ABSTRACT
Take Off is a gargantuan thriller movie both in terms of its production scale and its subject treatment. The war-torn Tikrit of Iraq in 2014 is meticulously captured in the backdrop of this directorial debut docudrama, while the movie emphasizes the agony of the Malayali nurses caught between the Iraqi government forces and ISIS during the civil war. Malayalam movies looking at the adversities faced by the female migrants as a central theme have been a rare sight. However, there have been a few female migrant centric movies like Gaddama, which is a sensitive saga portraying the suffering inflicted on Indian women who migrated to the Gulf countries from Kerala as domestic workers. Take Off is an undiluted drama that carries this journey forward, which is indeed a gripping tribute to the migrated nightingales.
