Big
budget action director Joshi’s first film with Dileep as hero lacks
the pace of his earlier films due to the weak script of Sibi-Udayan
team who had done only comedies earlier. Still Runway is worth landing
due to the immense screen presence of Dileep in comedy scenes, songs
and one-liners.
Unni (Dileep) is in Gulf and his family consisting of mother (Kaviyoor
Ponnamma), brother (Indrajeet) and sister depend on the money that
he sends every month for their eduction and daily expenses. Gopika
(Kavya Madhavan) and her father live in their outhouse as tenants
and Unni’s mother dots on her and sees her as her prospective daughter-in-law.
Unni comes on leave and when he hears about his mother’s wish to
get married to Gopika, he is shattered. The reason is that Unni
has a bitter past, which he confesses to Gopika. His father had
died leaving a lot of debts and the responsibility of looking after
a huge family falls on the young Unni. He runs away and meets Bhai
(Murali) a lorry driver who works for Chinnadan’s (Riyaz Khan) spirit
business. Later Bhai and Unni start doing the same business together
and they become the ‘spirit kings’. Unni is known as “Valayar” paramasivam
the deadly don in Valayar area, who smuggles spirit into Kerala.
But things take a change when Unni’s brother becomes an IPS officer
and gets posted in Valayar check post. Unni is constantly tracked
down by his brother who vows to bring his illegal activities to
light. The rest of the story is all about Unni’s attempts to turn
a new leaf and in the process he eliminates the baddies. Dileep
as Unni dominates the film and Kavya Madhavan as his lady love is
adequate. But the highlight is the performance of Indrajeet and
Murali.
The songs tuned by Suresh Peters and picturised in Pollachi
and Phuket are simply amazing thanks to P.Sukumar’s camerawork.
Bhavana makes a cameo in the song “Shabba Shabba.”. On the downside,
the climax is a big letdown and reminds you so much of Joshi’s Suresh
Gopi film Lelam. But on the whole Runway is a mass masala time pass.
Big
budget action director Joshi’s first film with Dileep as hero lacks
the pace of his earlier films due to the weak script of Sibi-Udayan
team who had done only comedies earlier. Still Runway is worth landing
due to the immense screen presence of Dileep in comedy scenes, songs
and one-liners.