Leading the race at the Rome Olympics, 1960, Milkha Singh made the mistake of turning back to look at his competitors. With that went his chances of winning, as he was overtaken by Otis Davis, Carl Kaufmann and Malcolm Spence. The headlines the in the newspaper the following day went something like 'Milkha Singh - The Great Indian Tragedy...' and many others. Ironically, the first four finishers all broke the World Record in that race. The movie revolves around the reasons surrounding his unexpected hesitation at the end of the race on that fateful day.
The first half of the movie is a tad slow, showcasing everything from Singh's childhood, to him as a young adult to his days in the army. Everything is inter-woven into a mesh, jumping from one part of the flashback to the next, explaining and connecting various stages of his life with each other. The camera-work and often wacky frames are a delight. The use of slow-motion, while very apt and effective for the races, becomes a bit repetitive when used for nearly all aspects of his life. His fledgling love affair with Sonam Kapoor's character, her initial distaste and eventual reciprocation are shown with just the right amount of comedy and playfulness. Unfortunately, Sonam Kapoor once again comes up short in what can be called a glorified cameo. While she looks gorgeous, smiling and blushing at the right moments, her acting and dialogue delivery remains iffy. The music for the movie is peppy and keeps the spirit up through much of it. A cameo by Loy as a singer in a night-club brings smiles.
The movie picks up steam at the end of the first-half with Milkha Singh being selected for the national team after a near-impossible fight against adversity. The scene where he returns home after selection, and the interaction with his sister, played by Divya Dutta, is one which will pull at the heart-strings. It is a shame that Divya Dutta gets cast in such bit-part roles when she is quite capable of pulling off much better roles. Infact, there are many accomplished performances in supporting roles, notably of Pawan Malhotra as Milkha's coach in the Army and Yograj Singh as his coach in the National team. A special mention for the young actor who plays Milkha as a child needs to be made here. Another touching scene is his return to his Army division after winning numerous races : he puts his medals around Pawan Malhotra's character's neck, as a gesture of thanks. Needless to say, he is the toast of the town at this point.
After this comes the disappointment of Rome. Eventually, Milkha gets his chance at redemption at the Friendship Games in Pakistan just following the 1960 Olympics. There, he finally puts his demons of the Partition in his past once and for all. Adding to that, he earns his famous nickname 'The Flying Sikh', from a comment made by General Ayub Khan, the leader of Pakistan at that time. The quote at the end of the movie is worth remembering for everyone. I will not spoil it here. Go see it for yourselves.
If there is just one reason you'd need to watch this movie, it's Farhan Akhtar all the way. The effort he put into building himself up for the role is evident. At no point in the movie would you feel that he does not belong on the track. From the peppy tracks to the emotional turmoil of a much travelled athlete, Farhan pulls off one of his best performances.
A movie definitely worth watching. Go catch it with friends :-)
My rating : 8/10
