Airlift

अच्छा तो भाईओ और बहनो, बात उस ज़माने की है जब (no) thanks to economic and diplomatic discords, Iraq ने Kuwait पर रातों रात हमला कर दिया. The result of this invasion was that for all practical puposes Kuwait की तो लग गयी वाट. The Kuwaiti royal family fled to Saudi Arabia, leaving the citizenry to fend for itself . Amongst these hapless victims of दो मुल्को की राजनीती were Indian citizens, who now found themselves at the mercy of Iraqi troops.

Akshay Kumar plays a hard-as-nails businessman, Ranjit Katyal who calls himself a proud Kuwaiti and completely shuns his Indian roots. All is well. Ranjit and wife Amrita (Nimrat Kaur) stay in a beautiful mansion with their daughter Simu. Little do they know that trouble-in-paradise is just around the corner and life as they know it is about to change forever. What is first believed to be border skirmish soon turns into full blown "Gulf War".

Ranjit is given an option to fly out with his family, but something has changed, this is not the same ruthless business man whose only aim was profit. Seeing the plight of his fellow Indians, he decides to stay back much to the chagrin of his wife. Thanks to this proverbial change of heart, Katyal becomes the mediator between the Indians refugees and the Indian Government not to mention the Iraqis. His aim is to evacuate all Indians to safety.

A task जो कहना आसान था पर करना मुश्किल, क्योकि एक तरफ थी Indian Government और दूसरी तरफ सन्की Iraqi. अब करे तो क्या करे, जान तो बचानी ही थी.  Oscillating between the indifference of two and a lot of heartache, Kaytal finally manages to get all the evacuees to Jordon from where they fly to safety.

This was the largest evacuation in history, with Air India operating 488 flights over 59 days to complete this mission.

Moral of the story : जान बची तो लाखो पाए !

A heart wrenching movie which will have you by the edge of your seats. Absolutely stellar performance by Akshay Kumar, one of his finest. The surprise package is Purab Kohli, its a pity that such actors are not seen often on the big screen. The hugely talented Nimrat Kaur holds her own paired with Akshay.

There has been a lot of criticism targeted towards the movie for distorting facts, so much so that the MEA has also stepped in to clarify the department's position in the Gulf War evacuations. Calling the movie "good entertainment" but "short on facts". The MEA played an active part in negotiating the safe evacuation of Indians; the then foreign minister I K Gujral had personally met Saddam Hussain to ensure safe passage. Plus the movie gives full credit to Rajiv Katyal for the evacuation. In reality this task was accomplished by the combined effort of Mathunny Matthews, Harbhajan Singh Vedi, the AI pilots and the staff & ministers of MEA. Should we blame this disparity of facts on the often (mis)used "creative license"? To the fact that this is a movie not a documentary.

The panel is open to विचार विमर्श...

Whatever the case, this movie is not to be missed. देखिएगा ज़रूर.