If Richard Attenborough is the face of Mahatma Gandhi then thank God, Irrfan has given a face to that unsung hero… a certain Tomar who abandoned sports for banditry. A sure-shot National award for Irrfan Khan as the disgraced athlete who turns into a Bandit King, yes? Who can snatch away Irrfan’s moment of glory? Except maybe politics. Irrfan’s body language as a sprinter, his expressions of anguish and anger at being treated with scant respect by a society he brought international honour to, were so dead-on as to elicit instant comparisons with the best biographical performances of all times. Paan Singh Tomar is right up there with Robert Downey Jr’s Chaplin. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia’s earlier films were discernibly disabled by budgetary constraints. Here, he assembled Tomar’s story with a finesse which flirted with infinity.

Some films are meant to run that extra mile to...