Movie Review

One short of History; Bhag Milkha Bhag 

Ankit Jha

Any movie is adjudged on the essence that, how it has pulled the crowd, when Milkha sprints and conquer in Pakistan, crowd gave him a standing ovation with the claps nearly less than that for Swami Vivekananda in Chicago. I didn’t witness it at the Gaddafi Stadium of Lahore in Pakistan but in the cinema hall of my city, when each action of Milkha played resplendently by ‘Movie Kumar’, Farhan Akhtar, had an equal and opposite reaction from the crowd that must be said, zealots.

An alluring confluence of the Lagaan, Iqbal, Chak de India and Pan Singh Tomar with the poignant and tendering background of Indo-Pak partition, makes ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, Indian Cinema’s best gift to its history in the 100^th year. A biopic drama crafted on the life of ‘Super Sprinter’ Milkha Singh is the example of how Indian Cinema pays tribute to the legends. Although, BMB lacks the ‘Cinematic caliber of Iqbal, zeal of Chak De India, poetic narration of Lagaan and the performances of the Paan Singh Tomar, it at times betters up from all these. There are certain stupid flaws of screenplay and art direction in some scenes, like Milkha singing ‘Nanha Munha Rahi Hoon’, in 1954, whereas the song was released in 1962 and the spelling of Helsinki etc. Apart from these, movie is flawlessly scribbled and naturally acted al through, if Farhan would have adapted the violence & romance equally along with sweaty biceps & chest, this would have been a historic performance by any Indian actor.

Thing that I feel, impelled me was that, it is more stirring, emotional & it is nimbly woven into a pastiche of pathos, adversities, heartbreak & victory and it soothes the very spirit of everyone watching it. Some scenes like Milkha bringing back the golden earrings of her sister, Milkha nostalgicly meeting his childhood friend Sapreet in Pakistan, Milkha slapping him self in bathroom after losing in qualifiers, let your eyes go humid & the ultimate picturisation of Milkhas’s father asking him to run, crowd squirms. The most prominent of all is the melifulously & at times too cynical and pungent dialogues which are provoking as well as inspirational. All the dialogues are swiftly driven, more over the crimson picturisation of partition scene queers. Audiences wriggle on their seats when Milkha starts winning the races, women in Pakistan removed their veil to see him running, some moments have been exaggerated.  

At the end, it leaves behind a simple question that, ‘A sports person who was admired by even the Pakistani president ‘General Ayub Khan & the name of ‘Flying Sikh’, a super sprinter who earned Independent India its first Commonwealth gold, why is he not remembered in the manner he ought to be? Why has not Milkha, Usha or Dhyan chand got the highest civilian award of India? Why is the highest sports award not named after any sportsperson?

These questions would never be answered but we need to rummage the answers from the history. Till then we need to consider, “Sportsperson ki zindagi tapasya se banti hai, discipline se banti hai, sangharsh se banti hai…..”

Articlesss

Howzatt!!!   Third Umpire?

                                                             - Ankit Jha

Is it justified to blame technology for the failure of an individual player on the cricket pitch? Is UDRS really swallowing the role of on field umpire or it just makes the game of Cricket more unblemished?

It was a no shiny day in Trent bridge of Nottingham, England, when Sachin Tendulkar on the verge of another magnificent hundred, having played 195 deliveries & scored 91 individual runs he defended one outside delivery from Paul Collingwood by pads, an unison appeal & God of cricket departed. Umpire was 3 times ICC Umpire of the year Simon Taufel. When the replays came out, it was clearly seen that ball was nowhere in the line of stumps, but the damage was done. Then came India’s tour Down under, new year test, Sydney, 3rd January, Australia were marginalized on 127 for 6, then 2 wrong decisions in the Australian innings & Andrew Symonds went on to make an unforgettable century. This match is counted to be one of the most controversial matches of all time. The Bucknor-Benson school of wrong decisions harmed India to lose the match by some 30 runs after suffering 9 wrong decisions.

Indian Captain MS Dhoni asking for a review

The Umpire Decision Review System is a technology based system used for reviewing or questioning the decision made by the on field umpires in the game of cricket. This system was firs trialed in India vs Sri Lanka Test series of 2008, but since then it has been disliked by the Indian Cricket officials. It was officially relaunched in 2009 in Newzealand-Pakistaan Test Series. Earlier ICC made this system mandatory for all international matches which later was decided to leave it on the mutual decision of both playing teams, but it is still mandatory in all the ICC events. There are 3 basic components of this system these are, Hawk eye, Snickometer & Hot spot technology. These all technologies need no introduction for any cricket fans but for those who do not have much interest in cricket, Hawk eye is a ball tracking technology which is used for the LBW appeals. Snickometer is used for detecting sounds made by a cricket bat or pads, where as Hot spot is a technology which illuminates the contact of ball with bat or pad. A batsman or fielding captain makes a t shape for questioning the decision of on field umpires.

From the very first time it was announced, it started getting positive & negative responses. After losing the series 2-1 from Sri Lanka, then Indian captain Anil Kumble criticised this system saying it can't be 100 percent correct. There has been various arguments for & against Decision Review System but it was being implemented in the international matches except in which it was mutually decided not to be used. But During the first test match of Ashes 2013, when English Batsman Jonathan Trott was given out by the third umpire because of a certain fault in the Hot Spot technology & at the the very climax of the same test last wicket of Australia fell in the form of Brad Haddin, this time also controversially, there were many questions arisen. Although, the production company apologised from Trott was it was too late for the Right Handed no. 3 batsman for England. In the case of Haddin too, decision was given on the basis of snickometer but Hotspot didn't find any edge. More questionable was the posture of on field umpire Aleem Dar when he apologised & raised his index finger for giving out, he clearly was amazed.

Every Technology is first criticised & then it is universally accepted, in the game of cricket, Day-night matches, Third Umpire Decision System, No Runner decisions were also questioned but now it had been well settled. The first & the strongest argument against UDRS is that it diminishes the credibility of the on field umpire as questioning for a review means Batsman or a bowler is not satisfied. The sole purpose of the UDRS is to correct the wrong decision made by the on field umpire. The argument from the ICC, the governing body of international Cricket is that their motive is to make the game flawless, there should be no sope for any controversy but there has been various controversies on the third umpire decisions. There is also one school of thought that says that some faults only make the game of cricket interesting.

There is no doubt that technology assists the human, but any technology can not be 100% corect especially in the sport like cricket where Ball swing, take turns, & moves on the different surfaces differently, how can a technology be so effective. For example, an LBW appeal on the Kingsmead Durban & Green Park, Kanpur will be on different accounts as later is a slow bouncing pitch from earlier. Still today on field umpires are the more important than review system as the success rate of referals are not even 50%. The only possible way to make Cricket flawless is to use Robot on the place of umpire & those robots should have Hawk eye technology installed in them, along with hot spot & Snickometers. Like wise we will lose Umpire too like Runners & Super