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Release
date:
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May 18, 2018
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Director:
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Akarsh Khurana
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Cast:
Language:
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Sumeet Vyas,
Kumud Mishra, Natasha Rastogi, Taaruk Raina, Sonnalli
Seygall, Sarthak Kakar, Mantra Mugdh, Sarang Sathaye, Muzammil Qureshi
Hindi
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A DJ whose career
is in the doldrums agrees to carry a package on a flight without knowing what
it is. He is travelling by an airline that is about to shut down, and as it
happens, he chooses to fly on a day when the plane is hijacked by a bunch of
disgruntled employees. The ensuing chaos spirals further when drugged
passengers enter the mix. The title of course is a play on “hijack” and a
drug-induced “high”.
An accomplished
director of comedy could have turned Adhir Bhat’s story for High Jack into a rib-tickling affair.
Sadly for this film and some of its gifted cast members, Akarsh Khurana seems
not to be that person. Khurana, who was a co-writer on the screenplays of Krrish and Krrish 3, has written this screenplay too in addition to helming
the project. Despite brimming with potentially hilarious situations and
boasting of some razor-sharp actors, High
Jack crash-lands not long after it takes off.
Sumeet Vyas plays
DJ Rakesh / Rockesh who is desperate for money and a career. Vyas was
impeccable last year as the joint lead with Kalki Koechlin in director Rakhee
Sandilya’s incredibly realistic Ribbon.
In High Jack he displays a flair for
comedy that will hopefully in future be tapped in a better-directed film. His
natural affinity for the camera and spot-on dialogue delivery along with the
presence of the always dependable Kumud Mishra and Natasha Rastogi as fellow
passengers Mr and Mrs Taneja, are not enough though to salvage this half-cooked
enterprise.
The fact is, there
are several laugh-out-loud moments in High
Jack. The opening scenes on the plane with Rakesh, the intrusive young
fellow seated across the aisle and the squabbling Tanejas are rip-roaringly
funny. A joke that could have been deemed Islamophobic is turned on its head,
and Mr Taneja’s wisecracks about a possibly transsexual flight attendant are
repeatedly called out for their prejudice. Yet the film faces turbulence from multiple
quarters.
Foremost among them
is the indifferent casting and writing of the supporting characters other than these
four. They mostly sit around unenthused even by gun-toting men taking over the
plane, as if their entire beings are too botoxed to react. Sonnalli Seygall,
who played one of the evil girlfriends in Pyaar Ka Punchnama and its sequel, is cast as a pilot of whom zero acting is
required.
A sense of urgency
is sorely missing from the atmosphere of that aircraft from the instant that it
is hijacked. Scenes involving air traffic control officials and the airline
office completely lack energy. But the death knell is rung halfway through the
film when the humour starts getting repetitive. Soon the narrative is so
haphazard that it appears as though no one knows quite what to do with it.
The slapdash
editing – visual and audio – gives High
Jack a flaccid feel, with too many shots, scenes and silences in between over-staying
their welcome. In the end, the film remains a stringing together of good concepts
that are not carried to their fruition. Such as that rap number titled Aapaatkaaleen
(Emergency) playing in Rakesh’s drug-addled brain, muddling up lines from
standard in-flight announcements by pilots and cabin crew: “Iss vimaan
mein chheh aapaatkaaleen dwaar hai / Do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar / Do-do-do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar
/ Do-do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar / Do do do / Do do / Do do do / Do do.”
“This
aircraft has six emergency exits / Two in front / Two each above the wings /
Two-two-two in front / Two each above the wings / Two each in front / Two each
above the wings / Two two two / Two two / Two two two / two two.” It is a
clever idea, funny and zippy at first, then it gets tedious, and then it
unravels too soon. Just like the film.
It is hard
to believe that High Jack passed
muster with Phantom Films, same producers that have given us the high-quality Lootera, Queen, Masaan, NH10, and Anurag Kashyap’s best directorial
works of the decade, Raman Raghav 2.0
and this year’s Mukkabaaz. High Jack? Really guys?
Rating
(out of five stars): *
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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102 minutes 27 seconds
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A version of this review has also been published on Firstpost:
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