Chak De India: The Burden Of Muslim Identity article

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Every reviewer in the mainstream media is for all praise for Shamit Amin to make a Mulsim ‘˜the Hero’ of the film!! All those reviews stinks of sheer surprise and sympathy. My question is why a Muslim needs a certificate from Janta of their patriotism? writes Khadeeja Arif  

I don’t remember I have seen a film based on a particular sport and did not like it. Be it Jo jeeta wohi Sikandar, Lagan, Iqbaal, awwal Number, etc etc.  I like them all!!

You must be wondering how come I like Awwal Number when it was quite a flop!!! In retrospect, I think I liked Awwal number more because of Aamir Khan than the film!!

Anyways, coming back to my basic point that I have always liked all the film based on sports, I ask one question to myself: Do I like sports film because of the films they are or because a particular sport provides energy to the film that keeps you glued to the film till the very end?

Last week, after hearing hundreds of good reviews of Chak de India, I saw the film!! I would accept that despite the fact that the religious/gender/regional stereotypes disturbed me more than ever, I was clapping on most shots and was nervous whenever the hockey player were in crisis. After watching the film, I realised the I was feeling as if I was watching a real hockey match though I would accept that I don’t remember having seen any women hockey match ever. It may be because of two reasons: one that there are almost no coverage of women hockey matches in India or I am blind to them!!!

Anyways, coming back to the film, Chak De‘¦ is a film which can be read at many levels. It can be read simply as a film about Women Hockey in India; a film about Muslims in India and the identity crisis that they are going through at present; a film about Woman empowerment and a film about society’s attitude towards failure and success and it’s a film about gender politics at large.

I would like to read it as a film about Hockey sport in the country  and would conveniently ignore rest of the readings, as it neither does anything  to make me feel better and nor it can change the notion of most commercial filmmaking in Bollywood!!!

I would like to ignore the portrayal of coach Kabir Khan, his constant effort to prove that he is not a ‘˜Ghaddar’; constant assertion of his patriotism more than his individuality/ more than his talent as a player!! Kabir Khan, like any other Muslim character carries the burden of his identity. In this film, unlike many other films, a Muslim is neither a ‘˜terrorist’, nor a too loyal an officer, but he remains at the defensive despite the fact a Muslim is the ‘˜hero’ of the film.

Every reviewer in the mainstream media is for all praise for Shamit Amin to make a Mulsim ‘˜the Hero’ of the film!! All those reviews stinks of sheer surprise (as how can it be possible?) and sympathy (Muslims are not that bad if they are able to prove their patriotism). My question is why a Muslim needs a certificate from Janta of their patriotism? And, why cant most Bollywood films have a Muslim character who, like an individual, also have grey shades of morality?

I would also like to ignore that in the film the Hockey Association only consider women player fit to be in the kitchen!!! And, the association only agrees to send the women team for the world when their male counterpart appreciates their efforts despite the fact that women lose the match with them!! I would also like to ignore the regional stereotypes-

‘˜Jharkhand mein Jhadiyan hoti hongi’ and Punjabi woman as extremely aggressive, etc etc.

As a sport film, it has all the energy which is required to make it a film what it is!! I specially liked the performances of almost all the characters. Like anyone else, my favourite remains Chitrasha Rawat as Komal Chautala. She is too good. She is natural and convincing and has a great screen presence. Shilpa Shukla is at par with Shahrukh Khan. She is the only character who has grey shades.  She emotes to each expression remarkably well. Last time I saw her in Sabeha Sumar’s  Khamosh Paani and she was pretty convincing in that film also.

I think Shamit Amin and the team deserve praise for the detailed characterisation, a tight script, and editing the film in such a manner that one does not really interest (no matter how predictable is the story).

Shahrukh Khan as usual is good, except sometime his moral lectures become too much. This is nothing new to Chak De‘¦he has done this in all his film and will continue doing so for ages!!!

The story of the film moves in a very predictable manner. The climax is too predictable. I wish it was edited precisely and not run too long!! The end of the film is silly. The tears in Kabir Khan’s eyes when the team wins the world compels you to laugh and more than that when he returns home the kid of the neighbourhood actually erases ‘˜Gaddar’ written on the wall! I was little surprised how in seven years the black coal writing on the wall dint get washed off‘¦ may be there was no sun and rain in those seven years!!!! yeh bollywood hai Bollywood....