Runway 34 review: Ajay Devgn, the director makes a perfect landing in this visually immersive aviation drama

With aviation dramas, it’s the thrill factor and visual spectacle that the director creates, which promise an edge-of-the-seat experience.

Ajay Devgn’s latest directorial, Runway 34 lands perfectly in these departments. The film is inspired by true events from 2015 when a Doha to Kochi flight had a narrow escape after facing difficulties to land at the airport due to bad weather and low visibility. However, at many places you’d also notice several resemblances to Hollywood films like Sully (2016) and Flight (2012). Yet, Runway 34 succeeds as a gripping story and a great cinematic experience.

In the past also, Bollywood has churned out impactful aerial dramas like Neerja, Airlift, Bell Bottom, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, but Runway is one of the finest so far in terms 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 first scenes and keeps you immersed as 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 before landing an aircraft in turbulent conditions and risking the lives of 150 passengers. Whether or not the pilots would come out clean and justify their decision is what forms the crux of the story.

Donning the director’s hat, one more time, Ajay does a brilliant job. He is a great storyteller, I must say. More than being focused 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 own as a skilled, cool yet arrogant pilot who’s overconfident about his expertise, or Rakul Preet as a flattered yet scared co-pilot. He straightaway dives into the incident that happened and takes you on a journey thousands of feet above the ground.

Then the in-flight scenes, worried passengers due to turbulence, tension in the cockpit while taking decisions, have all been captured well and remain the high points of the film. Ajay dedicates an entire one half of the movie to this side of the story before the dialogue-heavy investigation and trial takes over post interval and more characters are introduced. Runway 34 sticks to the thrill it creates 35000 feet up in the sky without bringing any needless romantic angle or emotional outbursts.