Ajay Devgn puts Shivaay’s ghost to rest in his third film as director. In an aviation drama based on genuine events, he focuses on himself, examining the “human aspect” involved in controlling a passenger jet through severe turbulence.
Runway 34 isn’t quite Bollywood’s Sully, but the lead actor makes the most of the situation. The director isn’t far behind.
Runway 34, written by Sandeep Kewlani and Aamil Kenyan Khan, is brilliantly executed and abounds with moments that have the potential to steal one’s breath away, particularly in the first half. Yes, the picture would have likely soared much higher and gone much further if its return to earth in the second half had been scripted with a little more care.
Despite the hiccups along the way, Runway 34, which is currently in theatres, has many positive points, not the least of which is that it takes no time in reaching cruising altitude.
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It stays in the air for half of its 148-minute runtime, which is where all of the action takes place, and cinematographer Aseem Bajaj and the visual effects crew are at their finest. When the film’s visceral action gives way to prose after the intermission, it loses some ground.
A commercial pilot who is extraordinarily skillful but temperamental, captaining a flight from Dubai to Kochi, flies into a storm that threatens the lives of his passengers as well as the length of his profession.
He boasts that he has approximately 17,000 hours of flight time under his belt, but with the plane buffeted by strong winds and a hurricane approaching the destination, all of his knowledge is put to the test.
First Officer Tanya Albuquerque (Rakul Preet Singh) – whose family name is difficult to pronounce – is deeply shaken by the terrifying encounter. Captain Vikrant Khanna (Devgn), on the other hand, is the picture of serenity amid chaos. He shows just minor nervousness as he makes a series of decisions that appear to defy logic.
The first half of Runway 34, which centers on a 150-passenger airplane teetering between tragedy and deliverance, is snappy and engrossing. Of course, the spotlight is always on the unflappable hero. He has promised his six-year-old daughter that he will be home for her birthday no matter what.
First Officer Tanya Albuquerque (Rakul Preet Singh), whose family name is difficult to pronounce, is deeply shaken by the ordeal. Captain Vikrant Khanna (Devgn), on the other hand, is a picture of serenity during the chaos. He shows only minor indications of nervousness as he makes a series of decisions that appear to contradict logic.
The first half of Runway 34, which focuses on an airplane transporting 150 passengers and swinging between tragedy and deliverance, is snappy and riveting. Of course, the unflappable hero is the center of attention. He’s promised his six-year-old daughter that he’ll be home for her birthday no matter what.
The onboard drama, which focuses, among other things, on an elderly woman (Flora Jacob) who gasps for air and prays for a safe landing, is compelling enough to keep the film afloat. Indeed, as long as Runway 34 is in the midst of its midair movement, it is entirely focused on its primary goal, which is to create tension.
When the investigation into the events of that fateful flight and the mountains of errors that the captain is accused of committing begins, Devgn is joined by Amitabh Bachchan, who plays a hawk-eyed aviation expert who grills Captain Khanna and First Officer Albuquerque to substantiate his conviction that the former’s cavalier ways had put the lives of his passengers in grave danger.
Runway 34 veers somewhat off course when it transitions from full, unadulterated adrenaline-pumping scares to a stream of verbal exchanges between the pilots and the interrogator. Fortunately, the resulting blips are simply minor annoyances that do not blast the film off the sky. Despite a few false notes from the roles played by Amitabh Bachchan and Boman Irani, Runway 34 is still worth watching (as the owner of the airline).
In a true story, the two are like stock characters – one an obnoxious school ‘headmaster’ determined to bring an errant ward to justice with his arsenal of chaste Hindi terms that he instantly translates into English as the trial unfolds and the words pile up, the other a conceited entrepreneur hell-bent on preserving his company’s brand value at any cost.
Runway 34 is built on the heroism of a rule-breaking pilot, but it leaves you longing for a backstory that would make Captain Khanna a more developed and approachable person.
All we’ve been told is that he has a photographic memory, which comes into play when he needs to recollect past events down to the smallest details or swiftly absorb pre-flight briefings.
The captain has a couple scenes with his wife, Samaira (Aakanksha Singh), yet they don’t add up because they don’t teach us much about what makes him the man he is. Neither do his sporadic conversations with his lawyer (Angira Dhar), whose brief to him is not to disclose anything to the persistent interrogator who is playing mind games with him. If Captain Khanna is allowed to be a dark figure, for this reason, it definitely presents a dilemma.
The spectator, like the pompous Narayan Vedant (the name of the shuddh Hindi-spouting interrogator), is left to piece together the events of the flight and the prominent elements of the protagonist’s personality based on what the data recorder reveals. We’re barely scratching the surface here, too.
Regardless, Runway 34 does a good job of putting one man’s brush with peril at the center of a fascinating tale that not only keeps the audience on edge but also raises pertinent questions about apportioning guilt for a trip gone wrong.
Is the pilot the only one to blame when things go wrong, or are there a slew of other factors at work – an act of God, the weather forecast, the air traffic control tower, the airline’s unwavering focus on profit, and so on – when a plane crashes 35,000 feet above the ground? Runway 34 takes a stab at answering that question and comes up with a solution that makes enough logic to not be disregarded out of hand.
Ajay Devgn drives Runway 34 with a solid performance that seldom goes unnoticed. Despite being reduced to second fiddle, Rakul Preet Singh provides a strong performance. The path for the other performers, including Amitabh Bachchan, is filled with air spaces caused by fuzzy lettering. Runway 34, on the other hand, makes a smooth landing with its gears in working order and adequate gasoline in its tank.
