Farhan & Divya

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2013)

Biopics are never an easy subject to attempt a film.
In Hindi cinema it becomes all the more difficult because people have very few heroes whose life can be depicted on celluloid and have a national appeal, not that there is a dearth of heroes.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a genuinely talented director but like I had discussed with some people, he is going to be the biggest liability on this project, besides Sonam Kapoor. Reason being, Mehra gets so involved in the details of research and wants to show so much on screen that he tends to lose out on the commercial aspect of cinema, the one cardinal rule – people want to be entertained. Aks and Dilli-6 are prime examples of this.
Whilst announcing a biopic on The Flying Sikh, I always was sceptical as to how much information would Mehra get on the athlete, which would interest the audience ....and how would he make it interesting and entertaining. The first point he scored by getting his lead actor right – Farhan Akhtar. one of the icons of today's generation of film directors who can multitask....and succeed.