Bhag Milkha Bhag

Farhan - the Winner

Anything with India Vs Pakistan sells…!!!

This autobiographical film on Milkha Singh is a Magnus saga of almost three and a half hour, detailing all his races. The movie showcases his reasons to become a sprinter and his journey to achieve it and finally how & what he accomplished. In short if you see, out of 3.5 hours, Farhan Akhtar is running in almost 3 hour of the movie.  No wonder Farhan concentrated so much in making his body looks like a sprinter. It seems while working on Farhan’s preparation, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra forgot to prepare for the job he has taken up. The movie is overloaded with the running – bhag – bhag -bhag. The essence of the movie is lost. To make it more thrilling and climax more exhilarating Rakeysh overloaded it with India – Pakistan sentiments.

I appreciate Indian Directors for taking up autobiographical jobs but somehow I am not very convinced by their efforts. First, Pan Singh Tomar and now, this one, do not seem to create a mark and be at par with the Hollywood counterparts in same genre. One of the reason I can think of is - here in India, we are trying to portray almost the entire life of such person even though in Hollywood, they would rather take up an incident and create a craft out of it. 

The story starts from the childhood days of Milkha in Pakistan. The families had to leave their homes during the partition. He goes through a lot of emotional turmoil during that time and finally settles with his sister. He falls in love with a village girl – Sonam. Since he is just a small hooligan and does not have any job per se, he is not suitable for her. He joins Army and discovers his hidden talent in running. He starts running from then onwards and keeps running in the entire movie and leaves behind all the people he cared for. The climax is cleverly chosen as a race between India and Pakistan to glorify the ending.

The story is bit stretched and the screenplay would have been much better. Cinematography is above average but not very unique. Production Design and Costumes are also average. Most of the time seems to have been spent on making the Body of Farhan though he has acted also really outstanding. But I cannot say it is his best performance. Sonam is good in her special appearance and good decision by Director for making her part that small otherwise it would have been another blunder of the story. The music of the movie again average, it does not inspire or creates that aura of sportsmanship or the passion.

Coming to the direction, Rakesh has a style of lengthy narratives and he follows the same here. Though he has not failed as miserably as Delhi 6 here but not as good as Rang De Basanti either. Little more work on the story or screenplay and finally some additional sittings on editing would have made this one a masterpiece to remember for. But alas! It didn’t happen. But still a great piece of work and worth watching. Farhan again comes out as a winner.