A film charting Pat Farmer\u2019s 4,600km dash across India piles on the platitudes, reducing an amazing odyssey to nippy travelogue<\/p>\n
The Indian ascetic tradition can add another name to its ranks: former Australian parliamentary secretary and ultra-marathon runner Pat Farmer, whose 4,600km \u201cSpirit of India\u201d run in 2016 from the subcontinent\u2019s southern tip to Kashmir is chronicled here. That\u2019s 80km \u2013 two marathons \u2013 a day, for 64 days. If that, often undertaken in 80% humidity, doesn\u2019t sound masochistic enough, Farmer\u2019s social schedule (the run is to promote girls\u2019 education) would finish any normal man off: he attends more than 750 \u201cevents\u201d, many on the hoof, during this time.<\/p>\n
India can\u2019t fail to provide colour en route, but director Anupam Sharma\u2019s nippy travelogue format is strictly passing through. Barely any Indians are interviewed about what Farmer\u2019s feat means to them, and the alternating asphalt-pounding and meet-and-greets eventually stretch the bounds of documentary patience. Farmer himself is so indomitable \u2013 even a bout of stomach flu barely causes him to break stride \u2013 that he isn\u2019t that compelling a subject.<\/p>\n