‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’-an incredibly crafted, sheer real and gritty biopic of a living legend- Milkha Singh. A movie which is running to the packed house in the country, has given a chance to the common people from every walk of life, to experience the real life of “the legend” on a reel screen.
This taut and gripping movie portrays the indomitable spirit of a deeply wounded
young chap under unimaginable harrowing circumstances. It spontaneously depicts
that how the fighter Milkha Singh
soldiered on crushing all the invincible hurdles under his feet.
Thanks to Rakeys Om Prakash Mehra, the director of this
movie and of course Farhan Akhtar who just lived this role beyond imagination,
that from now onwards no school going student will have to regurgitate his name
against his sport and the title conferred on him.
Although there are endless books of biography, autobiography
of legendary sports persons available but a biopic makes a difference. The sound,
visuals and emotions, becomes so lively and animated that they directly find a
place in the conscious and subconscious in our mind. Probably that is why a man
who has hardly turned the sports page of a newspaper or stepped into play ground,
suddenly plunge into pondering about a person for whom - quality, morality,
ethics, values, are the only assets.
Although we are celebrating and acknowledging the feat of Milkha
Sing and himself which he has achieved years ago. But we know him by different
names –Major Dhyan Chand, P.T. Usha, Kapil Dev, Vijay Amritraj and list goes on, who not only hoisted the Indian
flag on foreign soil many times but also wrote a new definition of Honor and
Dignity for themselves and the nation. They did it many times with flying colors,
especially when the world looked upon us as a nation of snakes, jungles, naked
sadhus and savages. They earned honor and
respect from every corner of the world, even from those who despised them. But
what kind of honor? .The honor which we, today
weigh in the “taraazoo” of monetary
gain and so called social standard or the one which simply means “ the
courage to look into our own eyes without
any shame and guilt despite of piling
social stigma.”
If Major Dhayn Chand had created such honor and dignity,
Milkha Sing gave them the wings of aggression and the legacy was carried on by
contemporaries legends – Kapil dev, P.T. Usha , Sachin Tendulkar. This is still
on.
Here I must quote Milkha Singh in his own words –
“Milkha Singh didn’t know
anything about athletics before he started running in the army. But once he
found out he didn’t settle for anything less than excellence. After coming back
from the 1956 malbourne games I pledged to myself that I shall not rest till I have
matched the Olympic record. I worked no stop in my pursuit of excellence. Buckets
used to fill up with sweat, blood flowed from my nose and urine.I was on the
death bed many times but kept pushing myself. Unfortunately I don’t see that
commitment anymore.”(Times of India, Friday 19, 2013, page 16)
His word becomes more important and alarming in the time when,
wee see dilution and subversion of sportsmanship in almost every discipline of
games right from cricket to athletics. Fixing, spot fixing, and doping were
alien concepts for such legends.
It was the inherent fire of self ignited honor and dignity
which sailed major Dhyan Chand right
from Amsterdam (1928) to Los Angles (1932)
to Berlin (1936) Olympics. It was his indefatigable spirit which won him 3 gold
medals in the Olympic on the trot.
After seeing this magical performance by the wizard of hockey,
Hitler tried to lure him by offering the citizenship of Germany and other incentives. It is not easy to first distinguish and
then choose between dignity and fame. But for him it was the honor which
always stood first and firmly. So was for Milkha Singh.
Now lets’ get back to the movie- most of us must have
watched this legendary movie, and couldn’t contain ourselves without flooding
the Facebook wall with adjectives like –
stunning , fantabulous , fabulous, out of
the world , fantastic , and many
more- associate with this movie. For few days, the movie and its story will
remain in buzz and later on will fade away into the glitz of ever presented
social pretensions and hoity -toity .
But there is an
essential question which must legitimately and reasonably rise in every mind
irrespective of age bar that what makes such legends like Milkha Singh ,
Pan Singh Tomer, Major Dhayn Chand P.T.
Usha way different from us . The answer
lies in whether we choose stairs over
lift to reach 13th floor or not..
