Runway 34: Ajay Devgan aces his flawed character of disgraced pilot Vikrant Khanna

In recent years, no Bollywood A-lister has evolved the way Ajay Devgn has. And we don’t have to look far behind for proof of his constantly mutating craft. In Luv Ranjan ’s De De Pyar De , a goofy rom-com where the actor was sandwiched between two beautiful wives, he sportingly made fun of his own growing years and his coupling with a much younger co-star Rakul Preet Singh by comparing his love life with Saif Ali Khan and Kareena . In his two recent cameo appearances in Sanjay Leela Bhansali ’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and SS Rajamouli ’s RRR , Devgn redefined on-screen ruggedness with an underhand coolness that cannot be acquired. You either have it or you don’t. In Runway 34 , Devgn directs himself in a role that treads boldly into dark-grey zones. Not unlike Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington who played air pilots with muted magnificence in Sully and Flight, respectively. As Captain Vikrant Khanna, Devgn is the portrait of self-flagellation and guilt. It’s a role which dares to project him in less than heroic light. He is shown doing irresponsible things before flying 179 passengers to intended safety from Dubai to Kochi, like partying and drinking all night.

Curiously it is all explained away at the end with technical know-how that lawyers use to wriggle out of tricky cases. There really was no need to pull Devgn out of the grey zone. He is really very comfortable in portraying vulnerable flawed heroes, like the ones he played in Milan Luthria’s Kachche Dhaage, Ram Gopal Varma’s Company, Prakash Jha’s Apaharan, Mani Ratnam’s Yuva and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara. There is a sense of heroic ambivalence in the way Devgn projects the weaknesses as equally important, if not more so than the strengths in his characters. As Vikrant Khanna, he pilots the well-written film through some serious stormy weather, and I mean that literally. The first half where he must make a split-second decision that could land his passengers into the jaws of death is remarkably gripping. Yup, Devgn in the cockpit with his comely co-pilot Ms Tanya Albuquerque (played with casual glamour by Rakul Preet Singh ) makes the best airborne picture show in Hindi. Not that there have been too many of those, and certainly none mentioning except Ram Madhvani’s Neerja (unless you want to consider Arjun Rampal in The Last Call). It is the second-half that shows Devgn’s rapidly evolving craft as Amitabh Bachchan playing a wily aviation lawyer goes at Devgn, all guns blazing. Devgn lets his hurt and his unsullied self-worth do all the talking through his eyes. There are unshed tears. And this man isn’t likely to reveal them for sympathy. Here is a pilot who has saved hundreds of lives by taking a split-second decision before landing in the foulest weather an aircraft could face. Instead of being lauded and honoured Vikrant is hauled over the coals, pulled up for drinking a small ampule of gin in flight. The fact that the alcohol slur had to be deleted from Devgn’s character at the end proves two things: our legal system is sometimes based on circumventing the loopholes rather than arriving at an actual moral ground. More importantly, Hindi film heroes are a long way away from allowing their spotless image to be sullied. But here the last-minute whitewashing doesn’t take away from the implosive power of Devgn’s performance. He succeeds in playing the fallen-from-grace hero as honestly as the script allows him to. And that’s a lot of leeway for the actor. A word on Ajay Devgn’s abilities as a director. In Runway 34 he has done away with all the follies of excessive mawkishness in Raju Chacha and melodrama in Shivaay . This is a bare-boned, tight-assed air-drama with no digressions. Just the pilot and his questionable heroism. And what an ally Devgn has in cinematographer Aseem Bajaj who in film after film with Devgn gives a visual language to the actor’s darkest thoughts. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  **_Latest News_** _,_  **_Trending News_** _,_  **_Cricket News_** _,_  **_Bollywood News_** _,_  **_India News_**  and  **_Entertainment News_**  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._