High Jack
Starring Sumeet Vyas,Mantra Mugdh, Kumud Mishra
Directed by Akarsh Khurana
Rating: ***(3 stars)
The last time we saw a plane full of terrified people being hijacked by a bunch of terrorists in that wonderful and brave film Neerja we came away a bit shaken.
If we look at High Jack as a satire on airborne disaster films we could come close to the absolutely irreverent mood that the film adopts to everything in-flight.From an androgynous airhostess(Chaitanya Sharma) to a female pilot(Sonali Sehgal) who is asked by a pseudo-terrorist, ‘Do you know how to land a plane?’—a sexist innuendo not missed by the lady at the receiving end—High Jack spares nothing and no one.Eventually it becomes a casualty of its own carefully-cultivated irreverence.
Into its web of wackiness falls a busload of characters so high on everything from hope to dope, you can’t but help wonder where all this is leading to.The chaos of mid-point crisis awaits. To begin with, the characters boarding this bumpy flight are introduced to us accompanied by waves of tongue-in-cheekiness.
I instantly took to the most sexually stimulated couple the Tanejas on board played by Kumud Mishra and Natasha Rastogi.This Taneja chap, played with brilliant vigour by Kumud Mishra, is a bit of a busybody. He has his fingers in everything. He is a lecher and a sexist,and most important of all he is a Pakistan hater who won’t allow his wife to have Lahori chicken.Taneja can’t stop heckling the self-styled celebrity cricketer on board(played by Priyanshu Painyuli) as a gaddaar who was caught match-fixing.
Eventually of course, like everything else, the couple too goes overboard.By the time Mrs Taneja starts touching our hero Rakesh(Sumeet Vyas) inappropriately everything on this freaked-out flight gets inappropriate.
Director Akarsh Khurana has zeroed in on a sound idea—the employees of a bankrupt airline hijacking a plane to teach their Mallya-inspired boss a lesson. If only the humour had been more sustained and the narrative less bumpy and bloated.
It all kind flattens out into a noisy mess towards the end.A kind of what-if-Neerja-had-no-script rudderless romp into air turbulence. But nonetheless it is fun while it lasts because some of the actors seem to have a blast.The others seem to have come along just for the fun. And we can’t help getting their point of view completely. High Jack IS fun for a while. Before it loses its plot.
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