Chak De....

It's not a well known fact among my friends that I am a loyal Shah Rukh Khan fan. It's true that I don't have his posters adorning the walls of my bedroom or the desktop of my PC (Those are reserved for a Green eyed beauty.......). But I watch any movie as long as SRK is in it. I have endured movies from the really painful Badshah to the overhyped underperforming KANK. I even watched a dud named "Shakti" just because SRK had a guest role in it (and also because it featured a certain someone in the "Ishq Kameena" song). So it was just a case of time before I churned out Rs.90 for a ticket to SRK's latest movie..."Chak De India". A sunday matinee at Satyam Cinemas, Chennai and all I can say is "Wow".

Chak De is an out and out sports film. This genre has been largely overlooked in Hindi movies. Except for some utterly forgettable movies like "Avval Number" and a real rarity like "Lagaan", Hindi Cinema has seldom focused on Sports. Even in Lagaan, the cricket was just a means to an end. Although the movie focused on the match, there was always a bigger picture. So I wouldn't call that a real sports movie. In Chak De, Hockey is the means and the end. Hollywood has had lots of real good sports movies. "Remember the Titans", "The Replacements", "The Mighty Ducks", "Coach Carter","Any given Sunday"....the list goes on. When I mentioned to one of my friends that "Chak De" is not doing good overseas, she remarked with typical innocence "Foreign teams ko haraaya hai na...Isi liye nahi chal raha hai...". Well maybe she is right...or maybe it is the fact that they have seen loads of such movies and its not a new thing to them....Whatever be the case, this was certainly the best movie that I have seen since Lage Raho Munnabhai...

Now coming to the movie, The topic is nothing new to those who watch English movies...Firstly, there is a disgraced player who was supposed to be the best of his time...then you have a team from which noone has any expectations...then you have the amazing turnaround...standard formula for a sports movie...Kabir Khan was India's best Centre forward in Hockey till he missed a crucial penalty stroke in the world cup finals against Pakistan. Then ignominy follows and he disappears for 7 years. He then surfaces to apply for the coach position of Indian National Womens Hockey team. The team is a mish mash of players from various states including Jharkand and Mizoram. It has some really interesting characters like Komal Chautala, who according to my friend is a "typical" Haryanvi and Balbir Kaur who is a "typical" Punjabi. The rest of the movie is all about how the team bonds and how they reach the pinnacle of glory in the World Hockey Championship. There are some really good scenes in the movie...one that needs to be mentioned happens when the girls take on a gang of boys who were hitting on them...one of the boys try to hit a girl from the back with a cricket bat. SRK stops him and says " Hamla karna hai to mardon ki tarah saamne se karo...Kya hai ki hamare hockey mein Chakke nahi hote"....The writer couldn't help taking a potshot at Cricket. Afterall, hockey is supposed to be our national game and it has been largely looked over in favour of Cricket. The Hockey-Cricket divide is also portrayed in the relationship between one of the team members and her boyfriend. Anyways...the best scene of the movie belongs to none other than King Khan. It happens when India wins the world cup. There are no dialogues...just acting at its best....the look of a man who has found a meaning to his life that was lost till then....You gotta see it to believe it....News is that the DVD print has already hit the IITK LAN. So I will be getting a CD written...coz this is a movie for the collection....