Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: Movie Review

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Pawan Malhotra, Prakash Raj, Divya Dutta, Jabtej Singh

Rating: ***

When a biopic comes with a disclaimer which reads ‘inspired by true events', somewhere the underlining pretext is that fiction will take precedence over realism in the bigger picture. Like any decent biopic, even Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has its permissible share of creative writing to add that requisite drama to the story. But the problem arises when formula takes over fiction.

The film encapsulates the life story of Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) from a little kid who loses his family in the India-Pakistan partition to his rise as sprinter who represents India at several international sports events and wins several medals for the country.

From the essential elements of rise-of-the-underdog to spirit-of-winning, the film has all that it takes for a spellbinding sports film. But in chronicling Milkha's memoirs, the film takes liberal liberties – some of which works but most of it doesn't. The narrative plays in two tracks. One accounts Milkha's professional life encompassing his induction in the Indian army where he is motivated to run for his country. The second track summarizes his personal life including his elaborate childhood account, his bonding with elder sister Isri Kaur (Divya Dutta) and his teenage infatuation (with Sonam Kapoor). The two parallel tracks often intersect each other and such non-linear storytelling only makes the narrative ambiguous.

With such screenplay structure, the film starts working only in parts (rather tracks). So while it's fun to see Farhan dance naively with army cadets, a love song certainly seems out of place. Also the emotional temperament abruptly changes as the scenes alternate between a young and an adult Milkha Singh's diverse and disjointed tracks.

One can somehow overlook the well-trimmed beard of the Sardar protagonist for cinematic reasons. But it's inexcusable when the fiction resorts to formula. There are clichés galore from the sister selling her jewelry to bail out her brother or the hero leaving his unlawful ways to win his ladylove. The song, dance and romance continues in Australia in the second half, until late realization strikes to both Milkha and the makers that they are going ‘off track'.

As Milkha Singh's winning streak follows, the film needs that one definitive climax point amongst his recurrent victories. Milkha's biopic gets its much-needed high point with a race in Pakistan. With his childhood marred with wounds of partition, this makes for an ideal climax. But while the makers could have achieved it with reasonable sportsmanship, somewhere they exploit this opportunity to define an antagonist in the film.

The final faceoff symbolizes Milkha's race to overpower the demons of his past. But the movie suits itself very conveniently with this demon coming to haunt Milkha only in the pre-climax match and never before. Add to that, with an extensive (and exploitative) childhood account of the brutality during partition, when Milkha's dying father screams Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, it sounds more like a cry for prospective revenge over a hail of hope from Milkha's fans, as the title suggests.

At a runtime that exceeds 3 hours, the film is undoubtedly and unduly long and much of the surplus chunks in the childhood portions, multiple romance tracks and song-n-dance could have been easily trimmed. Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's indulgence is evident, like the scene in which he makes a cameo appearance claiming to be the captain of the ship. But beyond that, he needs to be lauded for attempting a less-explored genre of a sports biopic and lending it the scale, spirit and splendor it deserves. Binod Pradhan's cinematography is amazing. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is easy on the ears and the background score has that apt thumping effect. The pace drops in the second half and often makes you restless.

Most of the film's inconsistencies are overpowered by Farhan Akhtar who gives his heart and soul to the character. Looking very much the character, defying age and running with as much confidence like the Flying Sikh, Farhan rises over the script and adds the requisite intensity and spark that the character demands. Pawan Malhotra as Milkha's coach is brilliant. Prakash Raj, for a pleasant change, doesn't repeat his archetypal villain act and is rather adorable in his short role of a senior army man. Divya Dutta is decent in the role of the doting sister. Jabtej Singh as the young Milkha is perfect in his part. Yograj Singh as Milkha's mentor does fine. Sonam Kapoor fulfils her prerequisite of being eye-candy. Foreign actor Art Malik seems miscast in the role of a Punjabi patriarch with an anglicized accent.

As a cinematic experience, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag doesn't run as consistently as Milkha Singh might have. Nevertheless the sincere effort by Farhan Akhtar makes it a significant watch.