Marathon Boy (2010)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Admirable film.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A deeply disturbing, very sad documentary in which no one comes out unscathed. In India a single mother from the slums is overwhelmed trying to raise the child in the midst of poverty and 'sells' him to a peddler. But the 3 year old boy is rescued (and legally adopted) by the owner of a local orphanage and Judo school. He notices the boy seems to have both a passion and ability for distance running, and so decides to train him with the hope of his one day winning the Olympics. Sounds like the classic upbeat 'kid finds his way out of the slums' tale. But this film goes a direction we don't usually see with that kind of set up, and becomes something both shocking and Dickensian. What quickly becomes clear is that this very little boy is being driven beyond all sanity or safety, being used to live the dreams of adults. In come the authorities to 'rescue' the boy But it soon becomes very evident that their motives are no purer, and their plans for the boy may be far more damaging for him in the long term. The drama between the two adult sides grows ever more intense and complicated, while an overwhelmed and desperate to please little boy is trapped in the middle of selfish, angry, misguided and deluded grown ups This is one of the more depressing films I've seen in a while. I found myself haunted by the story, unable to shake a vaguely sick feeling for quite some time. There is also something disquieting about the fact the film-makers just sat back and filmed all this. Could/should they have attempted to intervene? Are we complicit in the 'use' of this boy just by watching the film? Powerful if uncomfortable questions abound

Marathon Boy, a sad and beautiful documentary film directed by Gemma Atwal. Full of true real-life events. This film shared a message that touched our hearts and our souls. It was extremely heartbreaking to see what these people went through especially young Budhia. Seeing him on screen was a blessing and he encountered many obstacles along the marathon. This was a shocking story, but it was inspiring to hear it. I recommend it to everyone because it shares an important message and about Budhia and Biranchi. This film was by far the best documentary films I've seen in years.Budhia is a true "Marathon Boy" and I believe he will achieve his dreams of whatever he want to be when he grows up. Gemma Atwal great work on this film. God bless. I wish Budhia all the best. Wonderful film.

Forced into the hands of renowned Judo coach Biranchi Das by a mother unable to look after him, Budhia Singh was an ordinary, if especially foul-mouthed, child, with a particularly bleak future. Ordered to run laps of the judo area by Das one morning, the three-year old Singh did not stop until his coach returned hours later; expert enough to recognize sporting talent when he saw it, Das took the young tearaway under his arm and set course for Olympic success. Gemma Atwal's Marathon Boy is the tale of how the coach's dream was cruelled at every step by over-zealous child welfare officials, a corrupt political establishment and Das' own narcissism.Atwal's documentary is not neutral; early on she establishes herself firmly in camp with Das, who without accepting a cent from state coffers, operates a Judo school that also functions as an orphanage for slum children like Budhia Singh. The relationship between coach and protégé is shown to be warmer and more intimate than the description proffered by Child Welfare officials, who are quickly drawn by the frenzied media attention to Singh's exertions (he had run numerous marathons by the time he turned 4). Banning the state's young star from running, but allowing him to stay in the custody of his coach (soon-to-be father), the state challenges the machismo within Das. Unfazed, he refuses to accept the end of the Olympic dream - but whose dream is it really? Does Singh, at 4 or 5, really know what Olympic participation would mean, other than pleasing his coach? Drawing on footage from over five years, Das is portrayed as the flawed hero at the heart of a saga that quickly grows out of hand. His own friends and family essentially narrate the footage revealing the relentlessness with which he attacks the officials that prevent Budhia from running and, by extension therefore, prevent Das from having the last laugh in his running battle with the authorities. In a state and society so clearly corrupt and unwilling to accept such open brinkmanship, Das' fate looms well before he is in fact killed.The tragedy, as the film's final shots of Budhia in a private school and with a sporting scholarship show, is the blatant pettiness of the whole struggle. Das fell victim not to the state but his own ego. The state did not wish to see Singh's ability curtailed, nothing would please them more than a local sporting star; they wished only for Das to admit his subservience to officialdom, something he was unwilling to do. Does he deserve admiration for his courage, if that was what it was, to stand up to a system that desired such obsequious behaviour? Or is the real tragedy, as I believe, that he couldn't look past the loss of face to see that it was in both his and Budhia's best interests to accept the state of affairs, however morally corrupt? I'll be following Budhia's fate closely. Regardless of who coaches him, the boy can really run.Concluding Thought: Agassi, Woods, Beckham...they all started at similar ages. Singh's flaw was not his age, it was his sport. We look upon the exertions of running somehow differently.

Truly sad and amazed with the filmmakers access to every event as it unfolds. I'm haunted and extremely heartbroken to realized the future of everyone involved. There are no winners here. I would recommend this to aspiring runners but if not on its own its a marvelous documentary to post questions about self lessens in todays seemingly selfish world. I've always wondered with 1 billion why India never seem to produce athletes of world rankings but after watching this documentary it gave me pause. It seems at one time the filmmaker herself unceremoniously found herself acting on impulse which gives the story more immediate connectivity