Airlift -- true or false? Both

Airlift. It really did lift my spirits. For reasons more than one. First, it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, fast paced, though the ubiquitous song and dance numbers interrrupted the narrative, but excusable, we might conclude. Patriotism and humanism are in high doses...and why not? The story is all about the Indian diaspora during the Kuwait invasion of Iraq and how they were evacuated through the humane actions of one very rich man, Ranjit Katyal. Part fiction, part history, one doesn't know where one ends and the other begins, though the makers have safely declared that it is all just a story.
At the end of the movie, when people get up to leave the cinema, we are told via the writing on the screen that this man, the hero, Ranjit Katyal, is loosely based on the character of Sunny Mathews, who facilitated the evacuation with his friend. I felt cheated. Airlift tells the story of a supposedly unsung hero but this hero remains unsung, with his name changed to Ranjit Katyal. They should have given this info along with the credits in the beginning. His grand daughter wrote a post about him on her FB page. I found a picture of Mr Sunny Mathews too.(I really hope it's the right pic! Found it on the net) I would love to hear what he has to say about the movie though.

 I am indeed proud of the lion's share of Malayali  presence in Airlift. Director Raja Krishna Menon, Lena, Suresh Nair who co-wrote the script.  Pardon me being slightly parochial!
Airlift is special for another reason, its talented cinematographer, Priya Seth, one of the leading underwater cinematographers in the nation. Her tastefully portrayed belly dancing scenes, without showing the faces, is a first of its kind. T^he vast canvas...deserts, bombings....ships, fights....it was a nice feeling that a certain Priya Seth was DOP.
Acting honours: Yes, Akshay Kumar is good, very good at times, but just a few times, he overdid it. Prakash Belawadi as Georgekutty, Lena's husband, had a well written character role which he put across to the viewers, justifying every nuance of the role, the look, gait et al. Nimrat Kaur as Katyal's wife had a big role but nothing much to write home about. Inamulhaq   as major Khalaf bin Zayd rolled his 'r's well enough while addressing 'Ranjit" Katyal and had that quiet wicked demeanor.
Raja Krishna Menon, director, ah....let's hope he will give the seasoned film makers of Bollywood hot competition. For that he must stand on his own ground and not swim with tide. Airlift is not in the bracket of some Bollywood movies 'for timepass.'...worth the ticket money in a multiplex.

Ennum Eppozhum average

Sathyan Anthikkad+Mohanlal+Manju Warrier. What do you expect? Fireworks? But this one was a dampener. Average is the best description for Ennum eppozhum. And that average grade goes largely for the one wonderful classical verging on semi-classical dance performance by Manju Warrier.
A better script by Ranjan Pramod may have helped. The story by Raveendran also has too many sub plots which distract you instead of contributing to the overall good of the movie.Nowhere do you really laugh your heart out. Like Priyadarshan's, has Sathyan Anthikkad's  bag of tricks been exhausted? The situations are contrived and coincidences galore, like the hera and heroine accidentally meet at all the right places for the story to proceed. Come on, the audience has grown up! They don't swallow things as they did four decades ago any more.
Renji Panikkar's character was not delineated well enough. A villain who was later turned into a buffoon when two plus hours of the movie got over to avoid a loose end? Every other character was a hangover of old Sathyan movies. Manju Warrier did try hard enough and so did Mohan Lal.  Lena came out well, in fact, natural. The songs just did not stay in the mind. That something which the audience longed for and expected just wasn't there. The magic that Aaraam Thamburaan and Kanmadam gave us with these two will always be remembered. You can't club this movie with those. But curiosity will kill the cat and the combo works. An opportunity that has not been exploited.
Prema Manmadhan