Run to see Milkha Run

Once you get to the theater,  you can relax. The movie is 3 hours long. Even long by Bollywood standards,  but you will discover you got the stamina of a long-distance runner. There is not a dull moment in this heartfelt biopic. Farhan Akhtar delivers a lifetime performance as yesterday’s Olympian sprinter and sports sensation Milkha Singh.

For preparing for this role alone he deserves an Oscar. And probably his trainer should get one too.  And OmPrakash Om. Accolades to the director of the movie.

Rakeyesh Omprakash Mehra, who gave us Rang De Basanti and Delhi-6,  has validated himself again as one of the  best contemporary directors of Indian cinema.

The movie had an excellent supporting cast.Sometimes it’s a weakness of Bollywood productions not to give enough weight to the supporting cast. This one was superbly chosen. Kudos to the casting director and team.

Sonam Kapoor had a relatively small but important role, as Biro, Milkha’s first love. However, she vanishes too fast, never to be seen again. I would have preferred to get a glimpse of her whereabouts to get a sense of closure. And even if it was just seeing her ONCE cry watching her sweetheart-lost on TV… :-)

I wish the movie had some live-footage  at the end, and donning us with a little bit of Milkha Singh info before the rolling credits. So, first thing I did after coming home was reading up on Milkha Singh. (Farhan really looks a little bit like him).

wikipedia page Milkha Singh

link for Ibn interview: Milkha Singh on Milkha Singh

Talaash: the search is on for paranormal activity

Aamir Khan and Kareena give real  powerhouse performances in Talaash. Aamir is fantastic as the dutiful but uninspired cop, Surjan Singh Sekhawat, who battles silently his private demons. And Kareena has never been better than as the enigmatic streetwalker “Rosy”,  who turns up at every corner. or would she be spelled “roz-i”.. Rani Mukherjee as Aamir’s wife, gives a finely nuanced performance as grieving mother, who lost her child in a  freak accident and looks for solace. The movie portrays so accurately what happens in a family where a child dies, it gets deep under your skin.

A movie star dies, apparently a suicide. Search is on for the motive. It gets murky pretty fast and leads us into Mumbai’s underbelly. Simultaneously alluring and revolting. I bet it’s pretty realistic, touching upon the fate of the poor and undeserved. Aging prostitutes, brutal pimps, cripples who haven’t got a fair shot in life. We feel for them, even though not with pity, just as  observers and as we are counting our blessings.

Talaash claws you into your seat without external props which are so popular these days. There are no flying fighting bravura acts, no muscle flexing, no car chases knocking over vegetable charts and mowing into crowds. None of it. Refreshing. (almost none of it…)

And I loved the twist, the brush with the paranormal. The medium was as scary as the aunties in Rosemary’s Baby.  Even though that part lost its luster pretty fast and it felt like gliding back into the familiar: Bollywood’s plot holes. More could have been done with that.

But I couldn’t get over Kareena’s performance, as convincing as streetwalker as she was as a ghost. Her costumes were priceless, vampy, sophistication with a good dash of hood, cheap enough to be making us believe in her metier, but classy nonetheless. Only Kareena can pull that off!

Aamir’s cop is straight-forward, the cop you want to have on your murder or suicide case. I am no friend of the moustache, but it fit his role perfectly.

I think this is one of Aamir’s best performances to date. Good script. Great direction.

Directed by Reema Kagti.

Screenplay: Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti

produced by Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani