Indian Masala

Well, that is precisely what Chak De! India should be called. It is a film soaked in rich Indian emotions, marinated with the varied flavours of the local cuisines with a dash of patriotism, adequately blended to synthesize the symphony, and rightly spiced and garnished with that one thing which is indispensable for any Indian film; its Star value.

The one person who needs to be lauded at the outset is story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics writer Jaideep Sahni. If Bunty aur Babli and Khosla ka Ghosla proved his prowess as a writer and reiterated the fact that he has a good understanding of the variety in the multiple cultures of India (Khosla ka Ghosla was Delhi specific though) Chak De! India gives him an opportunity to weave a fabric from the different threads of India. The sheer sense of aesthetics with which he picks an eclectic mix of these threads and weaves them into the Indian tri-colour is superb. He is brilliant, period!

With a script as well penned as that of Chak De, the task for the director is eased out on one level and on another level it becomes an uphill task to achieve the zenith which the director has already attained. Director Shimit Amin plays the dual role tactfully. While he takes the easy route effortlessly; his voyage on the uphill task of execution shows the traces of dexterous craftsman.

Cameraman Sudeep Chatterjee has done yet another fabulous job. The way he maneuvers on the sports-field is just amazing and I don’t think any words of praise come close to the camerawork. Even in the other technical departments, the film is competent.

The bunch of young girls brings in freshness, innocence and naivety, all at the same time. It is of course their rawness as performers and the slightly unpolished look, which they impart to the characters, that make the film real and believable and this is precisely where Chak De! scores. Be it Balbir’s boisterousness or Bindiya’s arrogance, Komal’s innocently jealous expressions or Preeti’s oomph well balanced with a woman’s struggle, Soimui’s muted silence or Vidya’s post-nuptial act of juggling between the house and the career; every character has been well etched and well fleshed by the writer and well enacted by the performers.

And then the film has its moments, then be it the fight at McDonald’s, or the scene on the stadium before the finals, be it Shah Rukh’s stern stance or Bindiya’s defiance, be it the coach’s public humiliation or his acquittal; or the scene where Shah Rukh talks about the joy of seeing an Englishman hoisting the Indian flag; everything is just perfect. The symbolic use of cricket to fight the gender war, through Preeti’s fiancée is noteworthy, and it just showcases the extent to which patriarchy is rooted in the Indian soil. Even in a modern, educated, liberated, progressive, gender neutral India, it is all about the men, it is all about cricket.

In the 60th year of India’s independence, Chak De! liberates her national sport from the clutches of anonymity. On that level, this film conveys a lot about the modern day patriotism, to a nation which is currently enslaved by glamour, glitz and the razzmatazz of the western legacy.

And finally, as I write about my demigod, I am again into tears, exactly the way I was when I saw him on the screen. Watching Shah Rukh on screen is always a delight and with Chak De! he takes this delight on a celestial platform. The smouldering pain in his solemn eyes, effectively brings out the suffering of a convicted innocent. His dedication, his zeal, his arrogance, his honesty, his commitment, his piety and his renunciation of all the glamour that follows his success and thereby his exoneration; take his character to the level of a spiritual person, which in a way does remind me of Dev Anand in Guide. As Shah Rukh walks back into his ancestral house as Kabir Khan, all I can offer as a devotee are my tears of joy!