World championship medallist Sai Praneeth, and Gopichand’s right-hand man Siyaduttullah, eye greener pastures in USA as coaches.College principal shot dead in UP’s Gonda Gonda.Smriti Irani calls on Rahul Gandhi for a ‘UPA rule vs Modi govt’ debate.Diversification push: Punjab to incentivize farmers to grow orchards.India versus England: Another slow turner likely for fifth Test at Dharamsala.Drug smuggling has DMK blessings: PM Modi.‘Anganwadi system still relevant but needs to re-energise to meet evolving challenges’.But the moment you place him alongside a Pawan Malhotra,who plays his Army coach,and who speaks Punjabi just the way it ought to be spoken,guttural,from the heart,that you know that difference between acting a part and the real deal. You can see Akhtars hard work,both on his physique,and the way he runs on the track and field and everywhere else,as well as his accent.
He does everything he needs to: the liking for duddh (milk) that gets him to start the back-breaking training,his early attraction to a pretty Punjaban (Kapoor),the little flirtations he indulges in (one with a saucy Aussie girl in Melbourne),and then straining every sinew for a win. Farhan Akhtar is consistently likeable but not always believable as the eponymous hero. In short order, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag starts getting overlaid by too much drama and mawkishness. It is a strong segment,with Art Malik,playing Milkhas father,and who exhorts him to run,to flee to the other side of the newly formed,bloody border. His strong love for older sister (Dutta) which keeps him going in adulthood. His being made to be a murga in the tiny village school,and colloquial talk of his thui ( backside,reddening at the touch of a masters chhadi/stick). Little Milkha and his plump friend,wading through a river,tossing a few lines between them as friends are wont to. And most of them belong to Milkhas childhood. When the film is left to tell the story unvarnished,it has several felt passages. Is there any need to underline it,just in case we miss the point,with loud background music? Why,you ask yourself,when you see a burst of sporting glory,the kind that becomes goose-flesh immortal every time someone refers to it even,does the director need to dress up his story so much that it nearly drowns? The face of a winner,at the end of a tough race,is such a win in itself. Its almost as if he needs to talk up his film in order to entice us to watch it. For himself,and for the honour of his nation.īut the way the director tells it is much less inspiring. And Mehra leaves,literally,not one stone unturned (and adds a few of his own,doubtless) in this three hour and some saga,which takes us from Milkhas childhood in then Punjab-now Pakistan,the trauma of Partition and being torn from his (Milkhas) family,his lawless youth,his joining the Indian Army and gaining respectability. The story of Milkha Singh is inspirational,doubtless.