I caught up with ‘Chak De India’ yesterday. It’s refreshing to see a bollywood / Indian movie about sports, that too, about women’s hockey, a movie without all the usual singing and dancing and romance. The film has has everything else to keep you entertained. Right from the start of the film till the very end, the film keeps the viewer totally involved. Not even for a single moment throughout the entire duration of the film does the narration deviate from the subject matter. Shahrukh Khan is brilliant, so are his team of 16 girls. The whole crew has done a fine job. I like this film more because it speaks about achievement, belief, faith, ambition, intent, commitment, selflessness, team work,… all good traits essential not just for a successful sportsperson, but for anybody in any walk of life. Chak De India is a nice film. Very well made.
I will leave with some quotes from the film. I am not well versed in Hindi, so I am not able to reproduce the original Hindi dialogues. Please forgive if there are imperfections.
(A cynical official from Indian hockey board interviews Kabir Khan, a potential candidate to coach the national women’s team)
Official: This Indian womens hockey team is so weak that it won’t beat even a school team from Europe
Kabir Khan: That’s exactly the kind of Indian team I wanna coach
Bindya (ego infested senior player): I’m always used to playing forward
Kabir Khan (the coach): But in this team, you play centre-half
Bindya: This team or that team, it doesn’t make any difference to me
Kabir: But it does makes a difference to the team
Kabir Khan says to egoistic Bindya: Listen… in every team, there can be only one goonda, even in this team there is only one… that’s me.
Kabir Khan: It’s not a question of strength, it’s the intent. To be successful, it’s not much of strength you have but the intention that matters.
Commentator: Indians miss one more chance… the same old impediment, lack of co-ordination.
Kabir Khan (to Komal and Preeti): If you both compete with each other and not co-ordinate, we will deifinitely lose the final tomorrow.
Komal: But sir, she’s the one who started it
Kabir: Yeah… Why don’t YOU, Komal, put a stop to it?
I will put a stop to my review here. Find more information about Chak De India at Wikipedia.
