Chak De! India

I am not what you would call a sports fan. I do not get any vicarious thrill watching someone else do what I can't. I appreciate great sportsmen/women like Tiger Woods or Lorena Ochoa or Danica Patrick, but I generally avoid watching unless it is a national event like the World Cup or the Olympics.

Having said that, I am a huge fan of sports movies. They are a source of excitement and inspiration if they are done well. This one is one of the best that I have seen.

It has so many good points, that it is hard to list them all. The obsession with national pride and the fact that a star player is scapegoated for a loss is first and foremost in this film. We are all allowed to make one mistake, aren't we? Not if your mistake costs the country to lose a title and lose face to a huge enemy. Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) made such a mistake and it caused him to leave his home and go into exile for seven years.

He returned to take a job that no one wanted. He would coach a women's hockey team to the World Championships. No one wanted it because it was a women's team, and we all know that is usually just a Title IX requirement and not to be taken seriously. In fact, they didn't even want to fund the trip to the World Championships after he trained the team. Money was to be used for a men's team. Women belong barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen, as one Arkansas politician put it some years ago.

To watch 150+ minutes of women's hockey, you have to have one hell of a story and some very interesting characters. The challenge of Khan transforming sixteen championship players from all over India into a team that puts India first, was mesmerizing. You know how the story will end. It ends as all sports movies do, but it is the journey that is fascinating. To see the neanderthal attitudes of the country transformed through excellence in sport is both exciting and sad. (Don't be so smug, America, your record on women isn't too much better.) If you are looking for an exciting movie that will thrill you beyond belief, then this is the one. Do not miss it.

Chak De India is without a doubt a one-of-a-kind Hindi film, one that you'd hardly ever expect to see in Indian cinema, and one that is at par with any great foreign production. It is an exceptional sports film, more because there's much more to it than just a series of games, and you never care about the fact that the ending is easy to predict. Shimit Amin, who previously directed Ab Tak Chapphan, directs the film with great skill, care, and feeling for the subject. Jaideep Sahni is responsible for the fantastic script, and that's where we get an original example of expert storytelling.

This is the story of Kabir Khan, once a hockey star and a captain of the Indian team. Seven years ago, he was accused of treason in favour of Pakistan because he missed a crucial penalty against them. Being a Muslim and being good sport about it did the job and, branded a traitor, Kabir left his ancestral home in shame. We know nothing about what he's been through in these seven years, but we do know that he's got a new chance to prove his innocence when he comes back as the coach of the Indian woman's field hockey team. A chance as crucial as this damned penalty stroke.

The second half is much stronger than the first (not that this one's bad), but that's the case with most sports films as the most enjoyable sequences are often in later portions, when the matches finally take place. And well, it is just full of suspense, tension, and even though I could easily predict the ending, the script and direction were good enough to keep me on the edge of my seat and give me quite a few goosebumps throughout it. In fact several moments throughout the matches were so exhilarating and overwhelming that I found myself jumping up off my seat with sheer joy.

Technically the film is superb. The cinematography is amazing, with the camera moving intelligently to focus the viewer's attention on the proceedings. The film is efficiently edited, and the background score more than contributes to the film, building tension where necessary, and making everything so much more captivating. The title track, "Chak De India" is really a treat. It is patriotic, joyful, and very well used in the film. That the film's songs atypically play only over montage sequences, as opposed to the traditional style of song and dance, is certainly a great plus.

Shahrukh Khan is tremendous. This is one of his most restrained performances, yet his charismatic presence is as evident as ever. He is perfectly natural and controlled in a most nuanced portrayal that never fails to convey the inner pain, the frustration, the hope and the quiet determination to clear his name and finally make a place in the sun. The supporting cast is roundly good, and the girls are great as a group. Shilpa Shukla enjoys the meatiest part, an assertive girl driven by ego and jealousy, and she is excellent. Sagarika Ghatge and Vidya Malvade are pretty and convincing.

Chak De India can be described as patriotic, feminist, but for me it's more than anything about willpower and the importance of hard and collaborative work. It teaches and reaffirms that what really makes such games work--and for that matter, many other things in life--is lots of training, patience, and team work, without which nothing would quite click. According to me the best Hindi film of 2007; a thrilling and inspiring cinematic experience which is worth many a repeat viewing for more than one reason. Take a bow, Mr. Amin, Mr. Sahni, Mr. Khan, and all of you, twelve brave cuties.

Having originally planned to both not see Chak De and also to hate it, I went to see the first show and I now love it very much!!

Two nights ago I saw Kal Ho Naa Ho for the 100th time. I found it beautiful, as always, but also realized it never makes me want to cry. Chak De!, on the other hand, is relatively "plain" to look at, and understated (at least for Bollywood), and I felt that wonderful emotional brimming-up-but-not-quite-over time and again throughout the story.

The whole thing about this team of girls from all over India who have to be made into a team really works - you get to know enough about several girls to have a secure sense of the essence of each -- the one with the bad temper, the one whose husband wants her to come home and cook, the senior player who resents the new coach's control, the ones who are out for themselves -- and the problem each presents in relation to SRK's task of making a team out of a collection of individuals

Of course this is any coach's job, but I like the moral resonance with the sad back-story of Shah Rukh Khan's character. Kabir Khan, like the real Indian player on whom the story is based, is an Indian Muslim. He was unjustly accused of throwing a match to Pakistan, and lost his career. A team where all have the identity "India" is an actual team; implicitly I think a country with the identity "India" doesn't engage in persecutory projection and hatred toward a member perceived as "other."

