By Aniket Anand:
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag(BMB) is not just a regular Bollywood movie, it’s a beautifully sculpted piece of work embroidered with the inspirational life of India’s Flying Sikh. The brilliance of Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra behind the camera, the awesome pen work of Prasoon Joshi and above all, a once in a life time performance by Farhan Akhtar. BMB is a biopic on the life of one of the rare legends in the category of Indian Athletic Contingent over the history, his life from the days of Lyallpur, British India to the race track of Rome Olympics 1960.
Rakesh Mehra has show great work as the director of the movie. From top to tip he has served it all. The level which he has set for himself after Rang De Basanti is seriously a hard thing to maintain but he has not failed himself. The best thing about Rakesh Mehra is the way he correlates past with present, the act of playing with time frame, we have seen it in RDB; and in BMB, this aspect of his talent comes out vividly. The way he has portrayed realism infused with drama is just too good. He knows the art of exploring the caliber of his actors and the story and that has immensely help to spark the emotional flavor throughout the movie as the theme is not just the conquest of Milkha Singh or the ups and downs of his life, but in the true sense, it’s the emotion which is the backbone of the story line. A passion to run, that too initially for a glass of milk then for survival and ultimately for respect, glory and overcoming ones most haunted fear. BMB has it all.
Technically, the most beautiful thing about the movie is the cinematography. The camera work is par excellence and you will fall in love with the meticulousness of the shots. The team of Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Prasoon Joshi has yet another time served it loyally for Rakesh Mehra with the soundtrack.
Talking about the performance, Sonam Kapoor did whatever bit was asked from her. Pawan Malhotra as Milkha Singh’s coach was worth a praise and so was the expressive Hyderabadi senior of Milkha Singh -Prakash Raj. Divya Dutta was beautiful with the emotional drama. She has been one actress in the Hindi cinema who has been so under rated throughout her career and she slams back within the short role of hers once again. The little kid who plays the role of young Milkha also needs to be mentioned as he is certainly one thing to look out in the movie.
But its Farhan Akhtar all the way. The immense hard work which he has put in is already visible with his awesome physique, and the acting is certainly phenomenal. He is one actor who is setting benchmarks movie after movie and this time he has indeed taken a huge leap. The only drawback of the movie is the pace and length. At times, it appears a bit slow and even certain scenes seem exaggerated. But nonetheless, its Rakesh Mehra and he is known for a complete three hour film, also, a worthy three hour is any day better than a nonsensical two and a half hour film.
I’ll rate it 4 out of 5 with this inspiring work from the team of Bhaag Milkh Bhaag. If you are not a fan of in depth biopics then it isn’t made for you, for rest, watch it for a cinematic emotional experience, not to forget patriotic.