Chak De India – my thoughts

2 / 5
Director : Shimit Amin
Writer : Jaideep Sahani

Chak De India is a sport based film, and given that, it opens in a most predictable fashion – with the sport in action. We open on SRK in action – meet Kabir Khan, Center Forward and Captain of the Indian National Hockey team. They are playing the finals of the WC finals, which comes to rest on one penalty shot, to be taken by the cap himself. He scoops the shot, which misses the top rim of the goal by a few inches and brings the team to a disappointing loss. Just after, a journalist catches him on camera shaking hands with a player from the opposing team, and suddenly the entire nation has declared it’s verdict, labeled him a traitor, burnt effigies, and I’m wondering… hello wait a minute, isn’t this hockey we’re talking about? When the hell was the last time we heard / read / saw the mention of the game any where in the media, let alone TV channels going out on the street to get public opinion? Isn’t that a privilege reserved for Cricket? And how many more times are we going to play the ‘Muslim Indian needing to prove he is an Indian first’ card? Don’t we have anything else that can capture the emotion of a large audience? With that cinematic liberty taken, writer Jaideep Sahani and director Shimit Amin embark on a journey full of such predictabilities, emotional clichés and inconsistent character trait plagued script.

Next we know, we’ve fast forwarded 7 years, and our hero brought down is seeking his redemption and glory. How is he going to achieve that? By almost over-casually squirming his entry into the National Women’s Hockey Team as Coach and getting them to win the World Championship, due in 3 months’ time. Unbelievable you think? Like one of the hard-ass players in the team once mentions in a bathroom talk, ‘Apne India mein kuch bhi ho sakta hai’… likewise, apne hinhi filmon mein kuch bhi hota hai. Well, another departure from reality, another cinematic liberty!

Up to this point in the film, (which is only a few scenes), the film is almost running on auto-pilot; the first scene of some ingenuity comes up much later, in the dormitory. So then, Coach Sir Kabir Khan goes about setting up his team; he makes it clear that it’s either HIS WAY or BENCH PE. Anyone who doesn’t fall in to line, is to sit out all practice sessions on the bench. SRK in very SRK style (khalak se awaaz nikalte hue) says, ‘Is team mein ek hi goonda ho sakta hai, aur woh main hoon.’ From stammering and hammering in his earlier films, SRK now substitutes khalak se awaaz nikalna for the stammering, baaki sab same hai. Anybody think he is growing as an actor?

The scene just before the interval is clichéd in its use, but done with some energy and manages to keep us entertained. A fight breaks out with some local boys who pick on some girls and one by one, the entire team gets on them and turns the entire place upside down… all for Kabir Khan to make his ‘team-building’ point. I wonder if the Hockey Association would have foot the bill for that rampage. Up unto here, JS’s script is only about mediocre, but there are touches of detailing in it – Delhi boys picking on the north east girls, instead of the more conventionally appealing Chandigarh di kudi (Oye so cute yaar), or when the north east girls resent to having to feel like guests in their own home must be appreciated. However, it is also rather evident that he is more comfortable keeping the ‘north’ girls in focus because he understands that psyche and that language a lot better than he does anyone else’s. Well, every guy has an Achilles’ Heel.

Come second half, and our team flies down under, where the championship is scheduled to take place. Our girls and Coach Sir as well, suddenly seem to suffer from a total lack of the single minded-ness or the purpose of their existence as a team, and while other teams are training, and training hard; our girls walk around the entire stadium looking at the others train, and end up at the buffet – hogging. Then again we find them dealing with the same demons that plagued them in the first half, lack of a team spirit, playing for self etc… however, with all the odds against them, our team, still goes on, magically and makes it to the final. Great!

A serious character inconsistency was right at the end when SRK indulges in a private moment at a time when his character should have been with the team. If he did believe in INDIA first, then the team, and then himself, his private moment is not quite justified. However, he is the HERO of the film, therefore his RESOLUTION has to be complete, but once again, at the cost of the script.

What the film does manage to do is to get audiences to cheer for our team. But look at it this way. Had the theatre telecast a live match, India v/s Australia, would we give a prize for guessing who the crowd would support? That is about all that the film manages to get away with – not much. None of the subplots of the film seem to have been written with any thought. At the outset itself we have established that the women’s hockey team is not taken seriously, neither by the family of the players, nor by the association, nor by anyone except maybe Kabir Khan. Why did we need 2 badly and single dimensionally written scenes, between one of our players and the Vice Captain of the Indian Cricket Team to prove that? Where is the JS who wrote such beautifully and rounded characters in KKG / Company?

It is not, in the least, an easy task to film the game sequences in a sport based film, but a little more work could’ve added some visual chutzpah to an otherwise drag of a film. The camerawork by Sudeep Chatterjee is enough to give us a proper perspective during the game. He essentially establishes all his wide shots from the sideline and while we’re in the field, we’re only following the ball. However, what that takes away from us, is the dynamism with which the camera could have involved us in the game. We’re following characters in the film, not the game so much, while the camera mainly follows the game and not the characters so much. There is a slight discord there. The music is upbeat and keeps the rhythm of the game alive, or maybe even helps it a little bit.

Is it too much to expect some talk about the sport itself, in a film which is based on the sport? There could be 2 reasons why the writer may have completely avoided talk about the nuances or tactics or strategies of the game –
1. no research into that subject,
2. the fear of disconnecting the audience with too much game talk.
Scenario 2 could have actually presented a challenge to the writer, but he has obviously circumvented it by conveniently putting a commentator in the second half, who tells us exactly what is transpiring on screen, but there is nothing there that we can’t see for ourselves. Or was that meant to be ESPN radio-commentary?

JS seems to have sleep-written the film. I had great hopes from the film because it involved him (Company, Khosla ka Ghosla, Bunty aur Babli) and SA (Ab Tak Chappan – easily one of the best films of this decade, and most certainly one of the best in the Crime / mafia / cop genre). Just as I walked out, I got a message from a friend which said, ‘I went with no expectations and quite enjoyed the film.’ Sadly I couldn’t say the same. I could enjoy MYSELF, but not the film. Chak De India is a reasonably ok film to watch with friends. Go watch, clap for your team, cheer for them, and they will win the WC for you. But don’t expect any more.