Runway 34 review: The Ajay Devgn directorial, which stars himself, Amitabh Bachchan, and Rakul Preet Singh is an edgy, fast-paced aviation drama that finally ends up being an amazing big screen cinematic experience.
With aviation dramas, it is the thrill factor and visual spectacle that the director creates, which promise an edge-of-the-seat expertise. Ajay Devgn’s latest directorial, Runway 34 lands completely in these departments. The movie is impressed by true occasions from 2015 when a Doha to Kochi flight had a slim escape after going through difficulties to land at the airport on account of bad climate and low visibility. However, at many locations you’d additionally notice a number of resemblances to Hollywood movies like Sully (2016) and Flight (2012). Yet, Runway 34 succeeds as a gripping story and an amazing cinematic experience.
In the previous also, Bollywood has churned out impactful aerial dramas like Neerja, Airlift, Bell Bottom, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, but Runway is among the most interesting thus far by way of its technical strength, spectacular VFX, camera work and even direction. Even though there aren’t any what’s-going-to-happen-next-moments, it engages you right from the primary scenes and retains you immersed because the story builds on and truths unfold.
The story revolves around Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgn) and first officer Tanya Albuquerque (Rakul Preet Singh), who face the wrath of an investigation and interrogation by Narayan Vedant (Amitabh Bachchan) following a May Day call they make earlier than landing an aircraft in turbulent situations and risking the lives of 150 passengers. Whether or not the pilots would come out clear and justify their determination is what forms the crux of the story.
Donning the director’s hat, one more time, Ajay does a superb job. He is a good storyteller, I have to say. More than being targeted on acting, with Runway 34, he creates an immersive experience. At no point, he wastes time in decorating his characters with useless details–be it his personal as a talented, cool but arrogant pilot who’s overconfident about his experience, or Rakul Preet as a flattered but scared co-pilot. He straightaway dives into the incident that occurred and takes you on a journey thousands of feet above the ground.
Then the in-flight scenes, fearful passengers on account of turbulence, stress within the cockpit whereas taking decisions, have all been captured nicely and stay the high factors of the movie. Ajay dedicates a whole one half of the film to this aspect of the story earlier than the dialogue-heavy investigation and trial takes over post interval and more characters are launched. Runway 34 sticks to the thrill it creates 35000 feet up within the sky with out bringing any needless romantic angle or emotional outbursts. Also Watch | Heropanti 2: New posters of Tiger Shroff, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tara Sutaria released; and watch the official trailer here
Take a look at the trailer here:
Even throughout the scenes contained in the plane, it was attention-grabbing to see how the passengers were a mix of what we see on a flight–a crying child, an ailing senior citizen, a middle-aged man who desires to enjoy free drinks. Here, we additionally had an aviation journalist and a Youtuber (Ajey Nagar aka Carryminati playing himself) on board the flight capturing all occasions on his cellphone. While I felt they’d have some substantial elements within the due course of investigation, it was a bit off when their characters did not make any incidence again or added to the story in any way.
Runway 34 is around two hours and half-hour lengthy but it by no means appeared stretched, for the story (written by Sandeep Kewlani and Aamil Keeyan Khan) is extremely crisp and nicely narrated. Complementing it’s Aseem Bajaj’s spectacular cinematography and rating by Amar Mohile that provides to the depth of the story and never digresses.
Ajay delivers equally well because the actor however I’d nonetheless prefer to laud Ajay the director for Runway 34. As the pilot struggling to make a secure landing and keep his promise of saving 150 passengers, Ajay exhibits the right amount of pressure and calm. And in the trial room being interrogated, he speaks even together with his silence. There are a few scenes you see him getting emotional too, and those I felt, added depth to his character and never made it look one-dimensional. Rakul Preet as a younger pilot appears to be like pretty convincing in uniform. While her performance by no means disappoints, her character arc might undoubtedly have been more fleshed out. There’s solely a lot you see her doing onscreen and also you anticipate something is amiss. Amitabh Bachchan as the investigating officer is as strong and stern as it gets and by now, we have got used to him speaking in a heavy voice whereas questioning folks, so Runway 34 additionally reminds us of many courtroom dramas he has been part of. Boman Irani, Angira Dhar, Aakansha Singh have smaller parts and never a lot attention is paid to how they contribute to the story. However, they do their parts nicely in handful of scenes.
To sum up, Runway 34 keeps you engrossed and makes you feel the turbulence when you’re seated comfortably. It’s edgy, fast-paced, partaking and serves you an enormous screen cinematic expertise that will not disappoint.
Film: Runway 34
Director: Ajay Devgn
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh, Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani
Read all Latest News, Sports News, Entertainment News, Automotive News, Health News and more here