Chak De India: Signs of Maturity review

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A compelling storyline and good pace make Chak De India an enjoyable watch. Although not a piece of ground breaking cinema, Chak De does give indications of a maturing Indian cinema, writes Parul Goel

When the much anticipated Shahruk Khan starrer Chak De India released last Friday, the expectations were high. The local Indian movie theater in Southern California was running a show every hour of the day over the weekend because of which I was able to watch the movie the first weekend itself. Being an enthusiastic Shakruk Khan fan, I was very eager to watch the movie. At the same time, I did not have any expectations of originality or ground breaking cinema.

Sports genre has been rather ignored by Bollywood. Other than Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar and may be Lagaan, if it counts as one, nothing else stands out. Therefore there is not much of a benchmark to compare Chak de India to.

Chak De India tells the story of the Indian National Women’s Hockey team that lacks any support from anyone - organizers, family and friends. Kabir Khan, a national level hockey player who had been accused of betraying his team in a match against Pakistan agrees to coach the team and takes it up as an opportunity to clear his name. From there on, the movie is about the metamorphosis of the team from regional factions to a national team, and there journey though World Cup.

A compelling story line and good pace makes Chak De India an enjoyable watch. The movie succeeds in highlighting some real problems that exist in Indian sport scene — regionalism, lack to team spirit, national indifference towards almost all sports other than cricket, and all women’s sport including cricket. It also has some sarcastic remarks regarding indifference towards North Eastern states in general Indian public. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the movie did not include a love story. Other than the main plot related to the National Hockey team, there are a few side stories related to some characters, mostly to explain their need to prove themselves. But they do not distract from the main plot. Rather, these side plots work as small details that make the story more interesting.

Chak De India boasts only Shahruk Khan as the only “star” cast. The 14 girls that make up the team are either first timers, or not very well known actors. However, their performances are strong and promising. Especially the few girls that have more screen time than the others - Shilpa Shukla (Bindia Naik), Segarika Ghatge (Preeti Sabarwal), Chitrashi Rawat (Komal Chautala), Tanya Abrol (Babir Kaur) do impress. Even as a big fan of Shahruk Khan, I found his performance a tad dramatic. The fact that almost everyone else in the movie is new to Bollywood perhaps just highlight this trait that might otherwise blend well with typical Hindi movie trend, But, to his credit, Shahruk Khan does let his team carry the movie and shine in the process.

What impressed me the most about the movie is that there has been a conscious effort made to keep the events at least close to being plausible. For example, when the Indian team is playing against another team that is known for its rough ways, rather than preaching non-violence like I had half expected him to, the coach asks the women to retaliate with some rough play of their own,. To avoid spoilers, I will not get into more details. However, Chak De India does have its share of cheesy moments. Some of them so warm and fuzzy, that they made me cringe.

Although still not a piece of ground breaking cinema, Chak De does give indications of a maturing Indian cinema. Overall, I found Chak De India to a feel good movie with a strong message.