Milkha flies, falls and rises, bruising his soul but not his will to survive. He evocatively illustrates that true victory lies in racing with one’s troubles and not in running away from them. It draws an intricate image of human trials, setbacks and fate leveraged against the sheer power of will. This iridescent tale winds through the plagues of a bloody civil war, a lost childhood, homelessness and petty crime to victories hard won and easily lost. The demons hidden in some dark corner of his consciousness come alive. Milkha ironically finds himself in a place wherein he had lost his all – Pakistan - a place where he witnessed the bloody massacre of his entire family.
The film attempts to understand a catastrophic loss that was deemed a sure victory and explores through the darkness of disgrace Milkha’s redemption, the redemption and catharsis that come when he confronts his past. “The one who lost the 400 meters finals at the Rome Olympics” is an involuntary response when the name Milkha Singh is mentioned. All that is most remembered is that Milkha Singh, hailed as the Flying Sikh, was a famous athlete who infamously lost the penultimate race of his life. ‘Milkha Singh’- for some the name evokes a faint memory from the pages of history.
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