RUNWAY 34: AN INTRINSIC REVIEW

Films happen to be one of the oldest forms of mass media in the world. In India’s vast and gigantic country, films are seen as one of the traditional media outlets for the populace. Films play a pivotal role in breaking into the minds of the people. They play a variety of roles such as awareness creation, breaking societal taboos, and serving as a means of entertainment among others. The Indian film industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, concerning the number of people employed, and the number of films that are produced. In the recent past due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have increased their consumption of alternative mediums for entertainment purposes such as Over the Top (OTT), although OTT and OTT platforms are only present to fill the void of not being able to go the theatres or multiplexes. Despite true incidents or stories serving as a means of inspiring the creation of movies, there is seen that there is a significant reduction in the movies made based on true incidents or issues. The recent release on Amazon Prime Video, Runway 34 is a story based on a flight from Doha to Kochi, that crash-landed due to poor visibility in August 2015. The current research study is envisioned to provide a critical analysis of this Ajay Devgn starrer. The research study adopts a qualitative research method in the form of Iconography to meet the objective of the study.


INTRODUCTION 1.IMPACT OF FILMS ON THE AUDIENCE
Films influence the audience in myriad forms. Behavioral changes are one of the major effects a film creates on the audience. Kubrak (2020) in his study explored the behavioral changes in the audience after watching a film. The research study revealed that the perception of elderly people among Undergraduate and Postgraduate students was significant in several aspects after watching a film. Postgraduate students' attitudes toward elderly people changed in a positive manner. There were significant changes in the students' attitudes towards elderly people before and after watching the film. However, the study concluded that the effects of the film with regard to attitudes were not lasting long enough. Ambler (2001) in her study explored the impact of films on colonial audiences.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF INDIAN FILMS
The Indian film industry has its roots and origins in the contributions of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke also known as Dadasaheb Phalke. He is considered the 'Father of Indian Cinema.' His first film was Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length feature film in Indian history. He made a total of 95 films and 27 short films in a career spanning 19 years until 1937. Some of his notable works are Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), Satyavan Savitri (1914, Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1918), and Kaliya Mardan (1919. The government of India honors personalities by giving the lifetime achievement award in the film industry in honor of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
The Indian film industry is an assimilation of stars and artists from various industries cutting across languages and geographies. Films are made across languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada in the south. The films that are released in these languages are widely looked forward to by South Asian and Middle Eastern audiences. The Indian film industry also stretches to North India and popularly is known as Bollywood. The predominant language of films in Bollywood is Hindi.
The Indian film industry was elevated not just because of Dadasaheb Phalke, more people helped them. One such prominent personality was Satyajit Ray. He is considered one of the greatest auteurs in film-making. Some of his prominent films made by him were The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963, and Charulata (1964). Hafeez & Ara (2016) spoke about the golden age of Indian cinema in her study. She discussed the troubled times faced by Indian cinema during the 1930s and its transition to the golden period. The decades of thirties and forties were a turbulent period for the Indian film industry because India was grappling with the Great Depression, the freedom struggle, and World War II. The popular Masala genre that is existing in the Bollywood industry had its birth after World War II. Movies made in South India accounted for half of India's cinema halls and made those films seen as a symbol of cultural revival. However, it also happened to be the time when the Indo-Pakistan partition resulted in several filmmakers shifting their base to Pakistan. This resulted in the partition of India and Pakistan as two separate nations being made inspiration and topic for several films.

REVIREW OF LITERATURE 2.1. GOLDEN AGE OF INDIAN CINEMA
to change the complete concept of entertainment in the country starting with motion picture technology. Sharma & Narban (2016) in their study on Indian cinema and women spoke about the earliest versions of the space for women in Indian films. They also traced the history of Indian cinema. Zaidi (2019) in his study spoke about the portrayal of Pakistani women in the narratives of Pakistani films and investigated how those portrayals are close to real life. Singh (2021) spoke about caste and Indian cinema from a sociological perspective. He spoke about how Indian society has seen atrocities based on caste ideology from historical times. Caste has been studied from different frames by different intellectuals in academia and sociology. Agarwal (2014) spoke about the changing roles of women in Indian cinema. Men in most societies were seen as breadwinners while the role of women was restricted to being good homemakers and good mothers. His study focused on how stereotyping as well as roles were assigned to women in Indian films.

METHODOLOGY
The research study adopts qualitative research approaches in the form of content analysis. The research study adopts Iconography, which is about interpreting signs and symbols. It is the study of signs that purposefully appear in images and point to external discourses that shape their meaning. Iconography is defined as a field of visual knowledge, centered on images that require fluency in textual and cultural codes before their content can be grasped, it raises essential questions about audience and reception Fozi (2019).
Iconography is often undertaken as a form of contextual research to understand the context in which an event or an incident has taken place. It is often used to understand historical aspects, to establish or portray who or what was portrayed, and is a form of qualitative research method Van Leeuwen (2001), Müller (2008).

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
• To critically examine the movie Runway 34 in ascertaining the closeness and resemblance to the actual event that took place in 2015. Runway 34 is based on true incidents and features actors like Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakul Preet Singh, Boman Irani, and more, Runway 34 is a reallife story based on a flight from Doha to Kochi, that had 'blind-landed' due to poor visibility in August 2015 and the due course 'May Day' was called.

DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION, AND FINDINGS
Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgn) is a pilot working for Skyline airlines. On August 16, 2015, he is in Dubai and the next day, he is supposed to fly to Cochin, where he's also based. Vikrant's friend Sandy calls him to party at night. Vikrant refuses at first. Later, he joins the party and reaches home late. The next day he is supposed to fly from Doha to Cochin. What happens next forms the crux of the story.

ICON 3 & 4 (Courtesy: Runway 34 DVD)
The initial establishment shot of the movie shows a scene where there is a depiction of the text -Inspired by True Events and a lot of ambulances rushing onto the runway. One of the Air Traffic controller officers is watching the same through his binoculars and heaving a sigh of relief as the airplane comes to a halt on Runway 34 (ICONS 1 TO 4). In the next scene, there is an establishment of the protagonist is smoking a cigarette outside the Doha international airport. It is later shown that he is traveling in a car when he receives a call from his daughter. After a short while, his wife is taking over the phone from her daughter and speaks to the protagonist. As she is speaking, she is asking him if he is smoking, to which he replies negatively and tells that he is on his way back to his room, and has to take a trip from Doha to Cochin the next day where is based from (ICONS 5 TO 10

CONCLUSION
The present research study was envisioned to explore the critical analysis of the recently released blockbuster movie -Runway 34. The core objective of the study was to examine the closeness to the actual resemblance of the event that took place in 2015. The research study enlightened various technical aspects of the aviation industry whilst also giving a sneak peek into the lives of any airline's pilots and cabin crew members. The research study revealed that although there existed resemblances to this Ajay Devgn starrer, a blatant finetuning of the script existed to suit Bollywood and other general audiences. The plot and script of the movie engage the audience until the intermission. However, it is to be noted that the 2 nd half could have been more engaging and is seen as more dialogue-heavy. The research study also reinforces the fact that there is little scope for even minor mistakes to turn into a deadly disaster especially, if working in the aviation industry or any other industry, and can incur harsh punishments. During the actual incident, none of the passengers or crew were hurt or died, however, this movie shows that one of the passengers, who is an asthma patient dies on her way to the hospital.