Chak De…

Chak De India.

While contemporary Hindi movies still revolve around remakes, sequels, prequels and the never out of oblivion love stories, Chak De comes as a special relief for Hindi movie lovers. There’s so much in the movie that is shown about India, in little terms. How by default every south Indian is classified as a Madrasi, how little we know about our own country especially on the eastern corner. The plight of women and sports other than cricket. Satirically, cricketers are almost looked upon as villains, their pride fueled by media, fans and the public. They are blind to notice other’s interest in sports other than cricket. No nonsense songs, and the 2-3 background songs are quite appropriately put in without being a ‘filler’ in normal typical Hindi movies.

There are ridiculous moments too…. Papa, papa, meinu bhi gaddar dekhna hai Daddy dear replies, aa beta, dekh and hoists the kid onto his shoulder, I can frame a real life scenario if the society I lived in was stupid enough to outcast a sports person based on media news and I ran to my dad asking papa papa, Gaddar dekhna hai. I would get a whack and be asked “Homework kiya kya tune?”. More ridiculous one being writing “Gaddar” on the wall and scribbling it off 7 years later. What the heck? Grow up people.

But the general seriousness overcomes the two-three ridiculous scenes and like in all other sports movies (Coach Carter, Glory Road etc), there’s infamy/oppression of minorities, then comeback with novel ideas, perseverance and dedication. There are adrenaline rushing moments too, I liked the scene at McDonalds and the punjabi chokri comedy was GOOD.
Characters Komal(who is a real-life hockey player from Chandigarh) and Preeti have a special role and Preeti Sabarwal (Sagarika Ghatge ) is the hottest of the lot.

I wonder if cricket crazy fans ever look beyond cricket and sponsors encourage other sports in India beginning with local level, even school level is fine. So there’s enough encouragement and opportunity for players to develop their skills from a young age. Politics is one thing that is not going to go away anytime soon, in selections at any level in India. But hopefully at least one deserving player making it to the next level can create some difference to how we play at national and international levels. The awe that comes to some of us with white skinned foreigners is shown for a very brief moment.

It is an SRK movie with or without him being on the frame, probably one my favorite SRK movies ever. Critic reviews were good, but box office records didn’t seem to be too motivating. Of course, we have fed so much of nonsense to the public that sudden intellectual ideas even in the tiniest quantities won’t get registered into their minds easily. A good, entertaining movie without the least profanity and moderately patriotic by pointing out our own differences than bashing another country for our problems.

A MUST watch.

Ok, while I go and cheer for Birmingham Barons  playing against Mobile bay bears (pah!), relax and enjaai.

Next post will be a baseball pictorial if I get seats close enough (or if the audience turn out is too low) . Just for info - Birmingham Baron’s shot into limelight a few years ago, when THE Michael Jordan quit basketball and joined baseball, but couldn’t come anywhere close to being called an average player. Of course, he quit soon. But there’s still some aura around Birmingham Barons that his basketball legacy left behind (say a modern transport bus for the team that he bought).