{"id":19488,"date":"2013-07-12T13:19:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T17:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/forum\/?p=19488"},"modified":"2013-12-01T19:25:22","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T00:25:22","slug":"bhaag-milkha-bhaag-movie-review-by-rajeev-masand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/bhaag-milkha-bhaag-movie-review-by-rajeev-masand\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Movie Review by Rajeev Masand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Rating:<\/strong> \"2.5\"<\/p>\n

July 12, 2013<\/p>\n

Cast:<\/strong> Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Pawan Malhotra, Divya Dutta, Dalip Tahil<\/p>\n

Director:<\/strong> Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra<\/p>\n

The problem with adoring, reverential portraits of real people is that they tend to lack objectivity and quickly become boring. It\u2019s true of Rang De Basanti<\/em> director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra\u2019s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag<\/em>, an ambitious account of the first 27 years or so of celebrated Indian sprinter Milkha Singh\u2019s roller-coaster life.<\/p>\n

Over an exhausting 3 hours and 7 minutes, the film, starring Farhan Akhtar as Milkha, details the athlete\u2019s journey from a boy displaced during Partition to his early years in a gang of petty thieves, followed by his recruitment in the Indian army from where he went on to become a sports hero. All this is revealed in a long flashback by Milkha\u2019s earliest coach, Gurudev Singh (an endearing Pawan Malhotra), during a train journey with Pandit Nehru\u2019s advisor, while pointing out why Milkha has turned down the Prime Minister\u2019s invitation to lead a sports delegation to Pakistan. (The explanation for that decision, painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain, is clumsily used as a suspenseful cliffhanger in the film).<\/p>\n

There are moments of great pathos here, and an inspiring lesson on the importance of perseverance and hard work. But it all moves at a snail\u2019s pace, even as the drama of Milkha\u2019s rise on the race track is punctured routinely by too many songs, overlong romantic tracks, and the kind of \u2018commercial-movie trappings\u2019 that are counterproductive to a film of this nature.<\/p>\n

Biopics, however panoramic in scope, usually boil down to a greatest-hits collection, and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag<\/em>, for all its sepia-toned flashbacks and terrific training sequences is no exception. It\u2019s a shame Mehra and screenwriter Prasoon Joshi adopt a manipulative, melodramatic approach to highlight Milkha\u2019s achievements and justify his failures. In the film\u2019s opening scene, a key moment in Milkha\u2019s professional career, he loses the lead in the 1960 Rome Olympics when he turns back, apparently<\/em> because he was haunted by an image from his troubled past. In another scene, where Milkha wins an important race despite being badly injured, Mehra swells the score even as the bandages covering Milkha\u2019s wounds dramatically come off as he inches towards the finish line. And don\u2019t even get me started on the Gadar<\/em>-esque finale in Pakistan, where Milkha must fulfill the dream of every Indian by beating a rival from our neighboring nation. Never before has slow motion and background music been so abused in a film!<\/p>\n

Not everything comes apart though. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy delivers some great tunes, particularly Zinda<\/em> that is rendered with suitable energy by Siddharth Mahadevan. Mehra himself stages a rousing middle portion in Ladakh, where Milkha trains tirelessly with the India coach following a disappointment at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. This montage, gorgeously filmed, is a fine reminder of Farhan Akhtar\u2019s complete submission to the part.<\/p>\n

The actor in fact, and his committed performance, is the film\u2019s biggest strength. From his convincing accent and his dialogue delivery to the sheer beast of his physical presence, Farhan is riveting as Milkha. But Joshi\u2019s script, bursting at its seams with too much information that serves little purpose other than to establish Milkha as someone with a wholesome personality, shortchanges Akhtar with the weight of its mawkish melodrama.<\/p>\n

Divya Dutta, as Milkha\u2019s doting sister, and the only character in the film who appears to have never aged, hits all the predictable notes. Sonam Kapoor, meanwhile, in a smaller part, as Milkha\u2019s first love, brings a quiet freshness to her scenes.<\/p>\n

The film itself is well intentioned and shines a light on an important figure. But it\u2019s too long and too unfocused to leave a lasting impression. I\u2019m going with two-and-a-half out of five for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag<\/em>. Watch it for Farhan Akhtar\u2019s sincere performance.<\/p>\n

Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rating: July 12, 2013 Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Pawan Malhotra, Divya Dutta, Dalip Tahil Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra The problem with adoring, reverential portraits of real people is that they tend to lack objectivity and quickly become boring. It\u2019s true of Rang De Basanti director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra\u2019s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, an ambitious account of the first 27 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5231,5],"tags":[924,24,74,1293,6202,134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanqeed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}