In keeping with this website’s tendency to write about anything even remotely connected to sports, this is a review of Chak de India: a very entertaining movie, well worth a watch even though it stars Shah Rukh Khan.
Based on the life of Meer Ranjan Negi, the movie is about a man’s quest to redeem himself in the eyes of his countrymen. That the medium is hockey is just incidental.
A bunch of women from around the country are coached by a disgraced former hockey star. How he forges the individuals into a winning unit, in the process earning their respect and trust forms the narrative. It is a movie with a standard under-dog winner template: happened in other underdog sports movies, even in troubled high school kids movies in Hollywood.There is a problem with filming hockey, I have found that it is very hard to follow the ball on television. It moves too rapidly and we at best have an approximate idea of its location. And in this regard, the hockey scenes in the movie are handled really well. That many of the members of the team have had an exposure to the sport is evident during the scenes. Kudos to the casting team for their choices. And what can I say about SRK that hasn’t already been said? The role of Kabir Khan only requires the only 2 expressions that SRK seems to possess in his repertoire these days: clenched jaws or a quivering face with glycerine induced tears. He handles both of them with ease.
In the absence of an obvious common enemy unlike in ‘Lagaan’, the sub-plots and the strong characters of the women provide an interesting back-drop without meandering too much from the main storyline. Though one feels that the occasional digs taken at cricket and the hockey administration should have been more forceful.
Yes, the movie will raise awareness about hockey and give some much needed publicity but it won’t change anything. Lack of encouragement for women’s sport (in fact for any sport other than cricket and maybe chess) will continue. Women will pressured to fall in line after they have got their government grants. Our training facilities won’t improve to the standards they showed in Australia in the movie in the near future. Former hockey stars are hoping that SRK will become a brand ambassador for the sport but I am certain that our officials will squander another golden opportunity to revive the sport. All in all a depressing thought that even Bollywood appreciates the sport more than the IHF.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Tags: Hockey
Shah Rukh has never required glycerine to induce tears, that is a well known fact (even amitabh bachchan has said so)
Shah Rukh has never required glycerine to induce tears, that is a well known fact (even amitabh bachchan has said so)
then he must be starred in remake of RUDALI