Airlift Movie Review

Airlift is a 2016 Indian war thriller film directed by Raja Krishna Menon, and starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur. The script, written by Raja Krishna Menon developed the idea after studying the whole incident of the war, and which he subsequently expanded.

The film follows Ranjit Katyal (Akshay Kumar), a Kuwait-based businessman, carries out a biggest civil operation of evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war carried out during the reign President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

With a budget of ₹30 crore (US$4.4 million), the film premiered worldwide on 22 January 2016. The marketing of the film played an important role in the film's promotion and collaborated with the flight company Air India, who had a major contribution in the evacuation of record-breaking number of Indians during the war.

Airlift was theatrically released on 22 January 2016, with an international premiere being held on 21 January. The film was preceded by high audience and commercial expectations.

According to director Raja Krishna Menon, he wrote the script after studying the whole incident of war and the predicament of Indians based in Kuwait. He then approached Akshay Kumar for the role of a character based on Mathunny Mathews, the real life businessman who spearheaded the evacuation efforts named 'Ranjit Katyal', to which he agreed to act and produce under his banner of Hari Om Entertainment.Kumar felt that the film possessed significant offbeat potential,with a good amount of "patriotism" and a reason to be a proud Indian. He stated that Balraj Sahni's role in the film Waqt (1965) is his inspiration for the role where an earthquake shatters the peaceful life of Sahni's character.

Due to the film's theme based on rescue operation, the film was compared with Ben Affleck-starrer Argo (2012) sharing the similar storyline. However, Kumar stated that the film does not have any connection with it and is completely based on a true story.He also said that comparing the film with Argo is an "insult" and it is not a matter of humour for Indians to achieve this end. Kumar reported that his 80% profit share will be included in the film's budget and he would not charge fees for the same.

Principal photography was started on February 2015. The first schedule of the film was reportedly shot in Al-Hamra Palace Beach Resort and Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates in early March 2015. The sets were re-created to depict Kuwait during 1990. The second schedule of the film was shot in Bhuj, Gujaratand Rajasthan, India. Kumar and Purab Kohli reportedly learnt Arabic language for their roles. Final portions of the film were completed with shooting of a music video for the song "Soch" in December 2015.