chak de

My cousin and I had chosen this day to go to the Book Fair at Pragati Maidan (which is a center where many expositions are held throughout the year). Instead, we ended up shopping for some books (rather, books relating to my courses) in Connaught Place (a major commercial center), and then on the spur of the moment we went and saw a movie. I am usually wary of Bollywood films, for the obvious reasons that you may not be able to name more than 2-3 movies names (unless you are Indian, or really big into unrealistic romantic dance and musical melodramas made in India)!! :)

But this film really was worth it! Its name is Chak De! India. And I am so glad we made that totally random decision to chuck Book Fair and go watch it.

Some pics I sneaked in on my cellphones's camera:

It is the story of a failed ex-captain of the Indian Hockey team coming to the rescue of the women's team to coach them and win the World Cup. And by saying this, I have extremely simplified the movie! It was not the typical dance around the trees romance flicks that have been churned out by the Indian film industry. Nor was an art film meant to be solely understood by the intellectual elite. It was a sports film that appealed to the patriot in us to recognize our national sport and bring attention to the ills in contemporary Indian society through it.

The Indian masses are crazy about cricket. more crazy than the Japanese are about baseball, I would say. And we often forget that our National Sport is Hockey, not cricket. Hockey lives in the sidelines and women's Hockey suffers even more in the misogynistic tendencies of our society. Women must not work; they must stay at home, cook food and make babies. God forbid, if they start wearing shorts and playing sport! This regressive can be seen in numerous females infanticides and atrocities against women. Just today I read in the newspaper of a father-in-law beheading his daughter-in-law because she refused to cook him his lunch...

In light of this, Chak De! comes as a forerunner for Women's Rights and attempts to show that girls can make the country proud just as boys can, that too, in the sports field.

What I really liked about the movie:

• Representation of the role of politics in the degraded state of sports in India. Political leaders are in it for the money they can consume from it, and hardly give a damn whether the teams succeed or not. They don't see India's vast resources going down the drain, only caring if it can go into their pockets.
  
• Representation of the culture shock the girls suffer going abroad to play in the world cup. Most of the girls selected for the National Team come from simple middle-class backgrounds and perhaps they have never been abroad. Going to Australia, and seeing a developed nation in all its technological splendor is of course a major culture shock. Language to is a barrier, some of them not understanding what the referee is saying in English. India and its multi-lingual diversity, has a neat representation in the movie.


• Using soundtrack as soundtrack in the background... no one bursts out lip-syncing the songs!


• Close-ups on the field, to give a sense of what its like being there. While aerial shots would have been much more intelligible, the close-ups brought the movie-viewer onto the field, the confusion tension and chaos we felt is what the player undergoes.


• Representation of media in India today. Indian news channels are going berserk and sensationalization has overtaken every ounce of good journalism that existed. They blast one news item out of proportion and then discard it the next day when people have become bored with it. The most recent examples include the ex-model Geetanjali Nagpal who having lost everything due to bad company was living on the street. Once she was spotted, everyone wanted to broadcast the ills of the modeling world that brings girls of good households into the trap of drugs and prostitution. She was taken to a hospital and medical tests revealed that she was not an addict and after 3 days, she is no longer in the headlines. Why couldn't they let it be instead of directing disgusting and demeaning questions at her?! I hate watching any news channel. In the movie, the Coach used to be the captain of the Men's National Hockey team, but is accused of match-fixing with the Pakistani team; and being a Muslim, his patriotism is brought to question by the media who hype this story up so much so that his career is destroyed.
  
• the fight scene. After eve-teasing one of the Northeastern girl in the team, a guy gets a thorough beating from the girl from Punjab, who has a perennial short-temper. (The film does use the stereotype of a "Punjaban" short-temper and Northeastern sexiness). This beating gets converted to a full-scale fight with all the girls gradually joining in as the fight escalates. Some critics would definitely disagree with me, saying that this scene is a tad bit too much. But they perhaps have never felt the frustrating anger one feels against those sick asshole who feel they can do anything to a girl.

What could have been better:

• acting. while many of the roles were very well done, some minor roles were completely flawed. Like the character of Abhimanyu, who is the vice-captain of the cricket team and boyfriend of Preeti. This character is condescending towards the sport of hockey and wishes Preeti a talented striker to quit her team, marry him and accompany him around the world while he "shows them all how it should be done".
  
• Dialogues. Some jingoistic dialogues didn't work. The content of the film obviously required such a speech, yes. But, the content itself was jingoistic in far more simple and subtle a way. Thus the speeches could have been improved.
  
• Commentary for the World Cup matches in Hindi. they were very jarring, could have been better.

Even so, the movie was highly entertaining and it contained a message that wasn't given in too heavy-handed a way. The movie struck a balanced chord in the hearts of Indians and definitely I praise it as being an Indian movie I didn't come out grimacing after, but wanting to see again. Which, not wanting to be boastful, is saying a lot.. (I am sure Varsha would agree!) Chak De! India is a movie that makes us ask ourself, are we really on a path to compete with the rest of the developed world, when we can't resolve our different State's cultural identities in a National one; when we can't give the girl child a chance at life; when our own profit comes before the country's; when we can't look beyond the superficial to a greater and higher truth? Questions that today's youth of India - above all else - need to ask themselves.