Run (2002 film)

Run
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	N. Linguswamy
Written by	Mona. Pazhanisamy (Dialogues)
Produced by	A. M. Rathnam
Starring	Madhavan Meera Jasmine Raghuvaran Atul Kulkarni Vivek
Cinematography	Jeeva
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Vidyasagar
Production company	Sri Surya Movies
Distributed by	Sri Surya Movies
Release date	5 September 2002 (2002-09-05)
Running time	155 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Run is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language romantic action film directed by N. Linguswamy and produced by A. M. Rathnam under Sri Surya Movies. It stars Madhavan and Meera Jasmine, Vivek, Atul Kulkarni, Raghuvaran and Anu Hasan. Vidyasagar composed the music, while Jeeva and V. T. Vijayan handled the cinematography and editing of the film. The film marks Meera Jasmine's Tamil debut.

Run was released on 5 September 2002 and received positive reviews from critics, prompting the film to be partially reshot in Telugu with Sunil playing Vivek's role. The film was remade in Hindi under the same name by Jeeva, with Abhishek Bachchan and Bhumika Chawla reprising the roles of Madhavan and Meera Jasmine.

Plot

Shiva lives in Srirangam who arrives at Chennai to gain admission in a college and stays with his sister and her husband. Shiva does not like his brother-in-law and never talks to him despite several attempts made by his sister to convince them. Shiva meets Priya during a bus journey, where he meets her on a few more occasions and proposes to her. However, Priya warns him to stop following her despite being in love with him.

Shiva learns that Priya's brother Bhaskar is a local gangster who attacks when anyone follows Priya. Priya does not want Shiva to get beaten by Bhaskar and advises him to stop following her. Bhaskar's henchmen spot Shiva and Priya together and try to attack him, but Shiva thrashes them, ultimately giving courage for Priya to go against Bhaskar. Shiva's brother-in-law learns about Shiva's love and offers help which makes them talk to each other, much to the happiness of Shiva's sister.

Bhaskar arrives to attack Shiva's family, but Shiva threatens to attack Bhaskar's family, thereby frightening him. Priya elopes with Shiva and Bhaskar chases after them along with his men where the couple are tracked down and the goons start attacking Shiva. Priya interferes and challenges Bhaskar to attack Shiva single-handedly without any help of his men. Bhaskar accepts and starts attacking Shiva, but Shiva retaliates and hits back Bhaskar, who gets severely injured and lets Shiva and Priya unite with each other.

Cast

• Madhavan as Shiva
• Meera Jasmine as Priya
• Raghuvaran as Shiva's brother-in-law
• Atul Kulkarni as Bhaskar
• Vivek as Mohan
• Anu Hasan as Shiva's sister
• Janaki Sabesh as Shiva's mother
• Rajashree as Priya's sister-in-law
• Kalairani
• S. N. Lakshmi
• Madhan Bob as Ticket examiner
• Vijayan as Bhaskar's Right hand
• Nellai Siva as Politician
• Ravi Prakash as Shiva's father
• Bonda Mani as Biriyani shop owner
• "Saathappan" Nandhakumar as Nagaraj, Mohan's father
• Sampath Ram
• Bava Lakshmanan
• Benjamin

Telugu version

• Sunil as Mohan
• Babu Mohan as Nagaraj, Mohan's father
• Lakshmi Priya as Kamakshi, Mohan's mother
• Kallu Chidambaram as Childless man
• Gautam Raju as Fake doctor
• Kadambari Kiran as Real doctor

Production

Ajith Kumar was initially considered to play the lead role. ^[1] Madhavan signed the film in January 2002 after being impressed with Lingusamy's narration and through the project would made his first appearance in an action-orientated role. Madhavan had wanted to do an action film after being instructed by Mani Ratnam to move away from romantic drama films and lost eight kilograms to portray the lead role. Vidya Balan was originally selected to play the lead role in the film, but was later released from her contract. ^[2]

The makers then signed on Raima Sen to portray the lead role before deciding to change the lead actress again after the actress struggled with the Tamil dialogues. Meera Jasmine was consequently signed on to make her first appearance in Tamil films. Atul Kulkarni was signed to play an antagonist in the film and marked a rare move for the actor towards regular antagonistic roles. Raghuvaran, Anu Hasan and Vivek were also signed on to work on the film with Vivek filming a separate comedy track. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}

The scenes were shot at locations in Chennai, Karaikudi and Srirangam, among other places, while the songs were shot abroad in Denmark and Switzerland. The team also filmed scenes at the M.G. R. Film City in Chennai, where action sequences were filmed. The film completed production in one schedule, with Madhavan remarking about the well organised structure of the shoot. ^{[11] [12]}

Soundtrack

Run
Soundtrack album by Vidyasagar
Released	12 August 2002
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Five Star Audio Ayngaran Music
Vidyasagar chronology
Karmegham (2002) Run (2002) Villain (2002)

