Run baby Run tells the story of cameraman Venu ( Mohanlal) and editor Renuka (Amala paul) and the troubles they run into and the enemies they make when reporting exclusive stories and expose corruption. Sachi’s screenplay is gripping and there are rarely any moments you would feel bored. The story moves at such a great pace and he throws enough twists at regular intervals to keep you glued to your seat.
Joshy’s direction is top-class. The veteran proves that Twenty twenty was not a one off success and he still has it in him to make big entertaining thrillers. His handling of some of the scenes is noteworthy especially the sequence where Mohanlal and Amala cover the first exclusive story for Biju Menon’s channel and then when Mohanlal confronts Siddique and Saikumar in Saikumar’s house is well executed. One other scene that really stood out was the one between Biju Menon and Shammi Thilakan when police comes to search for Mohanlal.
Mohanlal is terrific. He plays an ordinary hero and there are no unwanted stunts or fiery dialogues and it is quite heartening to see that he is taking care to restrict them in his recent movies . And its also nice that he is finally not showing any efforts to appear young. His chemistry with Biju Menon is awesome and they do light up the screen when they are together. His crooning of ‘Attumanal’ song is amazing too.
‘Seniors’, ‘Ordinary’, ‘Mayamohini’ and now ‘Run Baby Run’ – Biju Menon’s transformation to an actor who can do brilliant comedy has been incredible. Just like the first 3 movies, his presence is definitely going to play an important role in this movie’s success too. Shammi Thilakan is surprisingly good.
The movie is not without its flaws. Climax is predictable and you would wonder if the villians did not have an easier way to trap the hero in the climax. There are other scenes that defy logic but generally the story moves at a pace that dont leave you much time to think about logic.Siddeeque and Saikumar have played the villains umpteen times that you would wish you had some one else as the villain and Amala Paul is just average as the heroine.
Most of the successful directors from the 80s and 90s have faltered in recent years. Sathyan Anthikad’s movies are getting repetitive , Shaji Kailas and Sibi Malayil are giving flops after flops, Fazil has still not got the pulse of the new generation and Priyadarshan has stopped making malayalam movies. Run Baby Run is not near his classics like New Delhi , Lelam or Naduvaazhikal , but its great to see Joshy stand firm despite the tide of new generation movies.While we should have the new crop of directors to give us movies like Usthad hotel and 22 FK, we also need experienced campaigners like Joshy to give us big crowd pullers.
