Afterburn (PG-13)

Afterburn (PG-13)

Genre: Bollywood air disaster movie

Jett (Dev Patel), an off duty Indian Air Force pilot enjoying a night out, meets Hunni (Freida Pinto), an Air India hostess. They hit it off and have a passionate one night stand.

The next day they’re both back at work in the skies above Mumbai. She is on route to Karachi whereas he is patrolling the airspace above the Taj Mahal – which is on high alert due to an expected Al-Qaeda attack.

The passengers and crew of the Air India flight begin to show symptoms of severe food poisoning. Only Hunni is unaffected (luckily she’s on a diet). With the Captain (Amitabh Bachchan) out of action, it’s down to Hunni to fly the plane (guided by Jett, who is now flying alongside her, having been diverted from his mission). Note: possible opportunity here for some sexual innuendo as Jett tells Hunni to yank the big gear stick as if she were trying to break it off “like you did last night!” etc…

Soon all the passengers and crew are dead. The Special Forces Commander in the control tower (Arjun Rampal) suspects it’s not food poisoning but actually a deadly virus (probably the Al-Qaeda attack they had been warned about!) Rather than let the plane land, he orders Jett to shoot it down. Jett fires all his missiles, but deliberately misses.

In a shock twist-filled climax, an unknown passenger is found on the plane (10-year-old slumdog stowaway, Sanjay Hipplemeyer) Sanjay finds a bottle of poison in Hunni’s handbag (*yes, she is actually an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber (!!) Jett was set up the previous night and now there’s nothing to stop her from crashing the plane into the Taj Mahal (!!)

Sanjay warns Jett just before being pushed out of the plane by Hunni. Jett is forced to take drastic action. He aims his fighter directly towards the jumbo (while flying upside down) and at the last moment he ejects (downwards). The planes collide/explode.

Jett, in his rocket chair, manages to catch up with Sanjay and grabs him. Their parachute opens and they gently land, directly in front of the Taj Mahal. The crowd goes wild.

gratuitous sex scene