Take Off Review - Parvathy is brilliant in this excellent film "Malayalam Movies, Music, Reviews and Latest News"

Take Off Review - Parvathy is brilliant in this excellent film

Bharath Vijayakumar

The thumb rule for any disaster/survival/hostage drama is to get us invested in the central characters and care for them. Mahesh Narayan's Take Off places the lead characters right in our hearts even before the hostage crisis takes center stage.

Plot:

Based on the true incidents of 2014 when Malayali nurses got entrapped in Iraq.

Before anything else you got to really admire Parvathy. You are aware of her acting chops and she has always brought her own to the roles she plays. This amazing actress is so brilliant as Sameera in Take Off and comes up with a performance that should easily place her as one of the best actresses in the country. When we are introduced to Sameera we realize that Shaheed (Kunchacko Boban)is trying to pursue her. But she keeps avoiding him (quite mercilessly at times). Then we come to know that she has a 8 year old kid and her marriage is broken. The dynamics of her relationship with Shaheed slowly changes and what we have unfolding before us is a mature love story. The kind of love where the man does not want to own the girl but wants to lend her a shoulder for her to fall back on. There is this tinge of sadness that is omnipresent in Sameera's eyes. Sadness brought on by years of living for others.The kind of sadness when people for whom you sacrifice your priorities do not really understand you. Parvathy brings Sameera to life in such an understated manner. This is a performance worth treasuring. Kunchacko Boban is no less by any means. As the epitome of goodness he is terrific. We do really miss him for a substantial part in the second half. There is nothing much to take away from the rest of the cast as well. None of the characters are painted black. Most behave the way they do due to their circumstances. When Faizal (Asif Ali who plays Sameera's first husband) does a few things you do realize that he is not doing the right things. But he is never willfully portrayed as an evil person. That is how it happens in real life at times. You hurt people without actually wanting to.

Take Off would have worked perfectly well even as a relationship drama woven around Sameera, Shaheed, their unborn kid and Ibru (Sameera's kid from her first marriage). Minutes after Ibru comes into the picture in between Sameera and Shaheed, there is this emotional tension that is so beautifully played on screen. You know that Sameera and Shaheed are probably the purest souls around.But how would you explain that to a 8 year old kid who sees his mother being close to someone who is not his father. You can probably never explain and things have to fall in place. With the kind of actors on screen I did really want to see an entire film about the relationship between these 3 characters.

Now that we are really into the characters Mahesh Narayanan lets the hostage drama take center stage. From hereon the film works like an escape drama but not with the thrill a minute kind of storytelling. Manoj (Fahadh Fasil) working for the Indian Embassy in Iraq plays the mastermind who plans this escape. When well known actors play these supporting character roles it is usually presented as a cameo from a star. But Take Off never resorts to this and Fahadh plays only a character. But there was one cringe worthy moment. A calculated risk taken by Manoj against the wishes of his supervisors ends up saving the Indian nurses being held hostage. Manoj sort of sarcastically and in a slightly heroic manner indicates to his boss that his decision saved 19 lives. But this gesture on the announcement that nurses from other nations have lost their lives raises some difficult questions. Are some lives more important than others? This has nothing to with the way Manoj makes his decisions. He is doing exactly what he is supposed to do and only what he can do. But that gesture at that particular moment needs some soul searching.

Take Off sort of shows that when life is put in danger all the rest become futile. There was so much in the minds of Sameera and Shaheed and in a matter of seconds what matters is only survival. But things would probably be back to square one when routine life raises its head again. Like one character held hostage in the film says 'Our families would just want us back alive now. But for how long? Soon it be all about money and loans? '. Sometimes memories are short lived and reality bites unless we are willing to learn lessons from what life teaches us.

A few scenes do remind us of the Akshay Kumar starrer Airlift directed by Raja Krishna Menon. The instance where the Indian flag is shown being the most prominent with a strong sense of deja vu. But this isn't really a complaint. When real life stories are narrated this is bound to happen.

Bottomline:

Take Off is an emotionally fulfilling drama and is more about the characters and less about their escape from the clutches of death

Rating: 3.5/5

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