The insurgency in Iraq escalated into a civil war in 2014 when the ISIS attacked and captured major areas in Northern Iraq including cities like Mosul and Tikrit.

A group of Malayali nurses, forty six to be precise, were taken hostages by ISIS in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. All forty six of them were airlifted from Erbil, a city in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, after successful interventions by the Indian and Kerala State Governments, and the Embassy officials.

The movie Take Off is a cinematic recreation that delineates the distress and trauma the nurses (Nineteen of them in the movie) had to undergo miles away from their home.

Nurses from Kerala have been going to Iraq for more than two decades. With loans to repay, families to look after and the offered salaries being five times higher than in India, it has always made perfect sense to every 'angels of mercy' who firmly believed that they would also end up among the success stories they have heard about nurses who work abroad.

Editor Mahesh Narayanan, known for his work in Viswaroopam (Tamil), Mumbai Police, Traffic and Ennu Ninte Moideen debuts as a director with Take Off. The movie is produced by Anto Joseph, Shebin Backer and Mekha Rajesh Pillai, the wife of late director Rajesh Pillai. It was Rajesh Pillai's film Mili that marked Mahesh's debut as a scriptwriter.

The direction and cinematography of the movie have been handled flawlessly. Major portions of the film are shot in Dubai  and the effort put in by the Art department to recreate Iraq and the ISIS controlled areas has come out effectively on screen.

Parvathy, Kunchacko Boban and Fahadh Faasil transcend physical boundaries and touch the audience's hearts. The supporting cast that includes Alancier, Prakash Belawadi and Asif Ali also contribute to raise the standards of the film.

Take Off has less drama in it and is realistic in nature, but the absence of a scintillating background score waters down the essence a little.