Malayalam Movie Review: Take Off (2017)


Responsible storytelling is a very important thing. When "historical" events are depicted, characters are usually caricatured - especially the "villains". Life is never that black and white. For example, there was a Bollywood movie that released recently which was "inspired" from real events. It was about submarines. By inspired, they meant they borrowed the names of the Indian and the opposing team's submarines and that was it. The story was entirely made up creating unnecessary enmity in an already fragile relationship, if you can call it that.

Which is why I emphasize again, responsible storytelling is very, very important. Two very's to denote the importance.

So when Take Off opened with the message "Based on true events, any resemblance or coincidence...", I was wary. And the first thing I did when I came back home was to research on the actual events and how faithful the story was to reality, and I will get to that soon enough. Take Off is a brave movie.

Take Off is about the rescue of Indian nurses stuck in a terrorist-occupied Iraq. The nurses are led by Sameera (played by Parvathy) , partly due to her knowledge of Arabic, but mostly because she is one of the best female character I have seen in Malayalam cinema. The realest, grittiest, awe-inspiring female character. Oh, and if you thought it's only fiction, guess what? She is based on the very real Malayali nurse, Marina Jose - whose interview with the Times of India on her experiences can be found here.

Sameera is a stubborn, headstrong, motivated individual. She is not afraid to fight back for what she wants. The movie begins with her trying to do whatever it takes to get employed as a nurse in Iraq (salary being 4 times that of what she gets paid in India). She is a divorcee with one child, the former characteristic being a concern for her family members who say that they've never let any female members of their household to go abroad alone. Now before you say it's because of the Muslim faith they follow - it's not, there are enough Malayali girls out there of various faiths who would corroborate on that. And this is where Kunchacko Boban's character Shaheed comes into the picture. He's been after Sameera since the beginning of the story (but our girl's got no time for any of that). However, when Sameera's family mention the single status, she decides to get married to Shaheed (who had earlier decided to go to Iraq as well to be with Sameera). Side note: Credit to the director, Mahesh Narayan who showed male nurses in the most normal way possible.

When the group of nurses get to Tikrit, Iraq, they are immediately put to work. They begin to realize that they would not be treating simple accident victims. Shaheed goes to Mosul to treat other victims and gets captured by the terrorists soon. The hospital Sameera and the other nurses work in gets converted to a terrorist base camp soon after. Side Note 2: Props to the director again for visualizing the grittiness of war, the scenes of blood, the sound effects of sudden bomb blasts and shootings. I jumped from my seat a few times.

Sameera works as point of contact with the Indian Ambassador, Manoj (played by Fahadh Fazil) on the rescue operations.

I will be honest, Take Off was at times very uncomfortable to watch - in a good way though. I am not sure there have been war movies from Kerala that have been portrayed as vicious and brave as Take Off has been - like the visuals and sounds I mentioned before. Then of course, Sameera. Highlight of the movie. And I think Mahesh Narayan decided to make her a Muslim woman to show that the real world is not divided into good guys and bad guys.

There is one thing that is still in my mind. At the end of the movie, real clips of the real 46 nurses returning home to Kerala are being shown. One of the nurses thanked the government and rescuers - and also, ISIS for not harming them. In fact, in the interview with Marina Jose, linked earlier, she said one of the IS leaders said 'There are nurses all over the world... they have come here to save us... so, we are not taking their lives; we are letting them go...'. And honestly, that is another groundbreaking thing about this movie, the fact that it shows that the bad guys are people too. Controversial? Yes. Real? Yes.

Special mentions for the following people:
  • Parvathy as Sameera: This is one actress who always manages to look different and act different for every role she plays (Bangalore Days, Ennu Ninte Moideen, etc.). I am in awe of her and I believe she's going to do more wonderful roles in the future. She carried this movie solely on her shoulders like few actors can.
  • Kunchacko Boban as Shaheed: I heard he did this movie for free. And if he did, my respect for him has raised to a much, much higher level. Shaheed is the damsel-in-distress. I already appreciated the fact that KB has taken roles that did not have him front and center of the movie (How Old Are You?, Kochavva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho) and he continues to be a model Malayalam actor.
  • Fahadh Fazil as Manoj: FF has that "thing" that Mohanlal has I believe, that charisma that sets him out in any scene he is in - something that makes him appear truly larger than life. 
  • Mahesh Narayan: Director and Screenplay writer extraordinaire. Major, major credits to this person for bringing out a movie that hasn't been embellished or polished or made pretty like most Indian movies based on real incidents are. Also the characters of the Libyan doctor and his Yazidi wife - brilliant.
  • Gopi Sunder and Shaan Rahman: Music directors who continue to keep the bar high for Malayalam film music in the 21st century. Nearly all hits these days are shared between these two individuals, so it is no surprise when both of them work together, epic music is created.

There is only one thing I did not appreciate much in the movie, that was when Manoj and the Foreign Secretary think that if they tell Sameera her husband died, she won't act with vigor to rescue the other 18 nurses and herself. From what I saw of Sameera I am sure this would not have been the case. That woman did not need the motivation of finding her husband to do what it took to save all the nurses with her.

One final word: this movie was brought out by the late Rajesh Pillai's production house. His movie, Traffic was the best thing to happen to Malayalam cinema in the last 10 years. It revived a stagnant, stale industry and that started an age of movies focused on the story as opposed to star power. That trend still continues. I think, Take Off will take that legacy to a higher platform. It will inspire movies like Traffic did and that is a very good thing.

If you decide to watch only one movie for the rest of the year, watch Take Off, Malayali or not!
 
Big appreciation to Ms Sushma Swaraj and the Indian officials who worked hard and still do to bring stranded Indians home. Some links for those interested in the real events behind Take Off:

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