Chak De!

I don't often watch hindi movies, but my bored life sometimes forces me to watch one, that too, all alone. Having said that, let me add, I like watching movies. Usually, the kind of movies I watch are not appreciated by people I have for company. So, I watch them all alone, without getting distracted by distraction of my fellow moviewatcher by the designer clothes or lack of them, or finding something funny in serious scenes. So, I went out and watched two movies this weekend in quick succession.

The first movie, Chak de India, was not a movie I would have gone on a normal day. Firstly, I am not too fond of Shahrukh Khan's acting abilities, and not at all fond of his looks ( He looks like a hanger in his new lean look, What's up with these oldies, I say? I just hope that he is not taking a leaf out of Shekhar Suman's book, where he, like Shahrukh, has gone popla without shedding his teeth). And let me also add a completely extraneous statement that I was not swayed by the fact it had 16 girls playing hockey players. ( Would have been different if it had 16 male hockey players like Vivan Bhatena, He was such a cute prick in the movie). It is often said that the best way to enjoy a movie is to go without any expectation and form your opinion only after you have seen the movie. This has been proved so true in this case that I had to swallow all my misgivings about this movie. The story line and everything was dissected, and was all over the news, therefore I had a fair idea what was in store. But surprised I was, when I saw the final product. Shahrukh khan for once was restrained and did not get to twist his lips, or shed copious tears while shaking his neck the way he does when he loses his heroine. All the girls were perfectly cast and showed decent acting abilities, while dribbling the hockey stick, which by no means would have been easy.

The best part of movie was its taut screenplay and editing, Shimit Amin himself being an ex-editor would have certainly helped here. Much to my chagrin, I enjoyed the movie so much so that I even fancied Sagarika Ghatge playing the role of Preeti Sabharwal. Kudos to Jaideep Sahni and Aditya Chopra for having conceived such a film and bringing it to us, without having to worry about commercial viabilty of a movie centering around women Hockey. Jaideep, who also helms the dialogue and lyrics of the movies has brought out the character sketches beautifully. All in all, though it may been inspired by hollywood movie Miracle, yet it has been indianised so well that it makes every indian shout Chak De..India!! at the end.