Chak De - Go chase your sporting dreams again!

Being a sports fan who also loves movies, it doesn’t take a lot to guess my favourite genre. Unfortunately, sport has not been a very popular theme with Indian movie-makers. Actually thank god for it. Coz’ most bollywood sports movies have made me wince (so fewer movies have meant less torture).The regular formula has been to replace the standard climax action shot with one where the hero is making mince-meat of the opposition players. And the sports scenes could have been shot better by a blind man. The batting shots of Aditya Pancholi, Kumar Gaurav and Aamir Khan in the movie Awwal No. should be used to interrogate cricket loving criminals in jail. There has been the occasional decent one – the likes of Hip Hip Hooray, Lagaan, Iqbal and Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander. But none of them has been a great sports movie.

This might sound preposterous but most of them are not even a true sports movie. They are more about fighting for a cause where the sporting activity was a means to the end objective. There is scope to replace the sporting activity with something else and the movie would be just as good. Iqbal comes closest to being a sports movie but don’t stir up enough sporting passion. Watching it, I don’t feel like getting up and bowling. The script also leaves a lot to be desired and the sporting scenes are no great shakes.

Luckily for me and thanks to liberalization, Hollywood comes to the rescue. They have given me a whole bunch of absolutely great movies. Ones, which have evoked the same emotions that made me a diehard sports fan in the first place. Movies like Bull Durham, Glory Road, Hoosiers, Brian’s Song, Rudy or Chariots of Fire aren’t about winning the game; rather they are about the victory of the sport itself. These great sports movie either make a player or a fan out of you. They have given me great joy and I have watched most of them multiple times over. However, I have still longed for an Indian sports movie of the same class.

Reason being – these Hollywood movies have been about sports and sporting environments I don’t identify with. I have taught myself to understand American football and baseball but there’s no way I can learn to feel them. There’s no way I can feel the madness of college football (which by the way is far more popular than the professional league). I will never have enough appreciation for the socio-cultural impact of sports in American history and I don’t understand the psyche of a nation which takes first place for granted.

Finally, the wait is over. Today we have ‘Chak De’ – a movie which finally makes the leap.

This movie is about India and a truly Indian sport. The situation is Indian and so is the reason.

Like most of the successful Hollywood flicks, this movie is based on a true story – a story of redemption which will motivate sportsmen and non-sportsmen alike. A true story, which is very believable and shies away from the regular ‘hero is a superman’ histrionics. The sporting scenes have been shot really well and the actors are very real.

More importantly, this movie brings the nation’s attention back to hockey – a sport languishing from apathy and lack of mass support. It’s actually the best thing which has happened for hockey in a long long time. It also does its bit for national unity, communal harmony and girl power. It has its drawbacks but they are minor and can be ignored in light of all the good stuff.

While all of this has been talked and written about in great detail; it also does something which puts it in a different league from the likes of Hip Hip Hooray, Lagaan, Iqbal and Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander.

‘Chak De’ reminds you of all the reasons, why people play competitive sport. It reflects on the purity of sport. Takes you back to the age of innocence when playing the game was all that mattered and you were ready to make every kind of sacrifice for another round of your favourite sport. (Remember the scene where the players put egos aside for a chance to play) When winning the game was the only thing which gave you a kick in life. Puts you in back in a situation where the sport and sportsmen are untouched by its crass commercialization.

If you have ever been part of a sports team, you were ready to live and die for; Chak De is a vicarious experience which will give you the goose bumps. It’s a movie about honest sportsmen - the kind we all aspired to be when we first started playing the game. The emotion of putting on an India blazer is palpable; you almost want to go back and take another shot at relieving your sporting dreams.

In the movie, Komal Chautala’s character, dribbling around scooters and bikes brings a touch of remorse. This is what millions of kids should have been doing in this country (just like kids continue to dribble a football in the by lanes of Brazil). India would have continued to dominate world Hockey. I actually felt guilty for never having played our national game.

Most of us dream of writing a book and making a movie. ‘Beyond a Boundary’ is the kind of book I dream of writing some day and Chak De is the kind of sports movie, I would want to make. I will leave you with my favourite sports quote which comes from my second favourite sports movie (Bull Durham – watch it even you don’t understand baseball. Just the dialogues are worth the money)

A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.

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