High Jack movie review: Writer Adhir Bhat flirts with the idea of how easily definitions of traitors and patriots are thrown about, though he doesn’t go the whole way.
High Jack movie cast: Sumeet Vyas, Sarthak Kakar, Kumud Mishra, Mantra Mugdh, Muzamil Qureshi, Natasha Rastogi, Sarang Sathye
High Jack movie director: Akarsh Khurana
High Jack movie ratings: 2 stars
A failing airline’s disgruntled employees. A half-baked hijacking bid. A failed DJ travelling with drugs. A plane full of passengers high on a combination of them. There are so many improbables here that it could all fall into place in one laugh riot, or all fall apart in one big mess. For a while, director Khurana (the writer of films such as Krrish, Krissh 3 and Kites) juggles it nicely, helped along by some effortless acting, to present a scenario of a hijacking bid going fast south. However, as is the bane of many a Hindi film, High Jack repeats one joke too many, and in seeking an ending where its characters all look good in that much-told rich-vs-poor tale, does ultimate injustice to them.
So there is this airline called Udaan, whose owner is living the good life while not paying his employees for six months. As news spreads that the airline may shut down, a passenger called Rakesh (Vyas), or ‘DJ Rock-esh’, encounters several sobbing ground staff at counters. None catches the drugs he is transporting in his baggage though. Nervous as he is, Rakesh finds himself seated with an inquisitive teenager who watches his every move, and an irritating much-married Punjabi couple who are horny but for other people. The Tanejas, played by Kumud Mishra and Natasha Rastogi, are refreshing in their abandon, till Mrs Taneja becomes the butt of jokes for going after the much younger Rakesh, even if when high. Similarly, High Jack’s idea of a transgender joke, to raise some laughs, is set to ruffle many feathers.
Rakesh and the Tanejas pose the most challenge for the hijackers, though not the only one. The hijackers include the airline’s security head Vinit (Mantra Mugh, giving a very Robert Downey Jr vibe) and three of its IT, HR and accounts officials (Kakar, Qureshi and Sathye). Timid and hesitant, the last three are only too willing to let Vinit take the lead, as he forces the pilots to set the Goa-Delhi flight on course to Kochi. But these are no ordinary passengers, and as they shower questions on the hijackers like what are their demands to what is the name of their outfit, the film builds up to a hilarious middle. Writer Adhir Bhat also flirts with the idea of how easily definitions of traitors and patriots are thrown about, though he doesn’t go the whole way.
If only the film had stayed with all this than look for a higher purpose.