Chuck De! India

[Originally published in passionforcinema.com- http://passionforcinema.com/chak-de-india-jaideep-sahni-disappoints-this-time/]

I saw Chak De! India on the first Sunday of its release. After the show ended I remember walking out of the theatre with no remarkable feelings. For me the film was as lifeless as the promos (which were withdrawn) promised. I did not think about Kabir Khan, nor did I think about the state of the national game, Hockey, in India, vis-à-vis cricket. Not at all about the Vidya Malvade character (I don’t even remember the name.) I did not have any leftover feelings of being riveted to the screen, reveling in well-executed sports sequences. I remember having fleeting thoughts of Balbir and Komal because they played such endearing characters and they did it so well. I thought about Preety because she was quite pretty, but is that an achievement? But all this was before the Chak De! India or should I say the Yash Raj Films marketing juggernaut rolled on.

Over the next few weeks I was literally taken aback. Newspapers headlines screamed Chak De! at the drop of hat. TV presenters did the same. It was their on various websites. The Indian vocabulary seemed to have shrunk to two Punjabi words. It was dumbfounding, the movie was being presented as some kind of extraordinarily brave attempt at making good cinema, and somehow we were supposed to believe that it had contributed to everything, from women’s lib to the state of our national game hockey. I was at a loss! Didn’t we have 'Iqbal' recently, or 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' or 'Naya Daur' in the past? And that’s only mentioning some Hindi films revolving around a game. Are only ‘apparently’ noble intentions, a huge star & production house, a handful of eager to please journalists/ film commentators enough to put a film on a pedestal? What happened to the good old parameters of substantial characters, a reasonably gripping and challenging, yet believingly executed story with some memorable set-pieces? A film that lingers in your mind for days afterwards, not because its all around you on newspapers, television channels and hoardings. Not because a bunch of the protagonists are being bundled to every city worth its salt, and being treated as if they actually achieved something as important as winning the world cup, for a country, which is starved of more substantial achievements.

And what is so noble about showing a bunch of losers, who play like novices and couldn’t care less for the game, because they were so lost in themselves, actually going on to win the world cup! 'Shaolin Soccer' was more convincing! Iqbal the deaf and dumb boy, who ate, drunk and slept cricket had me clapping when he got his chance in the Indian team. I felt like celebrating when Shankar (Dilip Kumar) pulled a breathless win with his tonga against an imported bus in 'Naya Daur'. And it was so very inspiring to see the ‘never do well’ Sanjay Lal (Aamir Khan) grow up and embrace his responsibilities by way of the central metaphor of the cycle race in 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'. I rooted and cheered for the rag-tag group of gritty villagers to achieve the fantastical goal of winning against the cruel Englishmen in 'Lagaan'. Win they did and what a victory that was!!! Achievements, not big enough, when compared to what team India in Chak De! managed to do, but more convincing and satisfying with a lot more substance. 'Chak De! India' simply had the team somehow winning the games against apparently much better teams because the filmmakers wanted it that way, in the first place,but did not want to take the pain of conceiving it well. So the Chak De! team just sailed past after that first loss!!! No sweat. No grit. Hell! even Rocky Balboa had to lose in the first film!

Coming to the basics. It was a sports film, so the least one could expect were some riveting sequences of the game. No such memories. I just remember Ms. Malvade falling down on her knees in the same irritating manner for umpteen numbers of times, letting the ball into the post and the team, just going on to win every game after one loss from the reigning champs who they ultimately beat. Don’t ask me how. Contrast this with the racing sequences in ‘Naya Daur’ or ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’. Littered with overwhelming challenges, which the protagonists face and overcome with a grit that’s palpable. They never fail to set the pulses racing and consider the fact that the former was made about 50 years back and the latter more than 15 years.


There were so many characters in the film; so much scope to come up with a rich piece of filmmaking but most of them were just given cursory glances. Think 'Lagaan' and it’s huge cast where everyone came alive and most of them contributed in some way or other. 'Kachra' was much more than his freaky 'firkee' (spinning ball). Quite unlike the tribal girl in 'Chak De!' who was not allowed to go beyond saying ho!!! Or the north easterners who were limited to one scene were they are eve teased and a fight ensues. Bindiya Naik’s character/ Shilpa Shukla's talent was criminally underutilised. And pray on what ground the coach picked up Vidya Malvade as the captain, when he had got better players? Perhaps they didn’t suit his ego. The relationship between Vidya and Shahrukh seems to be just thrust in the script because it serves a sports film cliché. Same goes for the air-headed cricketer sub-plot. Am not against clichés, but the least one could expect from them is to have some logic/ believability and provide resonance to the story. There were clichés galore in Lagaan but they gave the story so much more depth because the writers had worked hard. Even the highly improbable love story of Rachel and Bhuvan in Lagaan was quite touching.

Coming to Lagaan, its been quite a few years since I saw it on its release. But I still fondly remember Bhuvan, Rachel, Kachra, Guran, Bhura, Lakha among others…Its been only a few weeks since I saw Chak De! and I only recognize a couple of the girls who hogged the screen time and because there faces are plastered everywhere. Shahrukh comes to my mind because he is always out there. Contrast his Kabir Khan with Naseer’s character Mohit in Iqbal, both are patent sports films clichés- washed out, disgraced individuals who come back for their dues. Mohit is a darker character than Kabir Khan- he is the reluctant embittered coach, a drunkard and a complete loser. But he grows with the film. On the other hand Kabir Khan is a lifeless card board cut with an air of self importance. He quotes so much about India [IN-DEE-YAAH ;-)] that if he really existed I would have serious doubts on his feelings for the country as well as his sanity.

I am a big fan of Jaideep Sahni; ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ is a movie which is in my personal list of all time great movies. But Mr. Sahni disappointed me big time with Chak De! He may have his reasons. But at the end of the day Chak De! India is an assembly line product at heart, an example of passionless by-the-numbers filmmaking. And celeberating Chak De! Is celebrating mediocrity.