Jan. 27, 2008 - Chak De India (translation: ”Come On India”) is a Hindi film about a women’s field hockey team. On the surface, the film is your basic, every-sports-movie-story about a disgraced player, here called Kabir Khan, who pulls together a team of misfits to do the impossible — here win the World Championship against the six-time trophy-winning Australian Women’s team.

Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan (aka King Khan), plays the coach at the heart of the film. According to international sources, Khan is bigger than Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt combined. Whoa - this guy’s hot! The script is inspired by the life of former Indian Hockey Goalkeeper and coach of the women’s Indian Hockey team, Mir Ranjan Negi, and his contribution in driving the women’s Indian Hockey team to win the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.

We start when Kabir, India’s team captain and most successful Center Forward of all time, flubs a crucial penalty against Pakistan and is castigated by his nation. An Islamic last name and a meteoric temper don’t help his case and Kabir is labeled as a traitor involved in match fixing. He leaves his hometown along with his mother and goes into exile.

Seven years later, Kabir returns ready to start at the bottom. He hopes to become the coach for the National Women’s Hockey team of India and easily gets the position, as no one in the administration even cared about their team anymore.

Sixteen female players come together to form a national team. For political reasons, the best players from each Indian state have been chosen, without regard to the position. They’re a motley assortment of Reddys, Boses and Sharmas each falling into conveniently label-friendly stereotypes, but — and here’s what makes all the difference — the cliches run warm and friendly. Most have had to fight their family in order to join the team, and all are more loyal to their home state than to India.
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The first half takes its time to buildup, predictably. There’s no surprise as the tale unfolds — dissent, pressure, defiance, infighting, lack of self-belief, external skepticism, and of course, ego. We grow to see the gang of 16 girls try to keep up with a coach who actually takes himself seriously. And pushes them hard. Kabir deliberately exhausts the women in the hope that if they all hate him, they will bond with each other. Fortunately, screenwriter Jaideep Sahni has colored inside the lines and ensures that screen-time is divided mostly evenly among the lot, yet separating a few characters for obvious star roles.

The second half is all about playing and most viewers will sit, in silence, glued to the screen pretty much throughout. Shimit’s direction is compelling, constant, and leaves little room for filler. The girls’s problems are not over, however. The team arrives in Australia, and there is real culture shock when they see the state-of-the-art training facilities and the behavior of players from other countries.

During the finals two of the Indian players rival to get the highest score, and Kabir must once again preach team spirit, and how they should play on the field. On the final match the team plays as suggested by the coach leading to a tie with Australia.

With the shootout, India misses the first two shots, while Australia scores both. Tension rises. Who wins the match? Well you’ll just have to watch the film to find out. But here’s a clue: Chak de India’s tagline is “Sometimes winning is everything.”

Khan is King in this film. It’s a bravura performance by an actor who clearly has sport in his blood. As the coach, Khan is inspiring, canny, frustrated, helpless, profoundly hopeful and naturally perfect. But the girls are the real champs of the film, clutching to their identities in the face of competition. They are mostly delightful, although it’s questionable how much acting experience some of them have. Still, we get a glimpse at the cultural differences (and similarities) between the provinces and beyond. Interesting to see how girls on the other side of the world look and behave.

At it’s heart, Chak De! India is the story of a team overshadowing the story of an individual. The film struggles at times, clearly trying hard to strike a balance between classic melodrama and the sporting genre. But it’s perfectly good story with high production values that can be enjoyed all, field hockey players as well as anyone that loves a good true-blooded sports movie.

Producer: Yash Raj Films
Director: Shimit Amin
Writer: Jaideep Sahni
Length:140 minutes/Subtitles

Filed under: DVD, Field Hockey, Film by jane

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