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Where is Milkha the athlete in 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'?
by Tariq Engineer Jul 16, 2013
There is a scene in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag where, with all the other athletes sleeping, Milkha Singh goes up to his coach on an Air India flight and asks him to write down the world record time for running 400 metres. Much is made of his coach slowly writing out the numbers on a paper napkin. It will not only serve as inspiration for Milkha, but from watching the pen's ink make its impression on the napkin, we're to understand how fiercely determined Milkha is to leave his mark on the world stage.
The intensity of Milkha's training is ratcheted up after that. He trains in the sand with a tyre attached to his waist using a rope. He runs up mountains and skips rope with ankle weights. He collapses and vomits blood. Still, his coach pushes him harder and harder.
Becoming a world champion requires not only sacrifice, but a refusal to accept one's limits. It is about buying into "higher, further, faster" campaign. There is no doubt that Milkha, both in the film and in reality, was committed to becoming the best runner he could. It was a crazy dream to have for a young man who belonged to a country with almost nothing by way of sports infrastructure. It was almost surreal that Milkha realised that dream, particularly when you keep in mind no Indian has equalled his sporting achievements so far.
Despite this, the makers of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag focussed on Milkha the person rather than Milkha the athlete (and mostly, his life between 1946 to 1960). Milkha's experiences as a child during Partition serve as the psychological motivation for Milkha throughout his life – brought into sharp relief by the Pakistan track coach who tells Milkha he heard he ran away from Pakistan as a child and has been running ever since.
But by choosing to focus so much on Milkha the person, Milkha the athlete gets lost. Milkha may have become an athlete by accident, but like all champions, he was driven by an inner desire that cannot be explained solely by childhood demons. He wants to be the best because he burned to be the best.
So it is with some disappointment that his astonishing successes on the track between 1958 and 1960 are quickly brushed over in the movie. There is a montage of Milkha breaking the finish line at meets all over the world, but little context is provided for these triumphs. Milkha wins, yes, but there is no sense of what it meant to him to succeed after failing to make it through the qualifiers at the 1956 Olympics. There's also no sense of whether he was getting close to the world record or not. His winning times are never shown.
Then there is the matter of his actually breaking the world record. No other Indian athlete, before or since, has owned a track and field world record. Milkha remains the only member of that pantheon. Given the build up and the significance attached to his walking up to the coach on the plane, the race itself should have been given more screen time. The record then, comes as an anti-climax, with a single shot of Milkha posing next to the clock showing his new record time. There is no exploration of what achieving his goal means to Milkha or the country, beyond a few images of newspaper headlines hailing the feat.
And here's the real triumph that the film almost glosses over in its preoccupation with Milkha overcoming his childhood trauma: in 1959 Milkha was the best. He won America's Helms trophy for being the top 400 metre runner in the world. Yet the film doesn't bother to mention this fact. An Olympic medal was not simply a dream and a hope. Milkha was so good it was thought to be a fait accompli. The only runner in the race Milkha had not beaten was the American Otis Davis. The disappointment was not simply that he failed, but the reality check that he could fail because the expectations were starkly opposite. No Indian athlete had ever inspired such expectations before, which is why Milkha was devastated enough to quit running after the Olympics.
There are other parts of Milkha's career that receive woefully little attention in the film. He runs the 200m in the 1958 Asian Games, but to that point in the movie he has only been shown running the 400m. There is not even a passing mention of him running the 200m in the National Games and setting a national record prior to that. For the casual moviegoer, it is perhaps of no consequence but running both the 200m and 400m is not common in world athletics. That Milkha did both at a high level is further testimony to his brilliance, but unfortunately the film didn't find this interesting enough an aspect.
This is not to say Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is not worth a watch. It most definitely is, despite being overly dramatic in parts and drenched with emotion. But from a sport's fans perspective, a little more time and attention spent upon showcasing his success on the field and how he responded to his own performances, would have rounded out the portrait of Milkha the man as well as that of Milkha the athlete.
by Tariq Engineer Jul 16, 2013
There is a scene in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag where, with all the other athletes sleeping, Milkha Singh goes up to his coach on an Air India flight and asks him to write down the world record time for running 400 metres. Much is made of his coach slowly writing out the numbers on a paper napkin. It will not only serve as inspiration for Milkha, but from watching the pen's ink make its impression on the napkin, we're to understand how fiercely determined Milkha is to leave his mark on the world stage.
