Tonmoy Tansen's second directorial venture, “Runout”, has been in the making for a while now, with the film's soundtrack album released over a year ago. Finally released on October 16, “Runout” is drawing a healthy number of audiences to the cinemas. The romantic crime thriller has a few big positives about it, but there are some disappointments as well. 

When top terror Pagla Mizan is killed in a shootout and a virtually unknown youth Kishore (Sajal) is arrested for it, the two crime lords of the city (Chittagong) get in a competition to recruit him. Zenith (Mousumi Nag) – a single mother and the right hand person of one of the underworld leaders (Tariq Anam Khan) – nabs Kishore, and the innocent small-town youth is stuck in the criminal underbelly of the society. When a corrupt police officer (Omar Sani) colludes with Zenith for a major land handover from one of the criminal bosses, things go south and Kishore, who attempts to escape the underworld and fails, returns for his vengeance. 

The positives: Cinematography was quite smart, for a commercial Bangla movie. The visualisation of the two romantic songs exceeded expectations, and the music overall (by Tonmoy Tansen's own band Vikings) kept up with the thriller theme. Mousumi Nag, who is the movie's actual centerpiece, gives a commanding performance, as do Tariq Anam Khan and Tanveer Ahmed Probal in the roles of criminal masterminds. Sajal gets better as the movie progresses, and by the end he brings out the action hero intensity. Some elements of the story, including some twists were quite well done. Some mature content is shown (visually and plot-wise), but almost all of it is done realistically and tastefully. 

The negatives: The storyline kind of loses way throughout most of the middle part of the film, 'diluting' the film. Most of the character actors (and Romana Swarna as Sajal's secondary love interest) are not up to the mark, and the film is riddled with obvious expositions and every plot point explanation is far too loud for a sophisticated audience. The end part is full of Dhallywood clichés, the most painstaking being the hero talking for five minutes before death after taking multiple gunshots and explaining everything with his head on his romantic interest's lap, and the police arriving far too late. The CGI blood and fire, while better than the average Dhallywood film, do not have the visual effects intended. The music is also a little one-dimensional, and does not sound as good in the film as it did as a standalone album. Lastly, Nayla Nayem's item number (for which she was misleadingly given a huge place on the poster), despite its commendable musical and visual efforts, fails miserably mostly due to the celebutante's horrible dancing and lip-syncing skills. 

Overall, the film is a typical Dhallywood commercial production which refreshingly is more about the heroine than the hero, and the efforts in making a crime thriller for the masses without being crass is noticeable. The story needed to be clearer and there are a number of small plot holes, but films like these are baby steps towards the right direction towards the resurrection of Dhallywood.