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…..”