Let me start with an
anecdote. A topper in the class went to the office of his Math teacher with a
proud smile on his face and an expected pat on his back, as he got 99 marks out
of 100 in board exams. Teacher saw the result with narrow eyes and then barked
“where the hell did that goddamn one mark go? “
See, Mr.Mehra or Rakeysh,whatever you are
comfortable with, that was my reaction while exiting the cinema hall after
watching Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
This was fair because I regard you as one of the most distinguished directors
after Rang De Basanti! Moreover, you have got Farhan Akhtar who
himself is the gifted actor and the finest director so, naturally the bar has
been set too high for this film. I think you are more answerable to the man
himself, Mr. Milkha Singh, who although having huge offers from so many other
directors allowed you to make a film on his life for just one rupee!! Actually
Milkha Singh has never seen any movie since 1960 so this decision was taken by
his star golfer son Jeev Milkha Singh, who was impressed by the director already having
seen his Rang De Basanti!
First let me introduce
myself which will establish my authority to ask you questions and make you more
answerable to me. I, who watched and admired your Aks, who is the fan of your Rang De basanti, ignored Delhi 6 as an honest mistake and on top of the
list even watched Teen the
Bhai against the better
judgment of my instincts, just because you have produced it!! So, let the dissection
begin. Though the namesake was overwhelmed by the movie and especially by
Farhan, I as an astute cinema lover have some direct questions which I would
like to ask you with an admonition: this is not done Mr. Rakeysh OmPrakash
Mehra!!
Why, why you did this to the
otherwise good film? You have got a brilliant and prolific actor like Farhan in
a lead role who labored for almost one and a half year to get a physique like a
professional athlete. You have even got great supporting actors like Pavan
malhotra, Prakash Raj and surprisingly enough Yograj singh, then why for god’s
sake did you want Sonam kapoor? If you wanted her for a good luck charm (man
didn’t you learn anything from Delhi 6!?) Or may be because she worked in
the movie just for shagun of Rs. 11, then you should have kept her in the
photograph of Milkha singh’s wallet only. Why did you take her out and waste
our 30 minutes? We paid our 200-300 rupees (plus popcorn and cold drinks of
course!) to see the “Flying Sikh” fly and not to ride a bicycle (both ways!) to
stalk his teenage girlfriend, transporting water buckets for her girlfriend or
doing bhangra with street urchins for that matter! You could have wind up this
whole affair in one good song or even in two scenes.
To be very frank I went in
the cinema hall to be inspired, but all my high expectations could barely touch
a “very good movie” mark! From the promos and the promotional shows it
looked like you are going to unfold the true and inspiring story of athlete
Milkha singh, but the whole Sonam Kapoor and Melbourne’s Rebecca Breeds episode
was focused on the lover side of the Milkha Singh. It too might have satisfied
audience if you could finish that business in good way but you made both of
them disappear the same way they appeared in the first place; for no particular
requirement of the script! Their arrival in the story creates the whole new and
unnecessary aspect in the story and due to ill treated and poorly handled
departure of both girls resulted in some irreparable holes in otherwise intact
fabric of story. There is total omission of Nirmal kaur who was betrothed wife
of Milkha Singh and mother of Jeev Milkha Singh, also a former captain of
Indian volleyball team! They have met in 1955 and were married in 1962, which
was quite within the reach of the script and would really augment the story if
you wanted to depict the personal life of the athlete! The way you showed the
1960 Rome Olympics leaves the mark on the mind of reader as if it was total
mess for Milkha Singh! Agreed, he missed the Olympic medal which shattered any
athlete’s life, but he did not lose the race with such a huge margin, it was a
photo finish race instead and in that particular race all four runners
including Milkha Singh broken an Olympic’s best 400 meter track record till
then! According to MIlkha Singh he made a mistake thinking that he could not
sustain his speed and looked back to see other runner’s position during which
the three of them passed him! First and second runner finished in 44.9 seconds
and third and fourth (Milkha Singh) finished off at 45.5 and 45.6 seconds
respectively! The biggest loop hole in the story for me was twisting these
realities to relate it to the horrendous childhood of Milkha Singh. An athlete
who has been running professional races for almost 7-8 years cannot be so
fragile minded that amidst the most important race of his life he stood frozen
legged by hearing the phrase his father cried while he was murdered during
horrors of the partition riots! One cannot digest the logic that during all
these years before Rome, the athlete had never heard his coach shouting “Bhaag
Milkha Bhag…”!! And, suppose if it mattered that much to the athlete then his
coach being so emotionally and personally attached to him must have known this
all along should not have shouted this exact phrase! So, both ways it
contradicts the soul of the story, if you want to inspire the nation then the
hero should not be so fragile minded and if he is the coach should be prepared
for it!!
