Synopsis:

The film starts in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where a coach says "It!", and the story is taken back to the memories of the childhood days of a young boy which haunted him, resulted in him dropping to fourth. Shiva is partition caused chaos which resulted in war with the locals of Punjab in Pakistan, killing the parents of Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar). He reaches Delhi and later meets his sister there. Milkha soon makes friends and survives by stealing with his friends. He falls in love with Biro (Sonam Kapoor) but she asks him to live a life of honesty. Milkha finally finds himself in the army where he gets noticed by a Havaldar (Sergeant) after he wins a race in which top 10 runners will get milk, two eggs and excuse from exercise. He gets selected for service commission where he gets miffed and also gets beaten up by senior players whom he had defeated earlier, on the day before selection of Indian team for Olympics. In spite of being injured he still participates in the race, overcomes his pain and wins the race. His coach tells him that he has broken the national record.
In the Melbourne Olympics he gets attracted to the granddaughter of his Australian technical coach, and after a night in a bar he sleeps with her. He loses the race, beats himself up and on the way back to India asks his coach to tell him what the world record for the 400m race is. He trains hard with a firm determination and wins in several places. Then Jawaharlal Nehru convinces him to lead the Indian team to Pakistan for friendly races. In Pakistan he misses the press conference and goes to his village where in a flashback it is shown how his parents were murdered and the last words of his father were "It!" He starts crying and is comforted by a boy who turns out to be his childhood friend''s son. In the games, the Pakistani favorite is winning, when Milkha comes, overtaking opponents one by one,taking a convincing lead and winning the race and respect of both nation''s people. The Pakistani commander then gives him the title "The Flying Sikh".