Chak De! India
Chak De! India is one of the best movies to have come out of the Bollywood factories in recent years. The beauty of the movie lies in the fact that besides being a thoroughly enjoyable movie, it effortlessly raises so many relevant issues.
The issue of national pride. What a classic moment when Shahrukh tells the team that they are from India, not Haryana or Jharkhand or Railways. “Play for your country first, then for your team, and if anything’s left after that then maybe for yourself”.
How many of us actually care about India ? Everybody seems to want to take her for a ride. Make a fast buck…country be damned.
The issue of women’s stature in society. “Ye belan chalane wali ladkiyan kya hockey khelengi” is the attitude of so many men who see women just as someone whose only job is to cook food, raise the kids, and not have a life of their own. It is depressing to know how rampant the dowry system still is - more so in the affluent families. The richer the family, the bigger the car, or the plot of land. There are states where the guys are just commodities out to sell them. As a guy, it repulses me to think that educated people doing well in life use marriage as an instrument in getting richer.
The issue of sports, especially hockey. In India, all sports have always languished behind cricket..despite the fact that the indian team is mediocre, to be kind to them. To me, cricket seems to remind me of WWF (now WWE). You cant really guess that it is all fixed, but it is. Cricket seems similar…with all the money involved how do those 11 odd players care if they win or lose as long as they are making enough money to last them and their coming generations a long time.
One might say that ChakDe is a sports film…but it is bigger than that. It is a mirror being held to our faces to show us that it’s time to change and get up. Stop complaining and start doing your bit. Change won’t happen overnight, but someone somewhere has to start thinking that well, maybe we’ve had just about enough.
Additions to the list of issues hoghlighted:
1) Discriminatory treatement to people from NE
2) Non understanding of northies that they are 4 southern states rather than just madras
3) Illtreatement and distrust faced by Muslims at the hands of Hindus everytime. Painting them all with the same brush is wrong.
4) Wide differences between people from different states.
Team spirit issues(in many fora), getting satisfied with little performance and not going for the kill easliy(as was shown by the team members who were reasting on their laurels of being state captains), media irresponsibleness, public gullibility, bureaucracy’s causual, in fact sabotaging attitude(the enormous power at their command).
well said Amol ! We do need to get over petty matters and unite as a nation for the world to take us seriously.
I am just happy to see that atleast one indian man i.e., you the author, will stand up against the dowry system. It all starts from one. As far as the movie is concerned, yes chak de is well made and brings forward the crux of being an indian i.e, unity in diversity. We all know that a movie made on a sports team be it in Hollywood or Mumbai, has to end being victorious, but the journey is what really matters. Also i feel that inspite a multi cast, all the actors got equal oppurtunity to show their talent.
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hi…me anu a tamil gal who dont know hindi…today i saw this movie with my friends…but i was not interested in seeing this movie..bcoz i cant understand hindi…while see somewat i can understand..i love india…i proud to be indian always…after seeing this i was thinking that wat i did for india…it makes me to feel that much its really a great movie..i never seen this type of movie really great…no words to tell about the movie…bcoz it s simply super…really great i am really happy to see this movie…plz try to do this type of movies…i will try to learn hindi..to see this type of movie..i have seen lot of tamil movie….but i never scearch for giving the comments about the movie…this s the first time.. i like this movie that much… really great…thank u
Thanks Anu. And welcome to my blog. I can share your feelings about this movie. It made me also think what i have done for India. I probably still havent, but i will get there! - AD
which is the best field in india Kollywood or Bollywood (Tamil or Hindi)?
bhai log sachi bol raha mujhe ye movie kuch khaas nahi lagi. but Sharukh khan acting was really awesome.
[…] all know that Indian hockey is in the crapper. We have gone from the high of Chak De India, to the low of the Phir Dil Do Hockey Ko debacle circa 2010 World […]