Sikh flies, movie doesn't take off

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2013)

I am so happy they made Milkha Singh's biopic. In my opinion he is the greatest athlete India has ever produced. PT Usha comes a distant second. A life filled with emotions that just calls out to be adapted onto the big screen. A life which has ups, downs, triumphs, disappointments, rejections all rolled into one. I was really happy to see Farhan transform so closely into Milkha Singh. I was very happy with the Zinda song. Coming to the movie, its like a very very sweet dish, which you enjoy in the beginning, then its sweetness jars your mouth that you cant take it any more and yet wished and hoped that you could have eaten more of such an enjoyable dish but you cant. Its beautiful in every frame, the story highlights most of Milkha's triumphs and I was happy Rome Olympics was not the finale. It would have left a sour taste. The movie is over indulgent, no two ways about it. It drags and drags and at 188 mins, it becomes too slow to test the patience at times. It could and should have been a good 30 mins shorter. And come to think of, lip synced songs in a biopic?? Looked odd and wasted time as well. I was sad they didn't show his love story with his wife and wasted 20 odd mins on an one night stand. Rakesh Mehra's vision is fantastic, he chose the best parts of Milkha's life to highlight. Whats questionable is the screenplay and editing. Background score is very good, songs were average barring Zinda. Farhan breathes life into Milkha Singh's character. Its a near perfect role barring the inconsistencies of the beard.
Finally a movie that could have been so so much better had it been handled with a little more dexterity, a potential epic gone bust. A Sikh that flies, but movie didn't exactly take off.
6/10.