This is not done Mr. Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra!!

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!!