Hijack

With the standard that is being set by the new age directors and scriptwriters in the age of contemporary film industry, Hijack was a bad deal.It was unimpressive to see a movie with mediocrity with old concepts and plots being put amidst a chain of highly thought of and well conceptualized movies.It brings down the standards and pushes the industry a step back. With the likes of Mumbai meri Jaan, A Wednesday, Aamir, Taaren Zameen Par etc setting high standards in their respective genres and making a deep impact on the mindset of the viewers and eventually changing their tastes of Hindi films, a film like hijack spoils everything.

It's not a very bad movie for which I would mercilessly thrash it but its a movie being made in the wrong time or I'd probably say a movie very lately made. Hijack being made 6 or 7 years back probably would have been a success but now it looks like an old school thought which will not be accepted by the present mass and moreover there was nothing special when it came to the technicalities of its making.Performances from esha deol and other supporting characters were just not good.Esha looked like she was desperately trying to give in a powerful acting performance and failing badly in the end.The events featuring the passenger characters during the hijack always looked familiar with the terrorists killing some of them and the threats that they posed on all of them time and time again and the way the passengers reacted.Many scenes reminded us of the film Zameen previously made on a similar hijack story and also on occasions reminded one of the Harrison Ford starrer Hollywood Hit Air Force one and off course elements of the hero(Shiny Ahuja) coming in and killing the terrorists in the plane one by one and saving all the passengers including his daughter in the end was so very stereotypic.

Shiny Ahuja wasted himself in this project.There was no element of thrill.It all looked coming.Every sequence was expectedly placed one after the other and had no surprise elements.There were no twists and turns that would draw the interest of the viewers. The director didn't do anything at all to make any educated movie viewer say "WOW" OR " MAZAA AA GAYA"(I had fun). Some of the events looked so very unrealistic and boring like the behaviour and mannerisms of the terrorists on plane during the hijack when doing their acts of threatening and killing. In real life they looked like some school boys for whom the police dept would have been enough to be taken care of.I can go on saying all the negative points but I think all of you by now must have understood what I want to say. Sorry to say, but it was disappointing!

Noble intentions I am sure and on paper must have been a sure-shot winner. Sadly the project gets Lost in Translation.

The plot simply fails to connect and numerous attempts to kick-start the interest in plot doesn't yield results.

The entire plot is inspired from Kandahar hijacking episode and a lot of sub-plots are built around it (the newly-wedded couple, the wily politician etc).

Shiny Ahuja's redemption doesn't help much either. His desperate attempt to be Bruce Die-Hard Willis takes him nowhere.

Eesha Deol was pathetic, absolutely no screen presence at all. Sleepwalking eh?

K K Raina tries to infuse life as Rasheed Omar but gives up in between.

Had the movie been made just after the Kandahar episode, perhaps it would have had buyer, but today Hijack is well-past its sell-by-date.

PS: Rohit Shetty's "Zameen" was relatively well handled on the subject of Kandahar hijacking.

This movie has been inspired and perhaps even copied a bit by three if not four movies - "Die Hard," Die Hard 2," "Lethal Weapon" and "Raid On Entebbe." The latter is actually based on true story while this is not. I say that this is inspired by the movies that I have mentioned and not copied for the simple reason being that there are certain points that are not quite similar and the most obvious one is songs and the other being locations. But there are others as well.

Vikram Madan, a widow and a former airline pilot, is moved to being a ground maintenance officer after the air craft that he is piloting is high jacked and in which his wife is killed. But one day he gets informed that the aircraft that his daughter is travelling in, has been high jacked and unable to forget how his wife died and unable to get any help from the relevant authorities, he decides to take action.

Shiny Ahuja could have done a better job but unfortunately, the only scenes that have helped him and his character in this movie are action scenes. But Hema Malini and Dharmendra's daughter, Esha Deol, has again shown some improvement in her acting and perhaps now, may require a good director, even though Kunal Shivdasani has not done a bad job of this but it could have been better.

Being an action and a thriller genre movie, this lacked the ingredients to serve that type of impact as such a genre movie is capable of and therefore the thriller part of it seemed not to exist even though the title says it all. Besides the action in the film, the only other item that was good to know was the facts and the figures, related to high jacking which are shown at the end. There are some flaws in this but it would be better not to mention them.

Earlier I mentioned that this was inspired by "Raid On Entebbe," I still maintain that but there are a lot of similarities as well such as those of smuggling of weapons on the air craft.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, this is an below average movie, which due to the action sequences, may not be advisable to watch with children.

This is another formula film coming out of the latest edition of Indian producers' film manual......... put some Muslim names as terrorists, don't miss any opportunity to insult that religion, copy some scenes from Hollywood and old Indian movies and bingo......... I have never seen such a predictable movie before. The hero of the movie is first shown as a pilot or co-pilot when his wife got killed in some plane hijack and then he becomes the engineer and knows all the tricks and techniques about the airplanes. The plane is standing on the airport and Mr. Hero is digging in holes in plane's floor with a drill machine and no one listens to it. Looks like the movie is made in some hurry and no importance has been given to editing and script. 2 out of 10.

Do you want to be hijacked of watching this movie? If yes then it is for you. By the title it is not that difficult to imagine what is the story all about. Moreover there is nothing newly added storyline, and most parts are predictable as of what is going to happen in the next scene. For those who did not watch yet this time-passing thriller it would be better not to expect much. Just go with your own risk of spending some bucks on it and not regret later.

I mostly compare this with the brilliant movie Zameen directed by Rohit Shetty and casted Ajay and Abhishekh together which was also concerned with the release of a strong and powerful terrorist leader, for whom his free gang hijack the plane. But it was made with brilliant cinematography and performances were over the top. Whereas in Hijack there is not a single subject which can impress the audiences, not even newly introducing Air Indian air-hostess Kaveri Jha nor Shiny Ahuja. Kaveri has mini pivotal role but failed to capture the hearts of the audiences. If she acts again in future then hope that she is handled by a renowned director to improve her acting skill or else stay in her own career – air hostess.

Before the release of Hijack it has been informed that Shiny himself stunted most of the action scenes, and if so then he is simply alright. Some of the last plane chasing scenes remind me of Akshay Kumar in Khiladi 420, but in that case Shiny even can't score 50 within 100. Still then this is Shiny and not Akshay. I am mostly impressed by Esha Deol's performance as an air-hostess who has very important role in rescuing the passengers. She is appreciable by her appearances, although her role is innocent.

Anyway, Hijack is just for a short time spending movie, and is not a must watch. As long as the movie moves forward you are about to be entertained, or enjoy. But as it get to the end you would realise that you could have done something else. The only interesting thing I found in the whole movie is the surprising mischievous jobs done by the hijackers with the passengers inside the plane. They do one by one brutal murder with funny sequences and is someway noticing.

For those who have interests in general knowledge they would be highly impressed by the ending credits in which some true facts and histories about hijacking plane are presented.