The music was composed by Vidyasagar, with lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay, Thamarai, Yugabharathi, Arivumathi and Viveka. The soundtrack won critical acclaim and became Vidyasagar's most successful album at the time of the release. ^[13]

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Theradi Veethiyile"	Na. Muthukumar	Karthik, Timmy, Manicka Vinayagam	04:57
2.	"Ichutha Ichutha"	Pa. Vijay	Devan, Sowmya Raoh, Naveen, Pop Shalini	04:35
3.	"Kaadhal Pisase"	Yugabharathi	Udit Narayan, Sujatha Mohan	04:38
4.	"Poi Solla Koodathu"	Arivumathi	Hariharan, Sadhana Sargam	04:53
5.	"Panikaatrey"	Thamarai	Balram, Sadhana Sargam	04:38
6.	"Minsaram En Meethu"	Viveka	Harish Raghavendra, Sadhana Sargam, Jack Smelly	04:57
7.	"Azhagiya Thimirudan (Priya O Priya)"	Viveka	Vidyasagar, Sadhana Sargam, Jack Smelly	02:16

Release

The release was postponed from July 2002 to September 2002 to finish off post-production works, but the box-office bomb of Rajinikanth-starrer Baba (2002) meant that the makers were able to prepone the film to the earliest release date in September in order to avoid other competition. ^{[5] [14]} The makers of the film chose to release the film on Thursday instead of Friday, in order to avoid a box office clash with King (2002). ^[12] The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu under the same name during April 2003 with the comedy portions re-shot with Telugu actors. ^[15] The Telugu version was released on the same day as Dil (2003) since that film had a similar storyline. ^[16]

Reception

Run received positive reviews from critics with praise for its music, technical aspects, acting and action sequences.

Critical response

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "The track Lingusamy has chosen could be an age-old one, but the agility and youthfulness make the run interesting". ^[17] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "It is to the director’s credit that he has kept the narration fast paced and engaging with not many lagging moments". ^[18] Nowrunning wrote "Director Linguswamy has given a very enjoyable film with good music by Vidyasagar and brilliant cinematography by Jeeva. Madhavan has proved in this film that he can also do action and that too convincingly". ^[19] Cinema Today wrote "There is nothing new about the film's story, but Madhavan's new incarnation as an action hero and Linguswamy's racy screenplay has made this a thoroughly enjoyable experience". ^[20] R Shiva Srivatsav of Angelfire wrote "The other hero in this film apart from our cute hero Madhavan is the screenplay of the movie". ^[5]

Box office

Run went on to become amongst the highest grossing Tamil films of the year in 2002 and became Madhavan's most profitable film at the time of release. ^[12] Vivek also won the Best Comedian Award at the Filmfare Awards 2002.

Legacy

The film was later remade the film in Hindi by Jeeva with Abhishek Bachchan, Bhumika Chawla and Vijay Raaz ^[21] and into Bengali Bangladesh in 2004 as Rukhe Darao with Shakib Khan and Sahara.

A film titled Kadhal Pisase , named after the song from the film, was released in 2012. A popular scene involving Madhavan closing a subway shutter was later parodied in the spoof film Thamizh Padam (2010), while it was also referred to in Vettai (2012), in which the actor and director had collaborated again. ^[22]

References

1. "அஜித் தவறவிட்ட படங்கள்...ஜாக்பாட் அடித்த விஜய், சூர்யா, விக்ரம்!". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). 16 November 2016. Archived from the original on 22 May 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
2. "The Vidya magic!". Sify . 7 July 2005. Archived from the original on 22 December 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2006.
3. "Switching over to action". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 9 March 2003. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
4. "Mad about 'Maddy'". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 5 May 2003. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
5. "Run : - : Starring Madhavan and Meera Jasmine". Angelfire.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
6. "The Vidya magic!". Sify . Archived from the original on 22 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
7. "rediff.com, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
8. "RUN". New Media Online. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
9. "rediff.com: Movies: An interview with Atul Kulkarni". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
10. "bitsaa_homepage". sandpaper.bitsaa.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
11. "Run". 21 October 2002. Archived from the original on 21 October 2002. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
12. "rediff.com: Movies: 'It's an out-and-out Madhavan film!'". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
13. "Vidyasagar". sify. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
14. "rediff.com: Movies". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
15. "Telugu Cinema - Review - Run - Madhavan, Meera Jasmin - Linguswamy - Vidya Sagar - Jeeva". Idlebrain.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
16. "Run Vs Dil". Sify . Archived from the original on 1 May 2003.
17. Rangarajan, Malathi (13 September 2002). "Run". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 25 February 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
18. Mannath, Malini (13 September 2002). "RUN". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 5 February 2005.
19. "nowrunning.com - Indian Movies, showitmes, reviews, videos - Indian movie portal". Nowrunning.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
20. "Run review". cinematoday2itgo. Archived from the original on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
21. "for Abhishek!". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
22. "R Madhavan's tribute to Run". The Times of India . 14 January 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2018.

External links

• Run at IMDb