When a four year old rattles off 20 dinosaur species or differentiates a Marvel superhero from a DC one, we cheer in amazement. Children, by the virtue of being children, draw out a feeling of adoration and favour. But when a four-year-old, hailing from the lowest rung in social hierarchy, makes history by running a marathon, the reigning sentiment is respect. Poverty is not just an obstacle, it's a childhood robbing, survival triggering, dark and desperate way of life lacking in breakthrough.

A cut above the formulaic sports-movie themes, BUDHIA SINGH - BORN TO RUN hits all the right buttons. The inspirational, soul-stirring story of the Odisha's 5 year old wonder-boy Budhia Singh - the running sensation who took the world by storm is a brilliantly crafted, richly performed rare piece of Bollywood's sports drama that is enlivened by the perfect balance of emotion, insight and humour that rightly provides fodders for thought.

Biopics in Bollywood fall in two categories- the ones which are made honestly and from the heart (Paan Singh Tomar) and the ones which are made merely to lionize the subject (Azhar). Manoj Bajpayee's latest release Budhia Singh-Born To Run, which was earlier titled Duronto, can be firmly placed in the first category. The biopic is about Budhia Singh (Mayur Patole), a wonder kid from the slums of Odisha, whose relentless stamina for running is discovered by judo coach and local political activist Biranchi Das (Manoj Bajpayee).

Bollywood has seen many films that have been based on sports. While the majority of them were based on the game of cricket, a handful of them were based on other sports like boxing (MARY KOM), athletics (BHAAG MILKHA BHAAAG), football (GOAL), cycling (JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDAR), hockey (CHAK DE! INDIA), to name a few. This week's release is BUDHIA SINGH - BORN TO RUN, a film that's based on the sport of marathon running.

Starring Manoj Bajpayee and Mayur Patole in the lead roles, Budhia Singh- Born To Run is a biopic on India's youngest marathon runner Budhia Singh. For all those who don't know, Budhia, India's forgotten hero, created history when he ran a marathon from Bhubaneswar to Puri. He was only five years old yet he managed to cover 65 km in seven hours and two minutes.

The real Budhia Singh ran a 65-kilometre marathon from Bhubaneshwar to Puri at the age of four. In the film Budhia Singh - Born to Run, he does it at the age of five because 4 is unbelievable, even by Bollywood standards. After Budhia (a perfectly adequate Mayur Patole) has completed almost half the distance that he has promised to complete (70 kilometres), the scene slows down - there's Budhia running in slow motion, his coach Biranchi Das (Manoj Bajpayee, the man can play anything, you know) accompanies him on a cycle.

A 5-year-old poor kid wants to run because it can fetch him new shoes, or a new cycle. An ambitious but cynical coach pushes the child to his limits because he is convinced the boy is talented. The kid succeeds against all odds, and that becomes the most defining moment of his life: because it will one day end up in his beloved coach's murder. We know the story of Odisha's wonder-boy Budhia Singh, a running sensation who took media, politics and the world by storm in 2005-06.

A Bollywood sports film is usually an awkward creature. It tends to be a loud, lumbering beast prone to melodramatic flab and excessive deification. Mercifully, first-time writer-director Soumendra Padhi's Budhia Singh - Born to Run isn't one. It is neither average Bollywood fare nor is it just another sports-themed potboiler designed to magnify the heroics of an achiever. It does no superfluous huffing and puffing. It instead probes the multiple social and emotional strands, and the dramatic highs and treacherous lows, linked to the incredible true story of Budhia Singh.

The film revolves around Odisha's wonder boy Budhia Singh who took the media by storm in 2005-2006. Coming from an extremely poor background, after being sold by his mother, Sukanti (Tillotama Shome), for 800 bucks to a bangle maker, Budhia's life could have been a hell as a lifetime slave. What changed his life was, popular Judo coach Biranchi Das (Manoj Bajpayee). The man who ran a training school as well as an orphanage and made sure to change the future of the underprivileged kids of Odisha, who were otherwise dying of hunger.