Significant but vastly disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (13 July 2013)

The first sequence, before the opening credits pour in, is of a 400 meter dash in the 1960 Rome Olympics. The camera slowly pans across the wildly jubilant crowd. Milkha Singh, India's finest athlete, leads the race for most of its runtime after the gunshot but hesitates when his coach yells something, distracting him, and ends the race in the fourth position. The whole country is at once abuzz about what made him look behind when his victory was conspicuous. The cry in question is the title of the film, a cry which connects him to a haunting childhood memory which triggered his emotions when he heard it. Soon after, Milkha Singh refuses an invitation to a friendly race in Pakistan, which, in the media, is interpreted as a symbol of his deplorable loss at the Olympics. The problem isn't why Mehra extensively employs the technique of flashbacks to tell us why Milkha Singh lost a place on the podium. The problem is why he took over three hours to tell it.
That is perhaps where "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" gets it wrong. In an industry where biopics are a rare commodity, I applaud the makers who brought to life a biopic on a significant and nearly-forgotten figure who gave us so much to cheer about. However, the makers can't seem to differentiate between a biopic and a documentary. What started out as the former ended as the latter.
After the gripping first sequence, the focus shifts years back to the recruitment of the Indian Army in Secunderabad. Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar), a freshly recruited soldier, naive and rebellious in his actions, runs his first race for a glass of milk. The sergeant Gurudev (Pavan Malhotra), who is in charge of picking the ones who will represent the unit in further races, notices the young soldier. As Singh begins training with Gurudev, he keeps earning accolades and cheers from the ones who come to watch him. His triumphs also lead to a few unwanted enemies, but he shows grit and determination in the face of hate, and breaks the national record on an injured foot.
The story shifts back again and we find ourselves in Punjab circa 1950. Singh falls for a girl in his neighborhood Biro (Sonam Kapoor), who, at first, spurns his attempts but later gives in. After finding out that he's no more than an idler, she dumps him but promises to wait for him after he vows to change as a person.
The story follows Singh over the course of the next few years, passing through his highs and lows. After failing to qualify for the !956 Olympics, the blame which points to a half-baked romance with his Australian trainer's granddaughter Stella (Rebecca Breeds), Singh begins training harder than ever, winning most of the races he participates in with aplomb. After his loss in the 1960 Rome Olympics, he finally decides to seek redemption in the friendly tournament organized in Pakistan.
Like numerous biopics attempted before, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" starts with an affliction. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the man behind the terrific "Rang De Basanti" and the awful "Delhi-6", churns out a highly-dramatized interpretation of Milkha Singh's attainments. But somewhere along the way, the definitions of biopic and documentary seem to merge and what eventually unfolds is a half-baked amalgam of both. As the story evolves through a series of lapses of details and emotions, the unnecessary scenes come with very little relevance to the plot. Like a scene in which Singh drinks two cans of ghee, Mehra lets the scene go on longer than you'd usually want it to before it begins to get on your nerves. The jocular representation of Singh's grit and determination is at times intended to warrant a few laughs but I perceived it as a rather callous and grave gaffe on the part of the makers. In a fantastically burlesque sequence, in which Singh runs a race which guarantees him a place in the national athletics team but on his injured feet and ultimately breaks the national record, the wrought and exploited use of slow-motion make it look so over-dramatized that it's parodied eventually. The several weakly-scripted scenes are a surprise from writer Prasoon Joshi, who knows how to extricate music from words, as he plods through the minutest details from the many episodes of Milkha Singh's life. Ultimately, the film's runtime of over three hours is too much mush of details to bear and the film traipses to its finish, something that shouldn't have been but finally is relieving.
Technically, the film is a dazzler. Binod Pradhan's mystical camera follows the events that shaped the life of Singh with a poetic eye. The film is shot masterfully, capturing the falling pellets of sweat with a cheeky verve that transports us back to the period. The emotive horrors of the Partition are animated credibly in a violent sequence that is intensely terrifying. The race sequences are enthralling and exhilarating, and the film has got scores of it. Also, the art direction is flawless, believably recreating the time before and after the Independence, the artistic detailing conveying a different story altogether.
Farhan Akhtar's brilliant rendition of Milkha Singh deserves the highest possible praise. Not only does he look the part, his torso undergoing a complete transformation, he plays Singh with such sincerity and vigor that the other characters look insipid next to him. Pavan Malhotra, an enormously underrated actor, skillfully backs Akhtar's dedicated performance. He is soulful, resolute and affecting. Sonam Kapoor and Divya Dutta, in extended roles, remain bungled, underused accessories, contributing only weakly to the lack of star-power in the film.
"Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" is a significant though misfired attempt to pay a befitting tribute to a remarkable man. And it's such a shame because, with finer editing and tighter scripting, it had the legs to go the distance. Sadly, it tumbles way before, much like our hopes.