Balaji Telefilms Ltd. and Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network Pvt. Ltd.’s Crew (UA) is the story of three airhostesses who partake in the smuggling of gold to make a fast buck.
Geeta Sethi (Tabu), Jasmine (Kareena Kapoor Khan) and Divya Rana (Kriti Sanon) are bosom pals who work as airhostesses for Kohinoor Airlines, owned by Vijay Walia (Shashwat Chatterjee). The company is unable to pay the ground as well as flight staff regularly and so everyone’s feeling the pinch. A flight staffer, Rajvanshi (Ramakant Dayama), dies on board the flight with the three friends as cabin crew. While trying to revive Rajvanshi, the trio realises that he used to smuggle gold out of India and earn extra money. They soon learn that he used to work for Mittal (Rajesh Sharma) who is Vijay Walia’s trusted lieutenant.
Geeta, Jasmine and Divya approach Mittal and offer to smuggle gold for him in place of Rajvanshi. But the arm of law soon catches up with the three friends. Will they escape punishment? How will they get out of the mess they’ve landed themselves in?
Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri have written a story which is interesting in parts. But their screenplay is not too engaging because the drama looks contrived at several places. The comic portions sometimes appear orchestrated to evoke laughter rather than seeming seamless and in a natural flow. In the first half, it is not clear why the three friends don’t simply ask Mittal to clear their dues and why, instead, they get involved in crime. After all, they must be earning handsomely as airhostesses, never mind that the payments had lately become irregular. It is not as if they sensed that the airline company would go bankrupt. The three friends entering the world of crime almost makes it appear as if crime can be the easy way out for anyone in need of money. But the fact is that it requires guts to smuggle gold, and not many would be bold enough to enter the world of crime so easily. The portion in which the three friends decide to teach boss Vijay Walia a lesson of his life, is so convenient that one would imagine, it were a left-hand task for the three girls to do just about anything in a foreign country — right from getting jobs of their choice overnight to executing Plan B in case the first plan fails. This path of complete convenience is the biggest undoing of the drama, besides the contrived comedy at a number of places. Of course, the comedy evokes good laughter at places. The duo’s dialogues are nice at times.
None of the three lead actresses stands out with a landmark performance. Tabu, as Geeta Sethi, does well but doesn’t shine. Kareena Kapoor Khan looks glamorous and performs ably as Jasmine but, again, she doesn’t stand out. Kriti Sanon is good as Divya Rana but there’s nothing sensational about her acting. She has looked pretty. Diljit Dosanjh is outstanding as customs officer Jaiveer Singh. Although he gets limited scope, he makes the most of it by performing wonderfully. His expressions and nuances are fabulous. Kapil Sharma is wasted in a special appearance as Geeta’s husband, Arun Sethi. Shashwat Chatterjee is quite effective as Vijay Walia. Rajesh Sharma is alright as Mittal. Trupti Khamkar lends nice support as police officer Mala. Ramakant Dayama has his moments as Rajvanshi. Charu Shankar is alright as Sudha Mittal. Pooja Bhamrah leaves a fine mark as airhostess Komal. Maeha Sharma (as airhostess Sheetal) and Shivam Khan (as steward Ankit) make their marks. Rahul Gilani (as Geeta Sethi’s brother, Punnu) and Juhi Arora (as Punnu’s wife, Sapna) are okay. Mohit Gupta (as Divya’s brother, Chintu) leaves his mark. Garima Yajnik (as Vijay Walia’s daughter) makes her presence felt. Kulbhushan Kharbanda (as Jasmine’s grandfather), Myra Singh (as young Jasmine), Naisha Khanna (as young Divya Rana), Ivan Rodrigues (as Divya’s father), Suparna Marwah (as Divya’s mother), Vallabh Gada (as the landlord) and Hetal A. Puniwala (as Capt. Wadera) are natural. Krishna Verma (as the IT guy), Prince Gautam (as the groom), Deepak Verma (as the IT guy) and the others are okay.
Rajesh A. Krishnan’s direction is ordinary. Music (Vishal Mishra, Raj Ranjodh, Akshay & IP, Bharg and Rohh) is nice. The remixed songs are appealing but the best number is Naina. Lyrics (Raj Ranjodh, Baadshah, Raj Shekhar, I.P. Singh, Bharg, Rohh, Juno and Shrushti Tawade) are fine. Song picturisations (songs director: Farah Khan; choreographers: Farah Khan, Feroz Khan and Piyush Bhagat-Shazia Samji) are eye-filling but a couple of them look like jobs hurriedly done. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is fair. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s cinematography (Naina song camerawork by Ravi Varman) is wonderful. Amar Shetty’s action and stunt scenes are functional. Production designing (by Disha Dey and Shashank Tere) and art direction (by Inam Khan) are appropriate. Manan Sagar’s editing is fairly nice but should’ve been tighter.
On the whole, Crew is ordinary in merits but it has good initial value because of a nice trailer, pretty faces in the cast and the Good Friday holiday weekend release. It will, therefore, do fairly nice business. Collections in big cities and in multiplexes will be good while in smaller centres and single-screen cinemas, will be just about okay.
Released on 29-3-’24 at Inox (daily 7 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: very good. Opening: very impressive. …….Also released all over. Opening was good at many places.