Run Review – Nothing Beyond Initial Promise

BOTTOM LINE
Nothing Beyond Initial Promise

OUR RATING
1.5/5

CENSOR
1hr 27 mins

What Is the Film About?
A happily-married man, Sandeep (Navdeep) gets the shock of his life when his wife Shruti (Pujitha Ponnada) commits suicide right on their marriage anniversary. Sandeep is on a run after Police suspect him and some unexpected people enter his life adding a twist to the story. Who are those? Who killed Shruti? forms the rest.

How Is Navdeep’s Performance?
Navdeep has done a pretty decent job in the role of a stressed and confused young man. In some places, you feel he got to improve but largely his performance has been good. Its been a long time since we saw him in a full-length character but he made his presence felt after many small and insignificant roles.

Direction by Lakshmmikanth Chenna?
Lakshmikanth Chenna chose a subject with two interesting concepts – Murder Mystery and a Psychic Problem. Both of them sound interesting on paper but that does not translate on to the screen. The movie loses steam midway and ended up like it does not belong here or there.

The first half of the film starts off well. We relate to the Protagonist Character and the director managed to pique the interest in who is really behind the murder. All goes well until the director introduces the six mystery characters. The first three are like okay but when the rest come in they only add to the confusion.

The director struggled to close the story and once the actual motive behind the murder is revealed, the heads of the audience feel heavy. The initial good parts are also ruined when we get there. When we turn back, we feel the movie is a very tedious watch.

Poojitha Ponnada and Others?Pujitha Ponnada gets very little role which does not have a scope to perform. Venkat is seen after a long time and he is good. Amit Tiwari gets a good role and he performed well. There are several other known faces. Some of them have got okay characters and did fine. Some have got very trivial characters.

Music and Other Departments?
Naresh Kumaran scored the music. There are no songs but a couple comes in the background. The background score is very good even though some tracks are repeated. Sajeesh Rajendran’s camera work is fine – very good for a web film and slightly comparable to the quality of a theatrical release. The writing has been good. It is a good thought to have a movie just around 80 minutes but still some unwanted portions crept in.

Highlights?
Initial Scenes
Background Score

Drawbacks?
Lack of Clarity in the Director
Too Many Unnecessary Characters
Poor Climax

Alternative Take
Run would have been a better product if the director sticks to the plan of a Murder Mystery or a Thriller. The Psychic angle which may have been introduced to add variety actually failed to help the movie anyways. In fact, it only added to the confusion and ruined the film.