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Chak De! India (2007) Director: Shimit Amin Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Segarika Ghatge, Vidya Malvade, Shilpa Shukla Time: 152 min. Hindi with English subtitles Rating: |
Shah Rukh Khan and the Indian women’s field hockey team—it’s a cinematic combination that could’ve descended into melodramatic blubbering and ultra-patriotism. But a restrained script and good direction from Shimit Amin make Chak De! India a nicely produced, entertaining film.
Based on a true story, Chak De follows the basic underdog sports formula. Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), an ex-field hockey player for India once accused of being a traitor for throwing a championship match with Pakistan, takes a job no one else seems to want—coaching the Indian women’s field hockey team.
The women arrive for training from across India, and Khan teaches them how to overcome their egos and develop as a team. After Khan convinces the Indian field hockey association that his team can be contenders, the women are sent to the world championships in Australia.
Despite the formulaic plot, Chak De works for several reasons: the script stays on topic, the story balances humor and drama, and the emotional levels peak softly without becoming sentimental or tediously annoying.
Wisely, Amin has chosen to tell only one story—how the women’s field hockey team evolves as a team. Throughout the entire 152-minute running time, we watch as team members sublimate their personalities and learn how to work together. And that remains the film’s focus.
The script does contain some subplots: one of the women resists efforts from her cricket player boyfriend to trap her into marriage, and another encourages the team to mutiny against coach Khan. However, these subplots still connect to the film’s overall theme: building and maintaining team unity.
This restraint is refreshing considering the number of dead-end or loose-end subplots that could’ve been explored. (A more flamboyant director such as Karan Johar would’ve littered the landscape with random, illogical subplots that would be picked up and dropped in a few scenes.)
Writer Jaideep Sahni’s script also does a good job of balancing humor and drama without taking either to an extreme. The humor in the early part of the film helps ingratiate the characters in our minds, and the later moments of humor give the film a human touch.
Likewise, the dramatic scenes and situations are played realistically without needless melodrama or patriotism. The conflicts between players are natural, and they are resolved professionally, as one would expect them to be resolved, without screaming or tantrums.
The dramatic scenes even offer some realistic, intelligent dialogues that reflect the themes of the film—team building and place of the individual in the team framework. In addition, coach Khan’s few motivational speeches are understated, inspiring the players with positive messages such as combating the stereotypes women are forced to confront in a patriarchal society.
The movie’s action scenes are handled equally well. Rather than use high-tech camera work and special effects to create a glossy, sanitized version of field hockey, Amin relies on simple camera angles and live-action techniques to create the impression of a fast-paced, gritty game played by an underdog team using second-hand equipment.
He also makes a brave choice by setting the final match as a night game. Without the high-tech cameras and digital effects, filming action scenes at night is quite difficult because of low lighting conditions and high-speed film. But Amin pulls it off wonderfully, without losing any of the action or visual quality.
Finally, Amin gets Shah Rukh Khan to act in an uncommonly subdued manner. SRK drops his usual mugging, quivering lip, and blubbering to give a solid performance in a serious role. Khan isn’t a nuanced actor (a statement I think he would agree with), but he shows that he can control his tears and portray a stern father figure (even if his eyes brim with tears once or twice).
One of the few criticisms of Chak De is that Khan’s character could use a little more depth. After we learn why he was accused of being a traitor at the very beginning of the film, we learn nothing else about his personal life.
Once he begins training the team, we only see him in glimpses, almost always in the context of the team, and in the occasional scene featuring only Khan, he is working out game strategies. We are left to wonder how he spends his time when he’s off the hockey field.
This lack of character depth applies to the women players as well. At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to them by learning which parts of India they come from—which gives us some context of who they are based on the stereotypes we have about states such as Bihar, Haryana, and Punjab.
Two of the women are given a little more depth, but the rest could’ve been left sitting on a two-dimensional bench for as little as we learn about them. The failure to create an entire team of well-rounded characters is the film’s one genuine weakness.
Supposedly, the script for Chak De has been sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, which is a nice gesture since the script has many strengths, particularly compared to so many other scripts that emerge from Bollywood. But ultimately, the film doesn’t exude Oscar quality.
This doesn’t mean Chak De is a bad movie or is poorly done; it simply doesn’t excel, at least not in the way that Lagaan, another “sports” film, did. (What made Lagaan Oscar-worthy was its ability to weave great symbolic meaning into a tale about a simple sporting event.)
Despite this, Chak De! India is certainly worth viewing. Walk into the theater, manage your expectations, and enjoy the rush of feel-good cinema. You might even walk out of the movie humming Chak De! India.
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