'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' ranks 15th in the US popularity chart

Washington: Farhan Akhtar starrer 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', which narrates the life of legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh, has raked up $647,112 in the first week of its release in the US.

The filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's biopic has also scored the 15th spot on the popularity chart of movies in the United States this week.

According to Box Office Mojo, the website that tracks top American movies, the film is playing across 140 theaters in the United States and collected $647,112 in the first three days of its release over the weekend.

On the first day of its release on July 12, the movie collected $183,083, while it jumped next day to $270,275 on Saturday. On Sunday (July 14) it collected $193,774 across its 140 theaters.

"A biopic gets the Bollywood treatment in 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'(Run Milkha Run), which dramatizes the life of record-breaking Indian sprinter Milkha Singh, played by the talented Farhan Akhtar," wrote The Washington Post in the review of the movie.

"Like most Bollywood films, Milkha's story is supposed to be a saga. But aside from a horrifying experience in childhood and some major triumphs on the track, much of the rest of his history feels like filler held together by a faulty framing device," the daily added. "The Indian running champ Milkha Singh may be the hero of the over-the-top 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', but this Bollywood film's true, tormented heart lies in the brutal era of India's partition. As a side character in the film puts it, Milkha - a ka 'the Flying Sikh' - ran away from Pakistan and has been running ever since," wrote The New York Times. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three-hour sports biopic about India's most famous runner requires viewer endurance, but pays off with an exhilarating climax. Praising the performance of Akhtar's in the movie, The Hollywood Reporter said. "The smart, sinewy Akhtar does not look like the typical Bollywood hero, which is one of the factors that Mehra says led him to choose him for the role after a casting search that took him as far as Canada, the UK and the US"

"But beyond the impressive physique he has cultivated for the role, Akhtar has captured a sense of focus and piety that led Singh to rise from his humble beginnings as a post-Partition refugee and small-time crook to national champion," it added.