Crew has wings in its story.
Crew is a heist film that intertwines aviation with financial desperation.
It is a tale of three friends who work for the fictional Kohinoor Airlines.
Directed by Rajesh A Krishnan, Crew attempts to underscore themes of workplace corruption and the lengths people can go to once driven by financial needs.
The film was released on March 29, 2024, but does not really find those high notes required for a story of this magnitude.
However, the movie is filled with sparkling performances and great chemistry among the three lead actresses.
Is this enough to make viewers invest two hours of their time?
DESIblitz is here to help you decide whether to watch Crew or not.
An Interesting Story But Flat Screenplay
It is essential for viewers to remain engaged in all points of a dramatic heist.
The pace and plot of the film must be interesting and captivating.
Crew has wings in its story but does it take off?
Working for Kohinoor Airlines are Geeta ‘Geetu’ Sethi (Tabu), Jasmine Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), and Divya Rana (Kriti Sanon).
They all come from humble and poor backgrounds.
Geeta must care for her unemployed brother, while her husband Arun Sethi (Kapil Sharma) runs an unsuccessful food business.
Jasmine does not believe in relationships and finds solace in faking a rich lifestyle, while Divya has been lying to her parents that she is a pilot rather than an air hostess. She also struggles to pay off loans.
Kohinoor Airlines is on the verge of bankruptcy. Through a series of events, the three friends agree to smuggle gold out of India, due to which their lifestyles improve.
However, the film does not really give the audience a significant opportunity to connect with the characters.
We see them in their childhoods fleetingly, but more attention to this could have led to more sympathy for them.
Instead, when they are living a lavish life due to their gold-smuggling, they come across as selfish as their colleagues are still struggling to obtain basic necessities of life.
This makes Crew appear in a rush to get its point across.
In her review of the film, Anupama Chopra states:
“It feels like the stakeholders were so enamoured by the idea that they didn’t bother to flesh it out with enough rigour or with any detail.”
Great Performances & Chemistry
What works for Crew is the tremendous performances of the three leads.
Tabu, Kareena, and Kriti not only look amazing, but they connect with each other in a chemistry that oozes trust and togetherness.
Kriti’s character address Tabu onscreen as “Sethi ma’am”, but the humour and love the friends share creates a wonderful juxtaposition between the hierarchy and the friendship.
Anupama praises Tabu and Kareena, continuing: “Both actors bring to their roles charm and a delicious irreverence.”
In one scene, Geeta kicks her brother out of her house when he reminds her husband of his financial shortcomings.
A triggered Geeta snaps, and Tabu conveys her angst with such conviction and heartbreak that you root for the veteran actress.
Kriti also glistens as the young Divya. The actress manages to find fragments of Divya’s conflict and vulnerability, despite the sketchy writing.
Kriti revealed that she never felt like the most junior performer on the set.
She said: “Have admired these two women for years and it’s been such a pleasure performing with the two most iconic performers our industry has ever had!
“Never felt like a junior on set – didn’t behave like one too!!”
This equality adds flavour to the chemistry that enables Tabu, Kareena, and Kriti to deliver terrific acts.
Crew also finds anchors in Kapil Sharma and Diljit Dosanjh, who plays Customs Officer Jaiveer ‘Jai’ Singh Rathore.
Despite their brief screen time, Kapil and Diljit infuse the film with much-needed charisma and support.
However, one may argue that such accomplished performers deserve much more at this stage in their careers.
Direction & Execution
As Crew is a movie set in the skies, a key component of its direction is the breathtaking aerial shots.
Director Rajesh scores by presenting the film on the canvas it commands, but the writing by Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri let the film down.
The script does not fully explore the motivations behind the overlords of the gold-smuggling operation.
Even though Crew does delve into the hardships of the other air hosts, one could be forgiven for questioning why the other players in the team aren’t doing more about this.
Why are they just depending on the chairman?
The film’s climax also ends in a matter of minutes, making the resolution seem too easy and unbelievable.
Crew capitalises on a decent soundtrack. ‘Naina‘, sung by Diljit is a lovely song, emphasising the actor’s vocal abilities to a high degree.
However, the background score feels too heavy, and at times weighs the film down as too many scenes are laden with the score in an attempt to make them more hard-hitting.
The classic number, ‘Choli Ke Peeche‘, originally from Khal Nayak (1993) is recreated in Crew.
Diljit also lends his voice to this remix as well. It is a hummable track, perfect for refreshing the chartbuster for newer generations of the audience.
Rajesh divulges the lack of conviction in the climax heist when the villain gets trapped:
“Maybe if there’s a part two, we will better that aspect.
“There were a lot of times when you would have had to sit down and explain something complicated.
“We would have had to pause and make you chew over data.
“If we had made it more plot-heavy, your interest levels might have started dropping.”
Unfortunately, the absence of more plot makes Crew a disappointment. If an extension is in the pipeline, one can hope for a more thrilling journey.
Crew has an interesting and intriguing premise but suffers from poor execution.
It finds a saving grace in the terrific performances of its three actresses.
However, this is not really enough to create the balance needed for an engaging final product.
Rajesh proves himself to be a confident filmmaker in his second directorial.
Traces of a fine storyteller are visible in Crew, so here’s hoping he scores bigger in his next celluloid outing.
With Crew having premiered on Netflix on May 24, 2024, the film is good for fans of those involved.
But if you’re looking for a racy heist drama, this one is questionable.
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