The intensity of Milkha's training is ratcheted up after that. He trains in the sand with a tyre attached to his waist using a rope. He runs up mountains and skips rope with ankle weights. He collapses and vomits blood. Still, his coach pushes him harder and harder.
Milkha Singh was the best 400m runner in the world in 1959. FB
Becoming a world champion requires not only sacrifice, but a refusal to accept one's limits. It is about buying into "higher, further, faster" campaign. There is no doubt that Milkha, both in the film and in reality, was committed to becoming the best runner he could. It was a crazy dream to have for a young man who belonged to a country with almost nothing by way of sports infrastructure. It was almost surreal that Milkha realised that dream, particularly when you keep in mind no Indian has equalled his sporting achievements so far.
Despite this, the makers of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag focussed on Milkha the person rather than Milkha the athlete (and mostly, his life between 1946 to 1960). Milkha's experiences as a child during Partition serve as the psychological motivation for Milkha throughout his life – brought into sharp relief by the Pakistan track coach who tells Milkha he heard he ran away from Pakistan as a child and has been running ever since.
But by choosing to focus so much on Milkha the person, Milkha the athlete gets lost. Milkha may have become an athlete by accident, but like all champions, he was driven by an inner desire that cannot be explained solely by childhood demons. He wants to be the best because he burned to be the best.
So it is with some disappointment that his astonishing successes on the track between 1958 and 1960 are quickly brushed over in the movie. There is a montage of Milkha breaking the finish line at meets all over the world, but little context is provided for these triumphs. Milkha wins, yes, but there is no sense of what it meant to him to succeed after failing to make it through the qualifiers at the 1956 Olympics. There's also no sense of whether he was getting close to the world record or not. His winning times are never shown.
Then there is the matter of his actually breaking the world record. No other Indian athlete, before or since, has owned a track and field world record. Milkha remains the only member of that pantheon. Given the build up and the significance attached to his walking up to the coach on the plane, the race itself should have been given more screen time. The record then, comes as an anti-climax, with a single shot of Milkha posing next to the clock showing his new record time. There is no exploration of what achieving his goal means to Milkha or the country, beyond a few images of newspaper headlines hailing the feat.
And here's the real triumph that the film almost glosses over in its preoccupation with Milkha overcoming his childhood trauma: in 1959 Milkha was the best. He won America's Helms trophy for being the top 400 metre runner in the world. Yet the film doesn't bother to mention this fact. An Olympic medal was not simply a dream and a hope. Milkha was so good it was thought to be a fait accompli. The only runner in the race Milkha had not beaten was the American Otis Davis. The disappointment was not simply that he failed, but the reality check that he could fail because the expectations were starkly opposite. No Indian athlete had ever inspired such expectations before, which is why Milkha was devastated enough to quit running after the Olympics.
There are other parts of Milkha's career that receive woefully little attention in the film. He runs the 200m in the 1958 Asian Games, but to that point in the movie he has only been shown running the 400m. There is not even a passing mention of him running the 200m in the National Games and setting a national record prior to that. For the casual moviegoer, it is perhaps of no consequence but running both the 200m and 400m is not common in world athletics. That Milkha did both at a high level is further testimony to his brilliance, but unfortunately the film didn't find this interesting enough an aspect.
This is not to say Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is not worth a watch. It most definitely is, despite being overly dramatic in parts and drenched with emotion. But from a sport's fans perspective, a little more time and attention spent upon showcasing his success on the field and how he responded to his own performances, would have rounded out the portrait of Milkha the man as well as that of Milkha the athlete.
After all, Milkha remains the greatest athlete India has produced not because of what he did not do at the 1960 Olympics, but because of everything he did across his entire career.
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