There are two ways to look at Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

1. Comparing it to the usual Bollywood flick. 2. Talking about the movie itself. Here's my review if I compare it to the rest of the Bollywood flicks (especially) biopics like Bose – The Forgotten Hero. The movie is fantastic. Running at 3 hours and 20 minutes, it very precisely and beautifully shows what made Milkha, Milka! For the first time ever the painful partition of Indian into India and Pakistan was shown without Hindu-Muslim-Sikh chanting slogans. In fact not even faces of the people coming to vandalize Milkha's Sikh family are show. The director uses his cinematic intelligence to show it from the viewpoint of a 10-11 year old kid. Brilliantly shot and presented, that piece is. The screenplay is again brilliant and much like Rang De Basanti, the director has used different hues to show the different times. Scenes are interwoven nicely and the narration flows seamlessly. The research the director had done clearly shows on screen. Post partition, young Milkha is shown sitting on the boundary of the structure which hosts the refugee camp. This shot has taken inspiration from a real image wherein a Sikh kid is shown sitting on the boundary overlooking the tents. Shahdara is shown a part of UP (as it was) and Milkha's father is shown eating in a copper-alloy plate and is just a roti and ghee!

If I talk about the movie standalone? The best part about the movie is Farhan Akhtar as Milkha Singh. You can see his transformation on-screen and he's lived up the athlete more than convincingly. Pawan Malhotra and Yograj Singh walk shoulder to shoulder with Farhan Akhtar in terms of their acting.

I guess that's where the best things about movie end. The director (or probably the editor) has simply wasted Misha Shafi. The good looking girl from Pakistan ends up saying a line or two in 2 different scenes. That's about her! Divya Dutta was under-utilized. She is one of the brilliant actors we have in Indian Film Industry. However, she wasn't able to live up to her magnitude. Sonam Kapoor was simply a waste and I am glad she just charged director Rs. 11 for her role. Can you imagine a girl calling India, India in 50s? Can you imagine a guy holding his lover's face in public? And how can you tolerate to see mobile towers in background behind dancing heroine? In fact Rebecca Breeds was able to leave an impression! And a good one for that matter.

Furthermore, why does the hero has to sing and dance? Why can't we have songs playing over montage sequences? The movie is too long and saving 30-40 minutes would have made the movie much more interesting.