Director: Raghu Shastri
Cast: Vinay Rajkumar, Rukshar Mir, Devaraj, Dattanna, Sushmita Joshi
After an average debut, Vinay Rajkumar, the fourth generation actor from legendary Kannada thespian late Dr Rajkumar’s family, was running for the second time with huge expectations riding high on this one. However the debut director’s running escapades in ‘slow’ motion, which was supposed to be an edge-of-the seat experience, turns out to be a constant frustration for over two hours.
Forget even about jogging, at times the race involving the ‘tortoise’ from the Aesop’s Fables may feel interesting when compared to Raghu Shastri’s Run Antony. It has nothing to do with the pace but the running show lacks real stuff apart from a few interesting twists in the marathon, which is actually the life saver for the lead actor without which his second venture was bound to sink further deep.
Extremely excited over a few ideas of unusual twist in a plot, the director has webbed a story which is more or less like an air-filled balloon with a couple of paper balls in it! It opens up with Antony D’Souza (Vinay), jumping from top of a multi-storeyed building. Obviously he does not die and the scene predictably shifts in reverse to what caused him to take such an extreme step. A matured young man, with a life of his own and handful of friends, and a ‘true’ love is content in life until the first twist in the plot is ‘revealed’.
Next is the build up to the second twist after Antony accidentally meets a girl at the railway station during his another attempt to commit suicide. Till then, the audience start feeling desperate for Antony to start running. The beautiful girl charms Antony and the suicide episode gets postponed. A couple of songs, which is again slow, and in Sufi style almost, put the audience to good sleep before they are woken up in shock for a bomb blasting interval.
The second half is mostly about ridiculing the police investigating capabilities in top priority case. A prime suspect in a terror act runs free all around the city and the intelligent cop cracks it by monitoring the available footages with a little help from the technical support team. How absurd is it when the cop handed over to investigate the case, tells his subordinates that he has ‘good’ news and they have to work hard to nab the suspect within 24 hours. The good news is an act of terrorism!
In another similar incident when the higher police authority is upset with the investigation, a low ranked officer says that they are waiting for his permission! Mother of all blunder, is when Antony survives a deadly bomb blast even after standing a few feet away from it. Not even a scratch! Even Spider man could have had his spider dress severely damaged with such an impact.
Thankful to the almighty, it at least looks good on screen with good technical support including the excellent camera work, and the presence of two beautiful ladies. In the end, Antony is still running. He has now the whole world to save.