Mr. Mehra when you
were trying to make an epic biopic then you should have avoided the temptation
to mix it with melodramatic sequences and songs which would do nothing but
deprive the film from robust flow and loosened the already connected audiences
in the middle of the story! While in RDB and even in Delhi 6 you have
beautifully accomplished the task of telling story through song direction and
lyrical sequences. When Milkha singh came back to the village wearing India
blazer, first there was no need of that song for god’s sake and second there
could be managed a very good emotional scene between Milkha and Ishri singh
without all that melodrama from Divya Dutta. I don’t quite get that part of the
story in which the recently brokenhearted Milkha Singh suddenly started “Ghul Mil Ghul Mil Launda” (which was totally and completely
unnecessary and not so beautiful either, if you ask me!) with Rebecca, to the cinema audience there seems
a huge emotional gap over there! I have never expected that I would
ever utter this expression during the movie directed by ROPM and written by
Prasoon Joshi, sad but genuine, cut the crap man!
See, I am no expert of any
of the technicalities of the movie making or anything but bit gross senses like
eyes and ears can tell what they do not like. Although you have got great trio
for music at your disposal you have managed to spoil this part too! First,
except the title track almost all the tracks were unwanted at that time in the
story. In RDB you have managed to tell story or set the mood of the story
during songs so none of the songs looked unwanted or out of the place, in fact
you and Rahman even managed to make people cry by that great number Lukachhupi
while flowing the story smoothly with it, but here the songs actually killed the
mood while trying to drag the story along which unfortunately they failed to
do! And, above all I will never forgive you for wasting the best song of the
album Zinda, which talks
of living the life up to the brim and you showed the lead character and
national icon stealing coal from running train or playing teen patti or getting trained as a hooligan! Yes, I agree that they were part of the athlete's life and not fiction added by you but, still I am
sure Milkha Singh never wanted to inspire the youth to do such things if they
were out of the resources or living in penury! The song could have easily got proud place during the arduous training sessions. Of course, you did not intend to inspire people in such manner but the way your song unfolds with proud smile on
the lead character it surely does play the part in that direction!
Last, I am as disappointed
with the writer Prasoon Joshi, as I have expected the poetic lyrics like RDB or Taare
Zameen par which also could
not match the bar! When I heard about Prasoon being a script writer too I
thought Ranjhana will surely get tough completion in
dialogue writing area this year, but they were too lame according to the
Prasoon Joshi standards. He could have done much better!
Only part in which no one
can raise the finger in the movie is Farhan Akhtar, he did not only repeat the
“Rock On” or “ZNMD” magic but even managed to increase the bar for him. He
looked believable as well as adorable in all the parts of the film as teenage
lover, novice runner, army cadet and finally as an accomplished athlete! Bravo Farhan, way to go!!
I will end it here. For
those who have watched the film please share some of your thoughts here and
those who are yet to watch it please go for it for Farhan and for the man himself Milkha Singh! Overall the movie is
good and could also convey the message of inspiration as in the first paragraph
mentioned it is as good as 99% of both the geniuses, but what hurt me the most
was it should have been 100% from them!!
