Chak De India

Starring-Shahrukh Khan
Directed by-Shimit Amin
Produced By-Yash Raj Films

Normally I wouldnt go to a Yash Raj production unless dragged by several tractors and stuff, but Chak De India is a movie that I had on my must see list from a long time ago. The basic premise of SRK doing a Denzel Washington (Remember the Titans)/Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday) type of role and being in a YR film without ham-acting seemed interesting. Also the director's last offering (Ab tak Chhappan) is one of my favourite movies.

The movie begins with the final moments of an Indo-Pak match of the 'World Championship' (not the world cup), with captain Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) playing center forward for his team. He gets tripped by a Pakistani player inside the penalty region and India gets a penalty shot. Kabir Khan takes the shot himself and misses, going over the Goal post and India end up losing the match.

After the match images of Kabir Khan shaking hands with the opposing captain and his team mates are used to portray him as a match-fixer. He gets tainted by the media and the people who lose faith in him quickly (Aaj Tak plays the media channel in the movie, I wonder whether they were being honest or did they know that they were spoofing themselves). He has to leave his ancestral home and live away from public view for the next seven years.

The Indian Women's Hockey federation is shown discussing the fate of the team which has been already selected from the various state quotas but the members of the board show their skepticism by saying that the national team doesnt even deserve to play against a school team from a foreign country. Kabir Khan says he will do the job, knowing that no one else will do it. His brief is to get India to win the woman's world cup.

The team pours in from all the different states with each of the girls having a different story of their own. Memorable members of the team are the girl from Haryana, the girl from Chandigarh, the former captain and the Punjabi girl.

The rest of the film unfolds in a true underdog story style. And although somewhat cliched, it is good to watch.

Shahrukh Khan plays an understated role, Shimit Amin's last film had Nana Patekar in the lead and he managed to get Nana Patekar to act without his usual histronics, he does the same for SRK, this is a non-SRK type role that he has played after a long time.

The camera-work and screenplay are all well matched to the film, and with the big pockets of the production banner, the money has been used liberally and (contrary to most Yash Raj films) this does not look over-produced.

(Thankfully, the movie was not shot in NY or London with SRK being the coach of an NRI-woman's hockey team, although I am sure the idea might have crossed Adi Chopra's mind.)

Pablo's Pop Culture references/recommendations-
Movies
Any Given Sunday
Remember the titans
Hip Hip Hurray (starring Kirti Azad and Shafi Inamdar, a good soccer film about a school team and it's sports teacher)

Books
The Bleachers-John Grisham (possibly the shortest novel written by Grisham and one of his few non-law books, about a small town school American football coach on the verge of his death and the ex-players coming to visit him one last time.)