Run Review

Run Review, What’s Behind: Young hero Sundeep Kishan looking for a break after hit ‘Venkatadri Express’ is back with this remake, directed by Ani Kanneganti. Known as a racy thriller, the film is a huge hit in Tamil, Malayalam. Let us see, how good and how faithful this remake is? 

Run Movie Story: Sanjay aka Sanju (Sundeep Kishan), an Engineering graduate who lost his job is running through a bad time phase. He is surrounded by many problems like; refusal to marriage from girlfriend Amulya (Anisha Ambrose)’s father (Kasi Vishwanath), failure to repay the loan for Vaddi Raja (Bobby Simha), to remain faithful towards his friend (Praveen), brother-in-law (Madhu Nandan) blackmailing for money and above all local SI Padmavathi (Brahmaji) running behind him. Meanwhile, there are few other characters (Mahat Raghavendra, Shani, Posani Krishna Murali) come across Sanju’s life helping his time to turn good. How Amulya’s kidnap, Vaddi Raja’s accidental death help Sanju to take the story for a happy ending form the rest of show.

Run Artists and Technicians: Of late, young writers and directors are breaking new paths adopting special styles of narration and execution with simple stories expanded on gripping screenplays. Remade from ‘Neram,’ the central plot revolves around each of our lives where we face good and bad times. Essence of whole movie lies in script writer Alphonose Putharen’s intelligence of interlinking all the characters into a single plot. Of course, the ride was bumpy yet the effort has to be appreciated. Direction from Ani Kanneganti would have been far better. He absorbed the nucleus in original but presentation was only half way to perfection. There were laboriously lengthy scenes added into story telling process have tested our patience. With a crisp run time of just 1 hour 40 minutes, Ani Kanneganti could have driven the narration at breakneck pace. Apparently, it’s the way each character was handled stood imposing. Prasanna Kumar’s dialogues were entertaining in bits and pieces. Rajasekhar’s camera work was majestic in capturing the slow motion shots. Editing from MR Varma was unevenly rough. Sai Kartheek’s musical score on songs and BGM was wobbling. Production values from Anil Sunkara and team were just mediocre. 

On to artists, Sundeep Kishan took the challenging task of what Nivin Pauly has done amazingly in the original. For most of the scenes, Sundeep tried to duplicate Nivin’s mannerisms and emotions from original and succeeded to major extent. He suits well in this kind of vexed guy characterizations like in ‘Venkatadri Express’ and now ‘Run.’ Heroine Anisha Ambrose hasn’t got much to do. Bobby Simha showed his best rehashing from original. Brahmaji as SI Padmavathi provided enough laughs. Posani although comes late but was ‘AWESOME.’ Kasi Vishwanath, Shani, Praveen, Mahat Raghavendra, Geethanjali and others showed their presence.

Run Rating Analysis: On top of everything, ‘Run’ is a faithful remake of ‘Neram.’ Major drawback lied in director Anne Kanneganti’s inconsistency. For one moment, the film goes onto top at high speed and falls the next minute. Screenplay wasn’t really tight because many episodes are dragged on and on keeping the patrons in discomfort. When a 110 minutes story happens in just one day span, Ani Kanneganti should have accelerated the pace in narration. 

After a decent take off introducing the hero character, director was a bit lazy before giving a run to central point. In the whole first half, one scene where Shani runs away with Suneep’s money was superbly canned. Later on, Bobby kidnapping Anisha forced an impulse thus closing the first half on average note. On to second half, whole Mahat Raghavendra track was lethargic and slothful. Only by the time of pre climax, every characterization established in first half interweaving into the central plot showing off the beginning of good times for hero was interestingly dealt. 

We have seen ‘Bhale Manchi Roju, Express Raja’ falling safe on Box Office terms trading on the same comedy based thriller genre. ‘Run’ may not be as qualitative as the above two on production standards added with sluggish narration as drawback yet give a try if you have enough time for weekend. Cinejosh rates ‘Run’ with 2.5 stars just because of a worthwhile attempt. 

Run Cinejosh Verdict: Could Have Been Far Better.

Run Cinejosh Rating: 2.5/5.0

Reviewed by Srivaas