Milkha Singh's Run of Life!

I rarely relish Hindi movies. This is partly because of the fact that I find the story lines highly unbelievable. It’s great entertainment, but mainly unbelievable at any level. Unrealistic story lines, accentuated by actors exaggerating the persona’s; add to the overall um-believability element. It is common to see, military or police characters being portrayed caricaturishly; lack of attention to details (like ranks and insignias on uniforms; settings; unrealistic action sequences) etc.; all these factors over the years have kept me away from Hindi movies.  

I’ve liked a few Bollywood movies; sometimes for the sheer entertainment factor and iconic dialogs; some for the individual acting talent in them; some have wonderful song sequences; but somehow I have rarely managed to enjoy Bollywood films as a whole package.

However, Farhan Akhtar managed to convert me. With ‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’, he told an inspirational story, and portrayed the character in the most realistic way. His attention to details - the training routines, military ranks and insignias; coupled with the hard work he put-in for portraying the athletic prowess of the character; the inspirational story line; tuneful songs; was outstanding at all levels.

Farhan Akhtar told a very compelling story; the desire to overcome odds and past upheavals; willingness to slog and sacrifice for achieving your goals; and inculcating a never say die attitude; it was a movie that I found realistic and watchable.

Milkha Singh’s life for full of tribulations. He however, did not let the events in his live overtake him. He made mistakes, learned from them, and worked hard to overcome the shortcomings. Most importantly, the one thing Milkha's story tells us, is to overcome the ghost of our past; our fears and failures. He travels to Pakistan; to the very village where his entire family was massacred in front of him; embraces the reality of that event; and manages to run the best race of this life after that- earning him the sobriquet ‘the flying Sikh’.

Success and failures are an undeniable fact of one’s career. We all have had past failures; our deepest misgivings and mistakes; hold us back from achieving great success. This movie was an epiphany of sorts for me.  It gave me a heightened awareness of my past failures; and helped me realize how important it had been for me to overcome these.  These blockers - ‘what-if’ scenario’s- that often play in our mind in a loop (akin to Milkha’s fear of the horseman coming after him). The only way to overcome them, is to embrace past failures; see the silver linings and learning from them; and accept that moving ahead of these events, is the only way to achieve renewed success.

I truly enjoyed the movie; and this snapped me out of my disinterest in Indian cinema, and propelled me towards exploring more such wonderful Hindi movies.

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