Chak de India?
What was it really about? Did it convey one over powering uniform message? Or a confluence of integrated themes that splashed upon each other competing for superiority?
Was the movie a commentary on sexism? Or was it about 2 kinds of games –one played by ‘non-cricket’ players (who have lost the love for playing for their country) and the other played by the Indian Hockey Federation in its politics? And then there is that theme that unites Telgu and Tamil despite their Punjabi-Bihari differences! Maybe this ‘Lagaan meets Bend it Like Beckham’ saga was really about the spirit of the underdog. Of course, with one important difference—the absence of a common ‘enemy’; the arrogant East India Company in the former case and orthodox Punjabi parents struggling with an identity crisis in the latter!
If anything, this film was not about SRK. And that’s enough to raise eyebrows of even the softest of film critics. The absence of an Abhishek or Saif made such a restrained performance even more creditable. No unnecessary quivering of lips, no love interest, no overshadowing anyone, period. In fact, my last recollection of SRK sharing cinematic frames with a bunch of ‘plebeians’ goes as far back as the popular 90s TV show, Circus. And that was a long time ago!
August 30th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I absolutely love this movie. It is very genuine and crisp in every sense. It does bring a lot of issues to light- it is like putting life into a myth. We all know about sports and the politics associated with it in Indian context. Take a step further- think about Indian women and sports. And now think how the so called educated Indian youth (and not so young too) thinks about the fairer sex.
It is a shame that in the second largest populous country we don’t have a single sport or sports person on whom we can rely to bring home a single medal in the upcoming Olympics.
Chakde India is not only about the lost national sport, it is about our society in general.
I am glad that we are seeing a lot more of not the ‘running around trees and action hero’ movies these days.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
@Kanika: it surely is a confluence of integrated themes, but I didn’t see them competing for superiority. I carried home the following messages from the movie:
- It is about time we rise above our linguistic and cultural differences and stand up as a nation. Unfortunately, even here in the US I see it routinely that our fellow desis tend to be more favorable to their own clan so-to-speak. I am happy to see the trend in India where people have started moving to other states more unhesitatingly than was in the past. Hopefully that will in a long term help this cause.
- I do understand that it is difficult to overlook the many mischief makers in the muslim community in India, but I strongly believe that the ones who are genuine should not pay the price for others’ wrong doings. We should give every one of them a fair chance to prove that they belong to the better lot.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
thansk for the comments! both of them could be separate blog entries by themselves :)