Movie Review: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

The expectations from a Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's movie are pretty high ever since he brought to us the gem called "Rang De Basanti". It was a movie in which each character was beautifully penned down and got their screen space so that the audience could relate to them. Even though his next venture Delhi 6 didn't have the ingredients for a hit movie, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag proves why ROM is a director of class.

(Source: Indiagallata)

Written by the talented Prasoon Joshi, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is a movie with a soul and a story (finally a good storyline for a movie!!). Based on the famous Indian athlete Milkha Singh, the movie takes us from his childhood days to the day he received the title of "The Flying Sikh". 

The movie runs about 8 minutes past the 3 hour mark, making it a long movie. Even though the movie does have a long runtime, you will keep watching the screen without being bored. Every individual who has achieved something big in life has made sacrifices and has had to struggle. The movie portrays the character of Milkha in such a way that one can relate to the pain and the intensity.

Practicing for the 400m (Source: OneIndia)

There are parts with humor in it, thus the movie is not serious at all times. The cinematography is brilliant with the movie going back and forth from past sequences to the present with ease. There are parts in the movie where one starts cheering for Milkha. The movie teaches you that there are no shortcuts to success and how hardwork and determination can work wonders.

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Some humor and some bhangra (Source: Washington Post)

A good storyline and screenplay does half the work, while rest of the work is done by the actors. Farhan Akhtar is outstanding in his role as Milkha Singh. Supporting cast including Divya Dutta (as Milkha Singh's sister), Pavan Malhotra (as Gurudev Singh, the initial coach of Milkha), Prakash Raj (as the strict army man) and Yograj Singh (as the national athletics coach) have done justice to their characters and pull out good performances. Sonam Kapoor, who plays Milkha Singh's love interest has a relatively small part in the movie.

The chemistry Akhtar shares with each of the characters is worth a mention here. Be it the love for his sister, his coach-athlete relationship with both the army coach and the national coach or his friends, each relationship has been portrayed with so much ease and brilliance. 

8 pack abs and a solid physique (Source: OneIndia)

Yes, the movie is a bit too long and Akhtar has 8 pack abs unlike Milkha. Every movie has it downs but small things like these can be overlooked since the movie is amazing. Go for the movie to watch the Indian Olympic hero Milkha Singh on screen and to enjoy the brilliance of Farhan Akhtar as an actor.

Rating:    8.5/10

Runtime: 188 mins.

Trailer:    http://youtu.be/iY3qfhYPJSI

Movie Review: Yamla Pagla Deewana 2

Throw in the Deols, some emotional scenes, bashing of thugs and a lot of craziness, the result would be Yamla Pagla Deewana; now multiply this by two and one would think the result is Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (YPD2). However, this is not the case. From trailers YPD2 does look like one heck of a movie but somehow fails to bring out the same result as the first installment. 

(Source: Infimovies)

The characters of Dharam (Dharmendra) and Gajodhar (Bobby Deol) are the same as in the first movie. Dharam and Gajodhar are con-men who try to cheat people in order to enjoy their life with the hard earned money of others. In YPD, Paramveer (Sunny Deol), the other son of Dharam (a noble guy) tried his best to keep his dad and brother away from cheating people. In YPD2, he believes that they are now sober men who live a decent life. Little does he know that they haven’t changed and their next target is Sir Yograj Khanna (Annu Kapoor).

(Source: Zee News India)

Paramveer is a collection agent who comes to Yograj to understand the reason for his nonpayment of loan installments. As he identifies the problem, he also discovers that his own dad and brother are trying to con Yograj. Thus starts the battle between good and bad.

A number of characters are thrown in the movie in the form of Dude G or Joginder Armstrong (Anupam Kher), Bunty and Babli (Johnny Lever and Sucheta Khanna), however all these well-known actors are wasted. The two female leads of the movie Reet (Kristina Akheeva) and Suman (Neha Sharma) both look gorgeous in the movie but fail to impress with their acting.

The main lead show us some moves (Source: Bollywoodle)

The story is so-so and Dharmendra and Bobby Deol are just about fine. The highlight of the movie is Sunny Deol, who has acted brilliantly and looks handsome in the Sikh avatar. With all those bashing of thugs and criminals, Sunny brings back old memories of his movies. Another character that you would love to see is Einstein or Happy (The Orangutan). Happy does manage to make everyone happy whenever on the screen. There are some peppy soundtracks (especially the title track) that make you groove.

The second half of the movie is much better that the first half. The movie does have some fun moments and a few jokes that tickle your funny bone. On the whole, the movie does have all the ingredients of making a good movie however wrong quantities of these ingredients means the recipe is not one would want. 

Rating: 6/10 (An extra 1 for Sunny Deol)
Trailer: http://youtu.be/Xhm9Ukkn8eo