Chak De India - Jai Hind Shahrukh

Remember Aamir Khan’s Oscar Nominated movie Lagaan. The film that revolved around how the people of a village overcome the injustices of the british rule, by beating them in a game of cricket. The film was a mega-hit and was much appreciated the world over. Although it wouldn’t really qualify as a sports film, but it was the first time in modern hindi cinema that a film revolved around a game of sport. But then that was cricket, and if anything sells in India it’s cricket(On the rise again, after improved performances by the Indian Team).

Shahrukh Khan’s Chak De India(Come on India in English) however has nothing to do with cricket, and at times even criticises the over-hyped stature of the game in the country. Releasing just 5 days before the country’s 60th Independence day, Chak De has a strong patriotic sentiment attached to it as well as a social message. It would certainly qualify as one of India’s first sports based films, and there is no doubt that it’s a winner.

Very loosely based on the hollywood hit Remember The Titans (with Khan essaying the role originally played by Denzel Washington), Chak De is the story of a disgraced Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain, Kabir Khan(essayed by Shahrukh) and how he tries to resurrect his tarnished image as that of a match fixer by coaching a no good woman’s hockey team. Kabir Khan after failing to score a penalty against Pakistan in the final of a Men’s Hockey World Championship gets accused of being a traitor and match fixer by the stupid and irresponsible media(the film uses Indian Television Channel Aaj Tak as it’s media partner, which in real life too has absymally low journalism standards). Kabir then returns after an exile of 7 years to coach the Indian woman’s hockey team and prepare it for the world cup. The rest of the film deals with how he turns a multi-cultured and multi-diverse group of 16 girls with lack of team spirit and low resilence into a power packed army, that defeats the best teams in the world.

The film brings to light the real life facts such as the low penetration and lack of encouragement towards sports in the country and discrimination against women. In today’s day and age where women are truly empowered all over the world(even the US may get a Female President soon), more than 50% of India’s rural population still considers the female to be good for only cooking and cleaning. It also brings to light the power struggles that take place in most Indian teams and the problems created by the senior players and the sports administration.

Although the movie has no other big stars other than Shahrukh, it is still quite entertaining and is packed with lots of sports action, humor and drama. The performances of most girls is good, but the punjabi and haryanvi girls really stand out. “You Get Out you Ulli Ki Patthi “, is just one of the many hilarious dialogues spoken by the strong player from punjab, this one spoken when the Australian referee asks her to leave the field. Another one of the great dialogues where shahrukh says “Hamare Hockey main Chakke nahi hote“, when he stops a guy with a cricket bat from assaulting a female player, is one of the instances where the movie takes a dig at cricket. Finally with Chak De, King Khan proves that he can do non-romantic and non-karan johar films as well and really stands out with his performance.

So get out of your homes and go watch Chak De India, cause you’ll surely have a good time. And if you really wanna enjoy it go watch it along with a female hockey player while wearing the Indian Team T-shirt, just like we did. Jai Hind!!!!!!!