A note about the photography, I like the use of a dusty tone for the first half of the movie, and then a much brighter color skin for the second half, when we leave India and practice fields and go to Australia. The girls' exposure to the bigness and luxury of the west was handled so nicely - we're given their pleasure in all that's new to their eyes--giant swimming pools, exercise machinery, lavish hotel buffets -- but in passing: the Bollywood Visual Excess machine is not in operation, and the shed has several locks on the door. At some official function, we get to see them all in saris and a bit of makeup, but here too it's all under control, they're all dressed alike and half of them hate it.

Shah Rukh is great. There is no sentimentality in the movie and his character is restrained. The music -- no "songs" -- is varied and good -- if I could do without the rap music (for life!!), I loved the Sufi refrain that turns up over and over, that seems to express SRK's character's anguish in separation, longing for reunion (with God).

I've always felt that sadness was quite nearby for Shah Rukh -- here he neither conceals nor dramatizes it, he just lets us feel it. On a more mundane note, though I love Shah Rukh in all his Karan-Johar-selected beautiful clothes, I found it relaxing to see him in a small number of normal coach's costumes, shirts, khakis, and blazers that appropriately looked bought off the racks in Macy's.

The movie really never hits a wrong note. It's also just wonderful in its feminist position. Generally speaking I feel just boredom and agitation at movie violence; in this one, when the girls beat up boys who'd been harassing them, I felt joy.

I have always loved good melodramatic underdog sports movies such as Remember the Titans,Invincible etc and now we have the bollywood version with Chak De India.

Hats off to the production team and the director for coming out with a fresh and very high quality product with excellently filmed hockey scenes that are quite realistic. I loved the wonderful cast of unknown girls who make up the Indian national women's hockey team. All of them had a part to play and they played them beautifully while executing some rigorous hockey action. They were excellent and gave wonderfully natural performances that should shame some of the already established actresses. Special mention should be given to the actress playing Bindya Naik. My favourite was the actress who played the spirited but pint sized forward from Haryana, she was really cute and funny in a tomboyish sort of way.

Shahrukh Khan was excellent in this movie..... his best performance since Swades in my opinion as he played against type. Had some wonderful moments with the girls and drew lots of cheers and laughs from the audience. If the movie succeeds then a lot of the credit has to go the King khan's crowd pulling power.

If this film succeeds and I sincerely hope it does, I think Amin (director) and Yashraj films are going to start a whole new trend a la DDLJ with a whole slew of sports related movies coming from Bollywood. I am sure cricket will be next on the agenda.

A thoroughly enjoyable ride....go watch it.

P.S. - some interesting trailers shown as well Laga Chunari Main Daag, Aaja Nachle and Goal (the Indian bend it like beckham maybe?)

What's in a name? Although initially this movie drew some amount of controversy outside India among viewers of non-Indian origin, the final movie just falsifies all those who advocated that the title "Chak De! India" was non-representative and was supposed to mean to only a niche of moviegoers. This movie would've been just what it is no matter what is was called or which country made it. Director Shimit Amin's entry in YRF simply transforms the entire perspective of movie-making and movie watching, both for the production house and the viewers.

Generally, you enter the theatre for a Yashraj movie expecting foreign locales, lots of song and dance, impossible and unbelievable characters, poor storyline, bad performances and a helluva investment but this movie delivers what no other Yashraj film ever did. Initially a sports movie, Chak De is rather a story of hope, courage, unity, integrity and the dreams. This film finally proves that you don't need Preity or Rani opposite SRK, and he all by himself, with a great screenwriter, great director and a good cast of the hockey team can make a great movie. There are lots of heroes in the movie - the women's team and these ladies simply steal the show. Mainly Bindiya, Balbir, Priya (the hot chic) and Komal.

See it gets very hard when there is an incredible amount of character development to do. There is a ghost that follows Kabir throughout the film and writer Jaideep Sahani makes a very good use of it. I do admit the fact that he's watched an incredible amount of Hollywood sports flick to develop this script, but he adds his very homely formulas and successfully manages to retain this film as an original Indian movie. Some parts of the film are directly lifted like the part of Kabir's ghost and few of the women, but all in all I refuse to say this is a Hollywood copy.

All in all, this is the best summer Hindi movie I've watched so far, not because it's got SRK but I love the script, the witty one-liners where sometimes with double meanings, every girl with her story (but I feel at most points the characters don't fully grow), well coordinated game sequences (though the practise scenes may bore you because there are a LOT), and above all the message the film delivers - when united, there's nothing you can't win over. The message is pretty well conveyed. You feel the adrenaline rush through the World Cup matches, a lot of goosebumps thanks to the great scoring by the Salim Sulaiman duo, well crafted script and good direction. Shimit's work is original contrary to the reservations I carried for him being a product of Ram Gopal Verma's school of direction.

SRK, as usual is great with his acting (and beard,) Vidya Malvade is the overly publicised captain but unfortunately other girls outdo her, the Jharkhand girls provide a dimension against contrasting Bindya and her queen bees. Segarika Ghatge's character Priya Saberwal is most memorable for her looks, style and for being hot and everything. The North East girls do answer some of vital questions of the North East Indians about their existence in their country as foreigners. The class conflict, egoistic chicks and their attitude problem and stuffs are absolutely well portrayed in the film.

All in all a well worth. Requires basic knowledge and enthusiasm in hockey. But avoid if you're looking for SRK as the lover-boy - he's the tough coach.