'Crew' movie review: A comedy that fails to reach its potential

The camaraderie between the three leading ladies is enjoyable, and provides laughs along the way. Even in tricky situations, with glaring loopholes in the script, humour and laughter continue to flow.

Rajesh Krishnan’s Crew revolves around three air hostesses fighting to stay afloat in choppy waters — Geetha Sethi (Tabu), Jasmine (Kareena Kapoor Khan), and Divya Rana (Kriti Sanon). They soon end up
entangled in a gold smuggling racket.

Despite the promising star cast, the true hero of the movie is Vijay Mallya.

The female protagonists work for a commercial carrier named Kohinoor — whose employees haven’t received salaries in six months. There are rumours of bankruptcy, and the chairman of the company is flamboyant
billionaire Vijay Walia. Oh, and air hostesses are grounded for being “overweight”. Sound familiar? The writers don’t even try to hide the resemblance.

After luring the audience in with a promising start, the movie quickly falls flat. One can’t help but wonder how a film can fail despite managing to get Tabu and Kareena on screen together.

However, Crew isn’t a bad movie — just a disappointing one. Tabu and Kareena are of course the saving grace. Tabu’s charm saves her poorly-written role, and Kareena’s personality steals the show — reminding you of her iconic characters Geet and Poo. Kriti too does a good job. The camaraderie between the three is enjoyable, and provides laughs along the way. Even in tricky situations, with glaring loopholes in the script, humour and laughter continue to flow.

The harmless comedy does come with its fair share of cons. Two glaring cons worth mentioning — a butchered version of ‘Choli Ke Peeche’ and a plethora of not-so-sly brand integrations. Almost every scene is used to promote a brand, be it momos or a luxury handbag.

There are multiple points in the movie where you get your hopes up, hoping for ‘Crew’ to take off, only for it to run out of fuel soon enough. The predictable script and weak narrative make sure the movie
doesn’t reach its full potential.