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MOVIE REVIEW: Runway 34

By Gitanjali Chak

June 2022

Runway 34

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakul Preet Singh

Producer: Ajay Devgn

Director: Ajay Devgn

Music Director: Amar Mohile

Ajay Devgn is back after a hiatus with his third directorial. Inspired by a real-life incident (when a Doha to Kochi flight had a narrow escape in 2015) as well as Hollywood films like Flight and Sully, Devgn’s Runway 34 makes for a gripping aviation drama—an unexciting and loophole-ridden second half notwithstanding.

Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgn) is an exceptionally talented but maverick pilot who finds himself in a life-and-death situation on that fateful flight. He eventually decides to land the plane on Runway 34 in Trivandrum, despite severe turbulence with zero visibility. The first half is tense and riveting, the panic palpable. The director, the writers, and the visual effects team deserve to be lauded for this segment which has you on the edge of your seat.

The film plummets in the second half when Amitabh Bachchan enters the picture as the pompous investigator Narayan Vedant. The closed-door trial, rather disappointingly, lacks sting, though occasionally, there is humor in the sparring between Devgn and Bachchan.

Ajay Devgn, of course, powers the film. But it is Rakul Preet Singh, playing his co-pilot Tanya Albuquerque, who gives a solid account of herself despite being relegated to playing second fiddle. The weakest links ironically are Amitabh Bachchan and Boman Irani who plays the owner of a rival airlines.

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