Thursday, August 16, 2007

chak de, india

just saw the movie 'chak de, india' (www.chakdeindia.org) over the weekend with the kids and some friends.

its a well-made movie. i predict it will do well and will be declared a 'hit'. which is amazing considering that, apart from srk (shahrukh khan - www.shahrukh.com) there is not a single known face, no songs or dances, no death-defying stunts, no fights with dastardly villains, etc. what makes it special is that the film presents the reality about our attitude towards sports, the bias towards cricket, our regional biases, etc.

its a movie with shades of 'lagaan' and has some good moments. its a good mix of patriotism, the victory of david over goliath, woman power, team-spirit, us vs them and all that!

at the end of the movie my son promptly declared that we should buy him a hockey stick! i think the movie will definitely help the cause of hockey in the country, at least for some more time.

all in all a good 'paisa vasool' film! highly recommended.

7 comments:

~nm said...

Truly a great movie! A must watch for someone who wants to watch a movie beyond the regular romance and action stuff the movies are made of these days!

My Ma was one of the only people who I knew looked forward to watching hockey matches. I really do not remember any one else enjoying hockey!

It will be great if this game gets a boost ..even if it means from this movie!

Anonymous said...

Will definitely watch for sure... Looks :)

Unknown said...

I watched it here in HK as well, the songs left much to be desired..I guess a vital point missed in making the movie a sure shot hit....Lagaan - great music, great songs, Great movie...will Chak De get there...wait and watch...

Hope all is well !

BlacknwhiteColours said...

True! I agree... the movie covers many important aspects which we often ignore. The fact how other sports are taken as in India is well displayed in the movie.. hope this really changes the attitude n betters the situations for hockey sports team let alone other sports. Really a very well made movie. A must see!! Chak De India!!

-YOGiNi

Guruprasad said...

vivek :

you are right. this movie lacks some of the critical elements like dances and songs & music which are necessary for a 'big hit'. eg. most of karan johar, subhash ghai or the yash raj films.

and maybe that might make the difference in 'chak de india' becoming as big as lagaan.

but what makes chak de different is that it presents india and indianness as it is but still entertains and keeps you glued to your seat till the end.

the last scene where our 'world champions' have to haggle the fare with the rickshaw driver is a very telling comment on the state of affairs. but it doesn't get preachy nor denigrating in any way.

gp

MG said...

this was a complete entertainer and a typical trip in fantasy. i can go on and on about the loopholes in the scripts for eg: the girls practised on grass fields but glided seamlesssly onto the astro-turf for the world matches as it was the biggest one because only the other day hubby and i were discussing the reasons why india and pakistan (third world champs) lost to the developed world after the introduction of the astro-turf ... a political decision back then to throw us out of gear as its introduction and maintenance was out of the scope of poor countries like us.

but our movies are never much about reality anyway :-) what i liked most about the movie was the constant grip it kept on us viewers while conjuring our hopes and dreams and aspirations till the very end. now i wasnt too worried about the lack of a popular music score because i was instead awakened to the director's style as Chak De was his second venture after Ab Tak Chappan (another excellent movie). another thing i noticed was that the camera was constantly moving and as a result the picture gave you a feel of being there.

right now, india has two directors to watch out for... Farhan Akhtar and Shimit Amin.

Guruprasad said...

wouldn't you add nagesh kukonoor and ashutosh gowariker to this list?

guru