Chak De!!

Having heard rave reviews about this movie from a wide spectrum of people, I finally managed to get myself to go and watch this movie! Oft late, I had been completely avoiding Hindi movies, simply because they never did justice to the issue, the actors and most importantly to the Hollywood movie that they were “inspired” from…

But Chak De was refreshingly good! I’ll explain the plot in brief, though it is a commonly known to all by now.

Shahrukh Khan, who had been ostracized by the public, after his role as the Captain of the Indian Men’s National Hockey Team which lost the World Cup, comes back after a gap of 7 months to coach the Indian Women’s National Hockey Team. This team has 16 players, from all over the country, A.P., Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Punjab and so on. Each of these girls has a definition to her character which is a mélange of cultures, languages, references and attitudes.

The journey from being raw individual players to becoming a team, was done quite well, though predictably sometimes. A lot of parallels can be drawn between his taskmaster character and the taskmaster coach played by Kurt Russell in “The Miracle”. He has done his job well, though a feeling in mine said, something was kind of undone. Maybe the punch came too soon, something was missing.

The training period was quite effectively done, and looked pretty genuine, however there were a few glaring things they should’ve kept in mind! One of the two forwards, Preeti Sabarwal, was astonishingly fair and they managed to keep her as white as she was! And that is something that is highly impossible considering the amount of time they spend in the sun. Maybe they wanted to show her penchant for looking good, and smart always, but being so white all over, without any tan or discolouring is highly improbable!

Overall, I felt good after watching this movie, I almost wish it went on for a longer while, just when I was beginning to relish the matches, they had won! It came a bit too abruptly for my comfort, I would have preferred a slight increase in the match footage, but then maybe I’m far too used to the regular 3 hour shows! And then again, it’s better to be shorter and crispier than being prolonged and dragged!

All in all, I’d give this movie 4 out of 5. J

Oh I must mention, there is this scene, when all the players and trainers and SRK have gone to a restaurant for lunch and some urchin boys begin eve-teasing one of the girls from Manipur, and this incites the Punjabi girl who goes and slaps the guy, which then becomes a complete battle between the men (around 10 – 15) and the women (16) who discover their team bonding at that very moment! That scene made me want to stand up and throw a punch, kick too! J Very motivating! I was almost wishing someone teased me just so I could thrash that person!