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The truth behind the ascension of Milkha Singh, who was scarred by of the India-Pakistan partition.

The true story of the "Flying Sikh" - world champion runner and Olympian Milkha Singh -- who overcame the massacre of his family, civil war during the India-Pakistan partition, and homelessness to become one of India's most iconic athletes.—Reliance Big Pictures

Hailed as the Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh was an athlete who infamously lost the biggest race of his life at the 1960 Rome Olympics. But through the darkness of disgrace comes redemption as Milkha confronts the demons that first drove him to running.—Anonymous

In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) is competing in the 400-metres race. Milkha Singh owns the world record in this category and is widely expected to win the race. His coach Ranbir Singh (Yograj Singh) yells "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag!" ("Run, Milkha, run!"), and Singh is suddenly taken back to childhood memories that haunt him, causing him to drop to fourth place. After the debacle at Rome, Milkha refuses to go to Pakistan for a friendly race, which is being pushed by Indian PM Jawaharlal and Pakistan's premier General Ayub Khan. Mr Wadhwa (K.K.Raina) explains to the PM that Milkha is refusing to travel.

PM dispatches Wadhwa, Ranbir and Milkha's ex-coach Gurdev to Chandigarh to convince him to participate in this politically crucial sports meet. On the train, Gurdev narrates Milkha's story.

Milkha's memories are full of the chaos surrounding the 1947 Partition of India, which resulted in mass religious violence in Punjab and the killing of Singh's parents (father Sampooran (Art Malik)). The flashback shows a 10 year old Singh arriving in Delhi alone, where he later meets his sister Isri Kaur (Divya Dutta). Living in impoverished refugee camps, Milkha makes friends and survives by stealing coal from passing trains. Isri is sexually exploited by her husband who insists to have sex with her even though Milkha is sleeping right next to them. Isri's husband detests Milkha, and one day Milkha's frustrations boil over as he attacks Isri's husband.

Now grown up, he falls in love with Biro (Sonam Kapoor), who asks him to live a life of honesty. Milkha promises that he will leave his life of crime behind to marry Biro. Milkha learns that the entire nation celebrates a national holiday on the birthday of Gandhi as he is credited with securing independence for the nation. Milkha resolves that one day the nation will celebrate a holiday for Milkha. Milkha did not have enough money to start a business. Milkha is caught travelling without ticket and his friend yells "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", which triggers the horrors of partition in him. Milkha slashes at the TC with his knife in a daze and is arrested. Isri has to bail Milkha out.

Milkha soon finds himself in the army under their drill instructor Subedar Veerapandian (Prakash Raj). Milkha's colleagues are Suresh Kumar (Sumit Gulati) and Kirpal Singh (Mahendra Mewati). There, he wins a race in which the top 10 runners are rewarded with milk, two eggs, and are excused from fatigue duty. His running skills are noticed by Havaldar Gurdev Singh (Pavan Malhotra). He gets selected for service commission in Secunderabad, where he is frustrated. Milkha meets a national champion Sher Singh Rana (Sahidur Rehman) and realizes that national level athletes get a blazer and respect from society. Gurdev counsels Milkha that to get the blazer, he will have to beat Sher Singh.

Milkha runs barefoot and almost beats Sher Singh till a stone lodges itself in Milkha's foot and he drops out of the race due to the intense pain. Milkha is still selected for advanced training for selection to the Indian National team. This is where he meets Ranbir Singh.

On the day before selection of the Indian team for the Olympics, Singh is beaten up by senior players (including Sher Singh) whom he had previously defeated. Despite being injured, he participates in the race and overcomes his pain; he wins the race and breaks the national record. Proud of his achievement, Milkha goes back to Delhi to ask for Biro's hand in marriage. However, his friend informs him that Biro was married and left Delhi.

During the Melbourne 1956 Olympics, Singh is attracted to Stella (Rebecca Breeds), the granddaughter of his Australian technical coach. After a frolicking night in a bar, they have a one-night stand. The following day, he feels exhausted and comes late to the training the next day. Singh loses the final race. He realizes his mistake and, slaps himself in front of a mirror.

On the flight back to India, he asks his coach what the world record is for the 400m race and learns that it is 45.9 seconds. A montage of tire training in the cold desert of the Himalayas is depicted, wherein Milkha Singh pushes himself to the brink of absolute exhaustion. He subsequently enters the 1958 Asian Games with the hope of winning Gold for India. He then sees Abdul Khaliq (Dev Gill), dubbed the "Fastest Man of Asia".

After Abdul wins his race, Milkha Singh approaches him to congratulate the victor. However, the Pakistani coach (Nawab Shah) and his athlete shun him. But in the 200m, he defeats Khaliq by a considerable margin. Moving to the Commonwealth Games, he wins another Gold in the 400m and is named "The King of England" by various newspapers. After celebrating his victory along with his teammates in the army, he burns the paper on which the time of 45.9 seconds was written. He finally achieves his life-long dream by breaking the 400m world record.

Invited by the prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru (Dalip Tahil), to lead the Indian team in Pakistan for a friendly race with Abdul Khaliq, Singh adamantly refuses to go due to the trauma of having to flee his home in the newly formed Pakistan as a child. The prime minister learns of Singh's opposition but ultimately convinces him to go. Arriving in Pakistan, Singh misses the press conference and goes to his village where, it is shown how his parents were murdered, and the last words of his father were "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag!". He starts crying and is comforted by a boy who turns out to be the son of his childhood friend, Sampreet (Chandan Singh Gill). He then meets Sampreet.

In the games, initially, Khaliq is winning, but Singh takes the lead after overtaking opponents one by one. Impressed how easily Singh passed the Pakistani athlete and won by a humongous margin, the president of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan (Shanta Kumar), gives him the title of "The Flying Sikh".

Jawaharlal Nehru declares a day in the name of Milkha as a national holiday as requested by Singh himself. A final sequence of Milkha Singh is depicted where he is enjoying his victory lap and everybody in the stadium is in awe of what he has achieved. He sees his younger self running beside him.