CHAKDE! INDIA

(movie review 2)

Ever Imagined Yash raj movies without the mutiple star cast, conventional Indian drama with songs in expensive foreign locations and big sets? Heroines with the chiffon sarees on, running in slow motion when it suddenly rains, hero hold their hands to kiss intimately? Well, wondering why I said all that? Because, yash raj films is back again with their new venture – Chak de India, that has proven a movie can do well even without all these elements.

Yash Raj Films proved that they can get out of the conventional way of making a movie in India. This time they are up with a movie on sports. Yes, as we all know by now, Chak de India is about hockey. The game which was invented by us INDIANS and yet there is no support and encouragement that it deserves for a national game. Yash raj films dared to do a movie on this subject and that too have chosen the toughest part of it, women’s Hockey. But guess what? They made it so beautiful and interesting that we shouldn’t be surprised if we see a lot of people playing Hockey in our neighborhood after watching this movie.

Brief story:
The movie - Chak de India, revolves around a coach and his women’s hockey team. He tries to show the world what people can achieve as a team with a little bit of effort, no matter where they come from the country. Coach motivates and inspires the team to play as a whole for the nation but not for an individual’s welfare. The captain has a downfall in his career for which he was dropped out of men’s hockey team at his time. His immense love towards the game pushes him to take up the job to coach women’s national hockey team. The rest of the movie is all about how the team excels and makes their mark with the help of the coach.

Performance:
Shahruk khan was exceptional as a coach. His dialogue delivery and body language suited flawlessly for his role. He did complete justice to his character.
All the 16 girls performed well as needed for their roles. Although, some of them even did act so good that it’s hard to say they are new comers.

The music and background score by saleem- suilaman adds to the whole mood of the movie. Audience can expect adrenaline rushes quite a sometimes.
Cinematography was good. The depth of the clarity in the film is way too good. And the camera work is also impressive.
Screenplay by Jaideep Sahani was exceptional. It is well-matched to the audience who can’t sit in the theaters for as long as 3hrs. It was fast and keeps audience stick to their seats.
Direction by Amin is good. He was smart to make this movie short without dragging any further. He did handle the scenes involving the hockey matches well, capturing player’s emotions perfectly. He would have gotten what he expected from his crew. After having directed a movie like “Ab tak Chappan”, he was dexterous in not only changing his genre to sports but also executing the movie to its best.

Analysis:
The movie, on a whole is well balanced with all the good and bad parts. The good parts include comedy, lots of emotions, adrenaline rushes and few good lines from the actors. Though the movie is about hockey, auidence do get a chance to see glamor through some of the girls. The story was told in a pretty straight forward manner, which makes it worth watching for. Coming to bad parts,there were not much of the teams tactics shown . Most of the time, the movie focuses on the training rather than team tactics.Towards the end, the director failed to put things intact, one can guess what is going to happen even before the scene.

As a viewer I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie. It is short and it is about hockey! I recommend not to miss this movie as it is one of the finest sports movies ever made and seen on the Indian celluloid. Infact one can consider watching it more than once.
Rating: 4.5/5

(Manohar Vanamadi)
v_manu1@yahoo.com