Chak De

One man mentoring a hockey team of young and feisty girls. Their determination, ambition and skills are put to test in an ultimate contest with the world�s more..Chak De India� is a beautifully made film that makes you laugh, makes you cry, gives you goose bumps, and stirs up patriotism inside you. It is a film more..

Chak De! India (Hindi: चक दे इंडिया English: "Go For It, India!")^[2] is a 2007 Bollywood sports film about field hockey in India. It is directed by Shimit Amin, produced by Yash Raj Films, and stars Shahrukh Khan as Kabir Khan, the former captain of the Indian hockey team. After a disastrous loss to the Pakistani hockey team, Khan is ostracized from the sport. He and his mother are further forced from their ancestral home by angry neighbors. Seven years later in an attempt to redeem himself, Khan becomes the coach for the Indian women's hockey team with the goal of turning its sixteen contentious players into a champion team. After leading the women's team to the Gold, Khan restores his reputation and returns with his mother to their home, welcomed by those who had shunned them years before.

Chak De! India explores religious bigotry, the legacy of partition, ethnic/regional prejudice, and sexism in contemporary India through field hockey.^[3][4][5] Screenwriter Jaideep Sahni decided to write a fictional screenplay based on the winning of the Gold by the Indian women's field hockey team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games after reading about it in the newspaper.^[6][7] Thus the characters, while inspired by the real team and coaches, were invented by Sahni.^[8] Although some media outlets compared Kabir Khan to real-life hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi,^[9] Sahani has stated that he was unaware of Negi's tribulations while writing the script and that the resemblance with Negi's life was coincidental.^[10]

Earning over Rs 639 million, Chak De! India was the fourth highest grossing movie of 2007 in India ^[11] and was critically acclaimed.^[12] Chak De! India has won numerous awards (including eight for Best Film) and received the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.^[13] The suspension of the Indian Hockey Federation in April 2008 emphasized the film's influence. After a new hockey council was formed, former hockey player, Aslam Sher Khan, stated in an interview, "We have to make a Team India as you have seen in bollywood blockbuster Chak De! India. There are players from several parts of the country. We have to unite them to make a powerful force."^[14

Featured Chak De India Movie Review

by dblacksmith

Chake De is so much more than a Sport film or a Hockey film. Its so much more than that.

It addresses most relevant issues that our citizens are facing in their desire to become world class.

The main issues, which it addressed include the gender issue, the individual over the team issue, the leadership crisis issue, the communal issue, the post marriageidentity crisis isssue, the pathetic national sports issueand the generation gap issue.

These are issues which are being handled by every single indian in some area of his life. Be it as a student, an employee, a job aspirant, a lover, a father/mother, a wife/husband or as a noble minded indian.

The movie comes as a support to all those struggling indians. It comes as a uniting force which addresses all these issues by highlighting them an a extremely 'in-your-face' manner.

The movie charged me to such an extent that for ten minutes after the movie got over I was sitting in my seat, feel the blood boil in my veins.

My heart weeped for my country, because i could see clearly the challenges that we were facing in our daily life in our challenge to become professional, quality consious global indians.

For the past two years, I have been working in rural india sharing my skills with schools and colleges.I feel that every single indian must see this movie. I see it as anther Sholay.

Go see it. You will change.

Cheers

Gurmeethe making-of-a-team sports movie is a timeworn genre, and yet “Chak De! India” (“Go, India!”) finds new variations. Though the game here is field hockey, those fondly recalling the United States soccer team’s first-place finish in the 1991 Women’s World Cup will find a lot to like.

Of course, there are conventions. Kabir Khan (the assured Bollywood veteran Shahrukh Khan) is a former player for India’s national field hockey team who missed a fateful play against Pakistan, costing a championship and making him a pariah. Seven years later, he is hired to coach the nation’s women’s hockey team, giving him one more shot at a title.

The players, from states all over India, are a fractious lot, including a tomboy (Chitrashi Rawat) whose father fears she will never marry; a forward (Sagarika Ghatge) whose boyfriend, a cricket superstar, wants her to quit the team and live in his shadow; a newlywed goalie (Vidya Malavade) whose in-laws expect her to stay at home; and a haughty, seasoned player (Shilpa Shukla) who needles the coach.

When leering boys at a McDonald’s harass them, a girls-against-boys melee erupts, but the coach doesn’t interfere, knowing the team will prevail — and find its spirit. From there, it’s on to the women’s hockey championships in Melbourne, Australia.

The director, Shimit Amin, strikes a buoyant, propulsive tone, replacing the customary Bollywood production numbers with exhilarating musical montages of team practice. For his part, Mr. Khan, to his credit, lets his co-stars’ youthful charisma carry the movie. He also laudably portrays a man who vigorously and unabashedly advocates the advancement of women.

In fact, the film’s greatest merit is its commentary on sexism in India. As it should, “Chak De! India” gives the women, in the closing credits, the last word.

Directed by Shimit Amin; written (in Hindi, with English subtitles) by Jaideep Sahni; edited by Amitabh Shukla; music by Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant; art director, Sukant Panigrahy; produced by Aditya Chopra; released by Yash Raj Films. In Manhattan at the Imaginasian Theater, 239 East 59th Street. Running time: 152 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Shahrukh Khan (Kabir Khan), Vidya Malavade (Vidya Sharma), Chitrashi Rawat (Komal), Sagarika Ghatge (Preeti) and Shilpa Shukla (Bindia Naik).