Airlift
- Director
- Raja Krishna Menon
- Studio
- Emmay EntertainmentT-Series FilmsCape of Good Films
- Release Date
- 21 January 2016
- Running Time
- 125 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹30.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹221.67 Cr
Review
Rajshree Thakur's "Airlift" is that rare specimen in Hindi cinema—a film that wears its earnestness openly, yet earns it through disciplined storytelling and a clear-eyed moral awakening. Akshay Kumar delivers perhaps his most restrained performance, shedding the usual swagger to portray Ranjit Katyal's transformation from self-serving businessman to reluctant humanitarian. The first act's portrait of wealth-induced insularity feels razor-sharp; we genuinely bristle at Ranjit before circumstance—and Major Khalaf's quiet intervention—cracks open his conscience. The direction maintains an almost documentary-like sobriety during the invasion sequences, resisting the urge to melodramatize what is, fundamentally, a true story of evacuation and collective responsibility.
What makes this film work is its refusal to simplify either its hero or its crisis. Ranjit doesn't become a saint; he becomes aware, and that distinction matters. The evacuation logistics form the spine of the latter half, and while the screenplay occasionally lapses into heavy-handed messaging, the scale of the undertaking—170,000 lives—lends weight to each bureaucratic breakthrough. Kumar and Thakur navigate the tonal shift from personal peril to national mission without losing believability, though one wishes the supporting characters had been sketched with equal precision.
The film isn't without missteps. Pacing sags in the middle, and some dialogue choices feel didactic rather than organic. Yet "Airlift" suc
Storyline
So there's this guy Ranjit who's living his best life in Kuwait back in 1990—he's super rich, well-connected, and honestly kind of looks down on other Indians even though he's one himself. He's got a wife and daughter, and he's basically convinced himself he's more Kuwaiti than Indian at this point. But then one night everything goes completely sideways when he gets word that Iraq has invaded Kuwait, and by morning the whole city is occupied by the Iraqi military.
Things get pretty intense pretty quickly after that. Ranjit tries to escape with his family and head to the Indian embassy, but they get stopped at a checkpoint and his driver gets killed in the chaos. It's absolutely brutal. But then it turns out this Iraqi officer named Major Khalaf, who knows Ranjit from his business dealings, actually saves him and brings him to the palace. The major's not thrilled with how Ranjit's been acting, but he decides to protect him and his family anyway because they've got history.
Once Ranjit makes it to the Indian embassy, he finds out that things are way bigger than his own situation. Turns out there are like 170,000 Indian workers trapped in Kuwait with nowhere to go, and they're all basically refugees now with no way out. That's when Ranjit realizes this isn't just about saving himself anymore—there's a massive humanitarian crisis unfolding and he might be one of the few people with the connections and resources to actually do something about it.
