Chak De! India - Movie Review
Published: March 15, 2011
Starring Shahrukh Khan
India's miracle-on-ice analog celebrates girl power while tackling sexism, religious prejudice, and regional rivalry in its portrayal of a fictional Indian women's national field hockey team battling enormous limitations and obstacles to reach the World Cup.
Shahrukh Khan is the only big star in the film, and he dominates it with his considerable presence. His fallen character looking for redemption, Kabir Khan, is the linchpin of the story. The rest of the casting is excellent. The women who play the athletes have little to no acting experience but are spirited performers nonetheless (and importantly, they realistically look like athletes). Their characters have big personalities and a lot to prove.
Kabir was a star field hockey player for the Indian men's national team who blew a World Cup game against Pakistan. Because Kabir is Muslim, there is false public conjecture that he deliberately missed a decisive penalty shot out of sympathy for the opposing team. The shame and harassment force Khan and his mother to leave their family home and the country in disgrace. Kabir returns seven years later to coach the ragtag women's national field hockey team and turn them into unlikely World Cup champions—in order to prove his patriotism and redeem himself in the eyes of his countrymen.
Kabir's players are his biggest challenge. Balbir is a Punjabi bruiser with an anger management problem. Rani and Soimoi are villagers who don't speak the same language as the rest of the team. Mary and Molly are from northeast India and their ethnic appearance makes them stick out. Komal, a sprite scorer, is fighting the objections of her parents to play hockey and she won't pass to her fellow forward, Preeti, who is dating a star cricket player—an arrogant heartthrob who is dismissive and disrespectful of her sports career. Bindia is the team's most experienced player and she has a big chip on her shoulder—she expects everyone, including the coach, to kowtow to her. Instead, Kabir benches her and makes Vidya—whose in-laws want her to be a traditional stay-at-home wife—the team captain.
Kabir is not given a love interest—a wise decision, as it would have detracted from the story. It's always refreshing to see, for a change, depictions of relationships between men and women that are not romantic or familial. Kabir works the women hard and makes himself their enemy so they'll stop competing with each other; once he earns their respect, he becomes their friend.
Predictable, yes—all sports movies are. Their enjoyment lies in the character development, as the athletes discover their inner strength, integrity, and bonds with one another in the face of adversity on the way to triumph.
Chak De! India is rated Must See.
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