'Save one life and you are a hero, save hundred lives and you are a nurse' -with this tagline editor-turned-director Mahesh Narayanan gives us a riveting tale -Take Off.
The movie is a fictionalized account of an incident in 2014 when Malayali nurses were rescued from the Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Iraq. It brings to the fore the struggle of Keralite nurses working in war-torn countries.
Mahesh, who had earlier worked as scriptwriter for Rajesh Pillai's Mili, has said that the film is a tribute to the late director.
Talking about the idea, Mahesh says, ''Rajesh Pillai's movie Traffic was born through a newspaper report. After he passed away, we always felt we should do something for him. I had been waiting to don the director's hat and was on the lookout for the right subject. That's when the incident of Indian nurses in Iraq caught my attention. When I decided to make a film based on it, producer Anto Joseph and writer Sanjay came forward with their support.”'
Parvathy and Kunchacko Boban play nurses Sameera and Shahid, respectively, while Fahadh Faasil stars as Manoj Abraham, the Indian ambassador.
On a directing a multi-starrer movie?
''You can't call this as multi-starrer. It's true that there are many stars but more than that they are characters. The movie is inspired from the life of nurse Marina Jose, who played a pivotal role in alerting the Kerala government of the situation in Iraq. But only 10 percent from her life has been taken for the movie and for the rest, we have added the usual cinematic elements. I have also tried to put in efforts to make it technically brilliant as well. It's not just a thriller but I would say it is an emotional thriller.”
