August 20, 2007

Chak De- Its Intent is its strength



One up for women’s empowerment and a thumbs up from me. After Lagaan and Iqbal, this is the next Indian sports related movie. It falls in between in its scale- it is neither as grand as Lagaan nor as simple as Iqbaal. It also focuses on women ( teen ) players and the opposition they face because they are girls and also because they are in sport.

Bereft of star antics, a heroine and a villain, SRK actually delivers a controlled performance. He proved he was King Khan to me in this one.

One of the dialogues that I loved was “ Cricket ki tarah hockey mein chakke nahin hote” ( there are no sixers ( or eunuchs- pun intended) in hockey) and another “ Team mein ek hi goonda ho saktha hai- iss team mein main hoon”( each team can have only one bully and it is me )

As for the cast, they are just fantastic. The girls exuded raw energy and awesome talent. While it should not matter, some were very good looking as well. Most importantly all were authentic to their roles. Without this, the film would not have rung so true

One also saw TV stars of yesteryears- the mother of Hum Log , “Jhumroo” & Anjan Srivstav ( Wagle) played decent parts.

Only wrong note was not once have I seen mass hysteria about hockey – the kind provoked by a so called dubious loss by the captain Kabir ( played by Shah Rukh)

Anush loved the songs though the have been panned by critics and she kept dancing to the title track ( of course with her amma ensuring no one in the audience is disturbed)


Each time she saw the ball & the stick she would intelligently look at me and say "Amma- cricket!!"

9 comments:

~nm said...

I loved chak de too! What I would have not been able to do justice in how I felt seeing it, you have done it just so right!

I also felt those dilaogues were sooo goood!

Minka said...

Great - I have been thinking of taking my son to Tumble Tots but somehow just didn't get time . BTW you should check out the Baby's Day Out place on Chamiers Road - amazing place . tad too expensive - Rs 450 for 1.5 hours.But lovely place and activities - I think it would be a good place for a birthday party !

Artnavy said...

nm-tnx

minka- have seen ababy's day out- will check it out shortly- but too far for me to consider it

need to se Navadisha and Abacus

Billabong is good but too far again

Rebelzz said...

Oh I loved Chak De! And all the girls were really good... Esp the one who played the part of Bindya! I thought she was very good :)

And SRK, as usual was amazing... I loved his 'look' :)

Rebelzz said...

I esp loved the dialogue -- 'Aap to bahut neeche gir gaye! Apne ladkiyon se bolon ki aapko uthayen?'

nanands said...

The former India hockey goalkeeper, who was pilloried for India's 7-1 defeat to Pakistan in 1982 now basks in the 'Chak De India' glory. A redeemed Mir Ranjan Negi said, “ I played for the country for five years. That was one bad match for me and I got so much insult for it. The media wrote so many bad things about me, it's 10 times more than what is shown in the movie. People pelted stones at me, their behaviour was unbelievably bad. They put out the lights during my marriage. I could have blasted everybody who heaped abuse on me. But there was one consolation that my teammates, family and friends had immense faith in me.” (DNA news item)

Something to Say said...

must check out Chak De then :)

Swati said...

I HAVE to make for the movie.

Amma Cricket !! is just to hilarious

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

Hey you took Anush to the movie, she was OK with it? Hmmmm maybe that wouldn't have been a bad idea for me too. Are kids really OK in the movie theaters (is she used to it?)

Please tell me !