Airlift ***

Dir:  Raja Krishna Menon

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, Inaamulhaq, Prakash Belawadi, Kumud Mishra, Purab Kohli, Feryna Wazheir

Based on true-life events - the airlifting of 170,000 Kuwaiti-based stranded Indians in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 - Airlift is generally tightly directed by Raja Krishna Menon. It also features a fine, understated performance (possibly his best) by Akshay Kumar, one in which he puts his star persona aside and puts his skills in service of the script.

Kumar plays Ranjit Katiyal (a fictional character that is the amalgam of two real people), a ruthless and successful businessman who thinks of himself as more Kuwaiti than Indian. When the Iraqi invasion occurs Katiyal finds his conscience pricked and his humanity awakened when he sees his fellow Indians suffering. He makes it his personal mission to secure the safety of his compatriots much to the chagrin of his wife (Nimrat Kaur of The Lunchbox fame).

The first half of the movie is particularly taut (apart from an opening item number) but the second lags somewhat and an unrealistic sequence in which the Indian refugees take on armed Iraqi soldiers and fisticuffs ensue is particularly jarring (though thankfully brief). The climactic sequences also needed some more tension. Still, all in all, Airlift proves to be a good watch buoyed by strong performances not only by Akshay Kumar but also by Nimrat Kaur, Inaamulhaq (as a shifty Iraqi  Major), Prakash Belawadi (as a constantly grumbling troublemaker in the Indian refugee camp), Kumud Mishra (as an ultimately well-meaning bureaucrat in New Delhi), and Purab Kohli (a newly-wed searching for his missing wife).

Cut to chase: Generally well told fact-based thriller

 

The Hateful Eight *** ½

Dir:  Quentin Tarantino

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton
Goggins, Bruce Dern, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen

The Hateful Eight couldn’t be anything but a Quentin Tarantino film. Ambitious, revelling in and celebrating a love of cinema (and its history), challenging both traditional cinematic storytelling techniques and audience expectations, the violence depicted in bloody and graphic detail, and rubbing all sorts of sensibilities the wrong way – The Hateful Eight has all that and more. Tarantino insisted on shooting this Western in traditional 70MM and the movie opens (along with a five minute Ennio Morricone overture) with icy panoramic views of a snow-swept Colorado mountain trail as if to justify that decision. Then perversely and gleefully Tarantino brings most of the action into a snowbound cabin (with only occasional forays outside) and turns the movie into his twisted version of an Agatha Christie locked-room murder mystery.

The Hateful Eight boasts an array of colourful (and, mostly - as the title suggests - detestable) characters, chief among them the American Civil War veteran and bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (played by regular Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson) and fellow bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (a heavily moustachioed Kurt Russell). Ruth has in tow the wanted felon Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh, in her most prominent big screen role in quite some time and deservedly amongst this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actress) while the other occupants of the cabin include an actual hangman  (Tim Roth), a newly hired sheriff for a nearby town (Walton Goggins) and a retired Confederate general (Bruce Dern). But some people are who they say they are and some aren’t and Tarantino takes his deliberately paced time in unravelling all the threads of his tale.

Tarantino is a born storyteller (think of him as a modern-day "dastaan-goh") and he will never bore you while telling his tale which just may meander off into obscure corners just because the writer/director is having so much fun exploring all the possible undiscovered nooks and crannies that lie on the path to the conclusion of the story. However, this time around, the main narrative just doesn’t warrant the almost three hours of running time of this movie and the movie is stretched just too thin, even if under all the sound and fury Tarantino has a lot to say about the history (and current day status) of race relations in America.

Cut to chase: Always watchable but stretched too thin.