BHAG MILKHA BHAG
review by
ANIZ FILMVALA
*****
The film starts in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where a coach says "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", and the story is taken back to memories of the childhood days of a young boy which haunted him, resulted in him dropping to fourth. The partition caused chaos which resulted in war with the locals of Punjab in Pakistan, killing the parents of Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar). He reaches Delhi and later meets his sister there. Milkha soon makes friends and survives by stealing with his friends. He falls in love with Biro (Sonam Kapoor) but she asks him to live a life of honesty. Milkha finally finds himself in the army where he gets noticed by a Hawaldar (Constable) after he wins a race in which top 10 runners will get milk, two eggs and excuse from exercise. He gets selected for service commission where he gets miffed and also gets beaten up by senior players whom he had defeated earlier, on the day before selection of Indian team for Olympics. In spite of being injured he still participates in the race, overcomes his pain and wins the race. His coach tells him that he has broken the national record.
In the Melbourne Olympics he gets attracted to the granddaughter of his Australian technical coach, and after a night in a bar he sleeps with her. He loses the race, beats himself up and on the way back to India asks his coach to tell him what the world record for the 400m race is. He trains hard with a firm determination and wins in several places. Then Jawaharlal Nehru convinces him to lead the Indian team to Pakistan for friendly races. In Pakistan he misses the press conference and goes to his village where in a flashback it is shown how his parents were murdered and the last words of his father were "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag!" He starts crying and is confronted by a boy who turns out to be his childhood friend's son. In the games, the Pakistani favorite is winning, when Milkha comes, overtaking opponents one by one and finally taking on the lead and winning the race and respect of both nation's peoples. The Pakistani commander gives him the the title "The Flying Sikh".
CRITIC VIEW.
Finally some body has dared to go against the tide and in return we get a marvellous piece of creativity combined by energy from a filmmaker who has returned with a vengeance Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's BHAG MILKHA BHAG.
A film not to be missed for any so reason,as blood and sweat is visible of Farhan Akhtar's matchless outstanding energy and performance which he has given to make MILKHA SINGH what he was once and now again in BHAG MILKHA BHAG.
Best of the cinematography by ace Binod Pradhan and stimulating background score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy adds more feathers to this magnanimous piece of art.
CAST.
Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Produced by Viacom 18,Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Written by Prasoon Joshi
Starring Farhan Akhtar,Sonam Kapoor,Dev Gill,Hikaru Ito,Meesha Shafi
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Studio Viacom 18 Motion Pictures
Distributed by Reliance Entertainment
