I watched Chak De India last night. I know its 3 years Late. I had to wait for all the reviews and talk to die down so I can watch with No Judgment. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Sure, it makes a difference that I like field hockey, that being the sport of preference amongst the people I come from. The dialogue delivery was good, of course, I expected that out of Mr. Sharukh Khan, who plays the coach, Kabir Khan. There wasn’t any “50’s” style song and dance in the rain or around the trees sequences(which to me is such a blessing, I don’t mind song or music in the background but dancing around the trees, for God’s sake save that for a music album).
The story revolves around a Former Indian Field Hockey Capitan who made a critical loss to the Indian Team in a Match against India and Pakistan(yes, this is a matter of life or death in the Indian Subcontinent). This leads to social repurcussions, where his loyalty and patriotism is Questioned. He comes back as a Coach to the Rag-tag Indian women's hockey team which the Indian Hockey Federation believes to be a sort of lip service to the sport. He manages to train these 16 girls who have a wide range of personality, prejudices and mental blocks to become a team that makes it into the World Women Hockey Cup. I loved the flow, the story telling and the idea of how a Coach should be.
I loved the characters of Balbir Kaur and Komal Chautala the most. Although all the characters played their roles well.. I liked these two for the Fire their character exhibits… There were lessons to learn from this, especially for those who are parents, coaches, mentors or teachers. I loved the dialogues too, many were very insightful. There is this scene where the coach is driving the players to their limits of endurance, and he tells one of the players, Preeti “Stop, look and pass the ball forward, you don’t move Forward, pass the ball forward” of course it has double meaning… She was trying to gain her own fame than be the team player. To the short tempered Balbir, “what makes you so angry, first Raise your game above the other players and then Raise your Voice at others”. To the Rebellious Bindiya, he says “Every team has a Bully, and in this team I am the Bully” meaning you cant sit on MY throne. I liked his speech to the players right before the Womens Hockey World cup. Here’s a Clip and its translation below. I did try and to do a literal translation and keeping to what makes sense.
The Translation:
70 minutes, 70 minutes is all you have. Perhaps, the most important 70 minutes of your life. Today whether you play well or badly, these 70 minutes are what you will remember all through your life. So today, I will not tell you How to play. But I tell you, Go, in these 70 minutes, you play with all you got, to your heart's content. Cause the life after this, whether all is right or not, whether you have everything or have not but these 70 minutes will be something no one can take from you. So, I will not tell you how to play today instead you will show me, by playing. Cause I Know, in these 70 minutes, if each of you play the BEST hockey you can play in your life. Then these 70 minutes even God cant take back from you. so go, go and take from you, from your life, from your god, from each of those in your life who didnt have faith in you, Take Back Those Seventy Minutes and Make it YOURS.
Along with movie Lagaan, I would add this to my favorite list.
P. S. The movie also reminded me of a movie clip I watched of Al Pacino... Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
6 comments:
Oh, I love that!!! It reminds me of a book by Jodi Picoult in which she writes about an event that took place in a mere 19 minutes, her point being that so much can happen in a short time. Heck, the world could be transformed in under an hour if we all got together, eh?
It would...if we get together and have the Intention to transform the world, we could.
Theres a part in the movie where he tells his assistant - A good Team doesnt happen with Just Good Players, it happens with The Players Good Intention. I kept nodding and thinking of all those major financial crashes and knew this applied.
Ah, intention is important, eh? I think our thoughts and intentions have powers we cannot begin to fathom.
Within 70 minutes what chance and person has by choice, combined with the message that Al Pacino gave. They were both ones that had experience and were trying to instill a message that was not so much of an ideal but perhaps one of idealism combined with some inspiration to those both of these two were talking too. Within the end of both of these movies the both teams had one that thought they were over and beyond the team. Then thereafter they gained by way of the wisdom of these two and then came to find that both of them did have really the right answer. Experience when given within a team will always or most often bring about a unity. Thereafter the teams work best with each player as they gained something within there own way and then did come to be a team that did play at there best.
Yes, there is some amount of Idealism and a lot of inspiration within the words, which is why I liked it. Made me think about each minute of my life, how much of it do I actually do things with the BEST intention and how many I do cause it has to be done, and so not much thought/intention goes into its doing.
I certainly can relate.
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