Another lovely movie review from my favorite guest contributor. Wonder when she will agree to write a post in which I can actually mention her name, but for now, she still intends to remain an anonymous contributor to Jamster’s Jams.
One would think that I am heavily into sport considering that I write this blog. But I do watch a reasonable amount of sport (thanks to my brother and my husband) and a l-o-t of movies so I guess I am eligible to write this.
Patriotism and Sport go hand in hand. That’s what Chak De India did for us. The story line is simple, predicatable but it is narrated extremely well. 16 new actors/hockey players, 1 bollywood badshah (who didn’t overact -phew!) and a real life story is all that it took. Chak De has a strong wonderfully written story line, has very real acting by Shahrukh and the girls and very clean direction by Shimit Amin.
Its not the usual Yashraj film and delightfully so – havent we all grown tired of the chiffons and the shaadis?
The movie centres around Women’s Hockey which never makes it to our newspaper headlines (Try rattling out 3 players in our present National Women’s hockey squad!). The movie deals with the Association beauraucracy, the lack of sponsors in women’s sport, the general useless attitude of people when it comes to women’s sport, the passion that lies with sport, Diversity in India, Patriotism …….
Shahrukh as Kabir Khan was labelled gaddar when he missed scoring for India. People suspect that he fixed the game and drive him out of his home. However 7 years later, he returns as coach of the Indian National Women’s Hockey team and tries to regain his life by getting the girls to the top spot in the World Championships. That’s when the story begins –
16 girls from all over the country form the team – the training they go through, their fights, their lives and how everyone’s dreams are met.
The story is ofcourse predictable (no prizes for guessing who wins the Championship) but sitting there and watching the hockey game you root all the way for the girls! There has been a lot of research on hockey that has gone into the movie and that is very evident in the movie.
Its true that one feels extremely patriotic when watching the movie – Sport and patriotism do go hand in hand. Wanting the girls win and seeing the National Flag fluttering gives you tremendous pride. If only our hockey teams would win in real life as well!
Chak De is not a Lagaan but it is nevertheless a wonderful watch and has a great feel-good factor to it. Go catch it…
Happy Independence Day!!!
My rating of Chak De India : 4/5
Well said mate, makes me wanna watch Chak De India this weekend. Watch out guys, Shah Rukh seems to be on a roll again.
Cheers…………Jamster
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Interesting..thanks to your guest here ! Might end up watching the movie..yes. Patriotism and sport go hand in hand ! And thats the flavour of the season too
Nice!too many blogs reviewing Chak de 😦