Skyway Robbery

 Crew (2024) was inspired by the real world Kingfisher Airlines case, in which CEO Vijay Mallya fled India with a fortune while the airline entered bankruptcy after not paying employees for months.  The plot also draws inspiration from the genuinely awful 2003 movie Boom, which means that the bar is set pretty low.  Fortunately Crew manages to soar above it.

Geeta (Tabu), Jasmine (Kareena Kapoor), and Divya (Kriti Sanon) are flight attendants working for Kohinoor Airlines.  They all have backstories, helpfully provided through flashbacks: Geeta is a former beauty queen who has worked for the airline for years, supporting her husband Arun (Kapil Sharma) and his struggling food delivery business as well as her younger brother (Rahul Gilani); Jamine was orphaned at a young age and raised by her grandfather (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and now works to raise capital for her cosmetics startup while dreaming of the finer things in life; and Divya was a star athlete and scholar from a tiny town who took a loan to go to flight school, but couldn't find work as a pilot and can't bring herself to tell her family.  They are quirky, flawed and interesting women.

Kohinoor Air has been going through a rough patch, and the employees haven't received any paychecks for months, instead surviving on a meager allowance.  Everyone hopes that the downturn is only temporary, and CEO Vijay Walia (Saswata Chatterjee) is on TV telling everyone that the airline is a family and everything will be okay.  Surely he can be trusted?

Things change when senior (and elderly) flight attendant Rajvanshi (Ramakant Dayama) dies suddenly on a flight, and the ladies discover that he's carrying several gold bars.  Jasmine is very tempted, but they hand the gold over to the authorities, represented by the persistent Sub-Inspector Mala (Trupti Khamkar) and dishy customs officer Jaiveer Singh (Diljit Dosanjh), who happens to be Divya's high school fling and is very interested in renewing that acquaintanceship.  

Still, it's a lot of money and times are really hard, so they do some digging,and realize that Rajvanshi was working with Kohinoor's HR Director Mittal (Rajesh Sharma), who turns out to be really easy to blackmail.   Soon the ladies take over Rajvanshi's smuggling duties, hiding balls of gold in surprisingly heavy chocolates.  Weeks pass, and the ladies have money, enough money that they risk an expensive night out on the town, where they are spotted by another flight attendant.

It can't last.  An anonymous tip puts Mala on their trail.  They're arrested, but manage to hide the current shipment of gold on the plane.  They are released for lack of evidence, but by that time the plane has already taken off, and the gold is discovered in flight.  Still nothing to tie it to our heroes, but their careers are ruined and they've alienated all their friends.  Vijay Walia has fled the country and the airline is about to collapse.  Then Divya realizes that they've been transporting Walia's gold all this time, helping to ruin themselves and their friends.  The only solution is to steal the gold back, because this is actually a heist movie.

It's a fun heist movie; hugely improbable, but full of entertaining twists, and there's a strong contrast between the grind of life as a flight attendant and the glamorous world that Walia lives in.  Ultimately, though, this is a character piece, and the cast are the real draw.  Kriti Sanon is charming and sincere, and Tabu is always a standout.  Kareena Kapoor started her career playing a succession of vain, spoiled and materialistic young women who turn out to have hearts of gold, and Jasmine is a character very much in the same mold, only older and worn down by years of struggle; it helps that Kapoor is a much, much better actor now than when she was starting out.

If you're looking for a fun, female led heist movie, Crew is a great choice.  Just don't watch Boom under any circumstances.