Airlift was a decent movie. Very uplifting.

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2016)

This Bollywood film follows the story of Ranjit Katyal (Akshay Kumar), a Kuwait-based businessman, whom must plan out the biggest evacuation of citizens by a civil airliner in history, when he is force to help, evacuated 170, 000 Indian out of wartime, Kuwait, during the height of the 1990/1991 Persian Gulf War. Without spoiling the movie, too much; while, this rescue operation film is not as good, as 1993's 'Schindler's List' or 2004's 'Hotel Rwanda', or even 2012's 'Argo', it was still a good movie, worth seeing even if it has some highly embroidered and fictionalized accounts of true events. After all, there is way too many films that, often take too much artistic liberties with actual events, making it somewhat offensive and jarring to watch. However, this particular film does not. Yes, it takes a few artistic liberties in the depiction of events, but most of them, actually works to make the depiction, much better. Still, there is somethings, worth noting that would need, so work. First off, the idea that, all of this planning was done, under one man's control. As much as I love, Akshay Kumar's performance as the fictional character of Ranjit Katyal and his character arch, from ruthless, selfish, greedy businessman to extraordinary Good Samarian whom initiative, tenacity and dedication help save the lives of many of his fellow country-men. I think, I would rather have the real-life depiction of entrepreneurs, Mathunny Mathews (also known as Toyota Sunny) & Harbajan Singh Vedi. After all, it's seem too unrealistic for one man to plan out, all this. Another thing, I was wondering, is why this film was call 'Airlift', when the majority of the characters, has nothing to do, with Air India's & Ministry of Civil Aviation, involvement in the evacuating. If anything, this movie should be call something else, as only the last 20 minutes is, about the airlift. Plus, in my opinion, the title gives away, too much of the end. I know, history movies are predictable, but gees, the suspense for this film is kinda ruin, when the title spells it out for you. Anyways, the airlift events, didn't just happen, during one or two days, like the film wants you to think. It was carried out from August 13, 1990 to October 20, 1990. That's a lot period of time, staying in Jordan. Another thing, I was wondering, when watching this film, was, how the whole evacuation plan can happens without the India's government active support. The film makes it, seem like the Ministry of External Affairs was little to no help; when in truth, it's the government that coordinating with the different groups and worked with the governments of Jordan and Iraq in having safe passage for the Indians. Plus, it's the government that work with Saddam Hussein, in making sure, they were protected, until the evaluation were over. For the most part, Indians in Kuwait, were allowed to buy food and continue their lives, as if the war didn't really started. I get that, a lot of things like this was omitted, because the filmmakers wanted added to heighten the dangers, but the idea of them, running out of food is a bit silly. Another thing, the idea that the Embassy in Kuwait & Iraq were no help, because they were evacuated of all staff and officers is not correct. Only non-essential staff and of course families would have been evacuated in real-life. The ambassador and his core team would have stayed on, as they did, based on the ambassador's account of the events. It's funny to see Ambassador, KP Fabian who was Joint Secretary of the Gulf at the time of the Kuwait war, being throws in very different light by this film, by being completely omitted, when in truth, he did a lot to help the Indians come home. Despite that, the war movie directed by Raja Krishna Menon is pretty decent. Still, some of cinematography by Priya Seth, does need some work. During some scenes, it was really hard to figure out, what certain characters were looking at, or what, the viewer was honestly seeing. It was a bit jarring to see some modern UAE (United Arab Emirates) backgrounds, that doesn't look like, it's Middle Eastern building style nor from that 1990 time period. Another thing, a bit off, was the violence. It was surprising, very tame for a war movie. I get that, they didn't have, too much of a budget to pull off, too many effects, since it was limited, but they really made up for the lack of graphic visuals, with well-done acting and somewhat decent Arabic & Hindi dialogue, even if it's a bit heavy-handed on exposition. I like, nearly every character, they show here, but still, they did, make the fictional supporting characters of George Kutty (Prakash Belawadi) a little bit too unlikeable for my taste and Major Khalaf Bin Zayd (Inaamulhaq), too campy to be taken serious as a villain. I just wish, they hired more Arab actors, as extras, as it's somewhat noticeable, that Indian actors, were playing the soldiers & citizens as well. Despite that, the music choice wasn't too off. I kinda like the Bollywood mixed with Arabic music type of a flair by artists Amaal Mallik & Ankit Tiwari. Music like '' Dil Cheez Tujhe Dedi", "Soch Na Sake", "Tu Bhoola Jise" & "Mera Nachan Nu" were rightly place, in the film, and didn't distracting me from the overall theme of the movie. Overall: While, the movie does have some flaws. The good things about it, surly out weight the bad. Airlift indeed lift the bar, a little higher for Bollywood. As a Non-Indian American, I can't wait to see, what type of film, they would think up, next. Airlift is worth seeing.