‘Run Baby Run’ Movie Review: RJ Balaji presents a new avatar in a better suspense thriller

RJ Balaji in ‘Run Baby Run’ Photo credit: Special Arrangements

An ordinary man is caught in an extraordinary situation. By Jain Krishna Kumar Run baby runRJ Balaji’s acting, spreads this one line so effectively in its first half.

When Sathiya (played by Balaji), an upper-middle-class bank employee, returns to his car after buying a gift for his fiancee, he finds a woman hiding under the back seat. . For example, on that day, that woman ends her life forever. He realizes after a while that the woman is in trouble but hesitates to help.

He is not a hero. He is just another man who wants to live a normal life. But he is also a man of conscience. When the mysterious woman tells him she will be killed if he doesn’t shelter her, he reluctantly agrees to help. He is still very nervous but also doesn’t want any blood on his hands. All this makes Sathya an instantly relatable protagonist.

Jain, who has written and directed the film, successfully manages to keep us on the edge of our seats. He creates a serious mood with the help of Suva’s low-key, dark cinematography and Sam CS’s ominous score. Writing is more visual than verbal. Some images—such as a dead woman’s toe peeking out of a travel bag—conjure up an eerie atmosphere. The writing is also clear. Jain is not tempted to give one-liners to Balaji, which would have spoiled the mood of the film.

Balaji himself has done something he hasn’t done before: play a completely serious character. He attempted a restrained performance in his previous film, Vitla Visham, as well as. But it was a comedy drama with a powerful supporting cast of Sathya Raj, Urvashi, Aparna Balmorali, and KPAC Lalitha. The film rests almost solely on Balaji’s shoulders (despite Aishwarya Rajesh’s cameo). Thank you for challenging yourself to do something different and for giving up your strength. But its performance needs more sandpapering. At times he appears too stoned and there are occasions where he overacts.

However, the writing and direction mask the limitations of his performance in the first half. And, we get a great set-up, in which the protagonist, who has been unwittingly involved in the deaths of two people, is threatened by a faceless, seemingly powerful antagonist.

But the film starts to fall apart in the second half. Things are more verbose and rushed but less interesting. The hitherto relatable protagonist becomes a hero, who fights people (the action sequences, while realistic, seem unnecessary) and fights for a greater cause. He is no longer running to save himself. He is running to catch the bad guys. It’s fine if the main character so far turns into a hero, but the real problem is that the transformation arc is unbelievable. The investigative scenes lack suspense. And the big reveal, at the end, goes out like a half-wet firecracker.

If only the writing had been the same in the second half, if only Aishwarya Rajesh’s character had been fleshed out a bit more, and if only there had been a well-established antagonist, we would have got a much better film than we did. In the end, we are left with these ‘if onlys’.

‘Run Baby Run’ is playing in theatres.