of commercial movies because the audience is maturing.