Short simple and pointed

This biopic is a story familiar to many and yet a tad intriguing not because it is in the big league of a ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ or a Mary Kom’ or one which has an Irrfan Khan to tell the evolution of Paan Singh Tomar but because it raises other questions some directly some a tad subtly.

The filmmaker Soumendra Padhi takes his task sincerely and seriously and makes not many compromises. He keeps it short. He keeps it simple. The known tale is about the prodigious child Budia (Mayur Patole) who did a marathon and got caught in a web of controversy – the controversy and noise about whether the child was a hero or a victim and how his talent got lost in the chaos of our politics.

India wants to know! India demands an answer! It is also paradoxical that the film is released as Rio Olympics began and the claim that he would have been our best bet at the event. Where is he? At a sports hostel? How has his talent been nourished? Further paradoxical is the fact that even as I was watching the film, social activist P Vinay Kumar would post on social media the pathetic condition of students in a government study circle for weaker sections.

The film left me wondering whether it was so much about Budia Singh or about how our media has irretraceably gone wrong with its ‘ on your face reporting and being opinionated rather than a platform that informs. Huge footage is about the media crying hoarse and being judgemental, loudly insensitively and destructively.

The film does not really judge the social activists who shouted from rooftops on child rights but surely suggests that the vigilante could well have been counterproductive.

The drama in the life of the kid caught unwittingly in the crossfire between his talent and his age is constantly exposed from the face of the media and also the ugly face of politics and its brazen involvement in sport or any other aspect of life.

The killing of his proactive coach Biranchi Das (Manoj Bajpayee) adds an intriguing angle to the whole issue and remains unanswered. The Nelson timed film tells how Budia is a victim of absolute poverty and how his mother (Tillotama Shome) entrusts the young prodigy to the hope and passion of the local judo trainer Biranchi.

The local Child Welfare Chairperson Mahashweta Malik (Chaya Kadam) steps in to stall the activity. We also have the leader of the opposition JB Patnaik (Prasad Pandit) who in his own subtle manner plays his agenda.

In the course of the film one important question raised, in the context of the subject of the biopic, that screams for a response: Is activism hurting? Their hangs an important question in the socio dynamics of a social order whose credibility is in crisis mode. Here the canvas of the film is larger than the tragedy of a moppet who promised and is somewhere lost in the wilderness.

Watch the film the exercise asks questions and you may be tempted to respond. Also watch the film for the steady performance of Manoj and the awesome casting of Mayur Patole in the title role.

He shows as much promise as the role he performs. Hopefully he will be saved from the eye of the activists and the law that winks at many a negative exploit of child rights but steps in at the wrong time, wrong place for the wrong reason with the wrong motive. The lad who was born to run is lost in the wilderness. Will the system be able to retrace him? Moot question, certainly in the context of the film!

Budhia Singh –Born To Run

Cast :Manoj Bajpayee, Mayur Patole, Tillotama Shome and Shruti Marathe
Direction:Soumendra Padhi
Genre :Drama