[MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. OR MAY BE NOT.]
The opening scene of the movie came up and slapped me right in my face. The perceived "tragic" ending of the 1960 Rome Olympics of Millkha's story was the beginning!! All this time, I had been thinking what would they show in this movie on The Flying Sikh. His story was something we all knew: he made some miscalculations and lost the 1960 Rome 400m. That's it; end of story.
But no. The story of Flying Sikh didn't end at 1960. We all knew what happened in 1960. And that's why Mr. Omprakash punches us by keeping that tragic scene right at the beginning. The ending was only the beginning. The real story is in the making of The Flying Sikh.
In the society obsessed with only the end results, we often overlook a person's true worth, and the phase he has been through. Hell, we even make up a glorifying story for a person if only he produced the desired end results.
But finally Farhan Akhtar did justice to this man's story which remain untold for almost 50 years. No one even wrote a book on this man for all these years. This man, who broke the "World Record" for 400m in 1958, and remains till date the only Indian to break an Olympic Record, somehow missed an inch in 1960 and lost. And so was lost his saga. No prizes thereafter. No recognitions. Only a name in our GK books with the one question: "Who was Flying Sikh?"
And this movie answered that long looming question, not just with the name, rather with an inspiring tale of human spirit. Really glad to see the Bollywood Biopic Masterpiece with the truest possible story of The Man.
PS: I recall Anju Bobby George saying in 2008 : "Milkha singh and PT Usha are only Asian level athletes. They can never be my idols." Oh! how pathetic we are to pursue only the Gold medallists/ toppers as our Idols.
