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, as he carries out the evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Airlift was theatrically released on 22 January 2016, with an international premiere being held on 21 January.
Plot:
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The film opens in Kuwait, August 1990, with Indian businessman Ranjit Katiyal clinching a business deal with the Emir of Kuwait. Katiyal is a ruthless businessman who will go to any lengths to make a profit. He is successful and well connected in Kuwait and Iraq and calls himself a Kuwaiti and is generally derisive towards Indians. He has a well-appointed mansion in Kuwait and makes a happy home with his wife Amrita and little daughter Simu.
Late that evening he receives a word that Iraq has attacked Kuwait. He explains that Iraq and Kuwait have had tense relations: Iraq owes a large dollar debt to Kuwait and Saddam has urged the Kuwaiti establishment to reduce oil supply so prices can rise. When Kuwait refused and remained defiant Saddam ordered the attack. At this point, Katiyal believes the attack is one of the many minor border skirmishes. He asks Amrita to take the child away to London for a few days until things cool down.
In short order he discovers Iraqi soldiers are overrunning Kuwait and plundering the city and indiscriminately targeting and murdering Kuwaiti citizens. Katiyal and Nair, his Indian driver, drive to the Indian Embassy. They are stopped by angry teenage Iraqi soldiers and when Nair begins pleading in Arabic he is shot dead. Katiyal manages to reach the Embassy. The consul, a friend of Katiyal, explains that the Kuwaiti government has fled and Kuwaiti money is now worthless. The 170,000 Indians in Kuwait are now refugees until India decides its policy.
Katiyal bluffs and threatens the Major to get him to let them leave. Kohli pleads and wrangles the Indian establishment to get the Amman Embassy to issue permits. When Katiyal finally loads up the Indians and leaves he encounters hostile Iraqi soldiers who stop him at a border checkpoint and threaten to kill Amrita. Katiyal fights them off when he finds the Indian contingent right behind him. The Iraqi soldier drops his weapons and lets them pass. They all arrive in Jordan and the Amman Embassy receives word in the nick of time to let them leave for India. Kohli has successfully negotiated safe passage of all the Indians. Air India supplies the planes and the pilots, previously unwilling to fly over war zones, have had a change of heart towards their brethren. The Indian tricolor is hoisted over the Jordan airport and the film ends as the Indians salute Katiyal as they board the planes that will take them home.
Cast:
- Akshay Kumar
- Nimrat Kaur
- Inaamulhaq
- Feryna Wazheir
- Lena
- Purab Kohli
- Prakash Belawadi
- Arun Bali
- Ninad Kamat
- Nissar Khan
- Kaizaad Kotwal
- Gunjan Malhotra
- Surendra Pal
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