Sadly Over-hyped

Purely Joyful Movie!

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

To begin with, the storyline was well written. A hockey coach who wants to redeem himself from all the hate he got as a player, its a movie that doesn't come along very often. SRK has been severely criticised for his recent movies, but that doesn't take away the fact that he is an outstanding actor, and that is clearly evident in this movie. Every word that he said made you feel like he meant it, it was one of the best performances by him, or if not the best. Honestly, if some other actor, say Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Kamal Hasan or Mammooty played this role, it wouldn't have the rating it has now. No one else could play the role better than he can. I'm not saying this because I'm a huge fan, it's because it's the truth that has to be accepted. This isn't the first time he has produced some top notch performances. He has delivered them as the romantic Aman in Kal Ho Naa Ho, and of course, Mohan Bhargava, the NASA engineer in the National Award winning movie Swades...

The first thing this movie shows us is over excited and unreliable media all around the world. The way they accuse one for match fixing for just shaking hands with the opponent. Another thing this movie tells us is that women are a lot more than we think they are, they are not shadows of men, they are they themselves. In the subcontinent, cricket is given more attention than hockey and football, despite the fact that Pakistan and India have excelled in hockey and ruled the world in this sport for a long long time. This movie is not only an inspiration for players but also for coaches, tells the players that to win something, you first have to work as a team, then comes your technique and all. The movie tells the coaches how to make your team play like a team. "To make a team, you need intentions, not power." This dialog from SRK says it all. And for all hockey/football players, "Don't play against the goalkeeper, play against his mind, the goal will happen itself." The best thing about this movie is that it does not bore you at all, after every 10 minutes or so, there is always some sort of twist. Shah Rukh Khan won Filmfare for best actor for his performance in this film, and deserving as well. The actors playing the characters of the players did brilliant in terms of acting, especially the actor playing Komal. For a huge Hockey fan like me, this is an inspirational story of how to come back strong even after your career is over..

This YashRaj production with Shahrukh with no melodrama, no parental opposition, no romance but still went on to touch the hearts of the audience. CHAK DE India, directed by Shimit Amin, opens a new territory. A territory of emotions, inspirations and love for our national sport. The movie is about a man who tries to prove his dedication and love for the nation after being labeled as traitor by the people of his own nationKabir Khan(Shah Rukh Khan) in the movie went on to miss the last-minute penalty shoot out against Pakistan in the world finals. This penalty shoot-out changed his life so much so that he was betrayed by his own country. Later Kabir Khan, returns as the coach of Indian women hockey team, a team that is just on papers. The movie is about using everything that life hurls on them as a weapon to fight their enemies.The direction of the movie is such that till the last penalties one remains excited. Even though it is a bollywood movie and one knows India is going to win. But the direction grips us to our seats with the excitement of what is going to happen nextI really liked the way Shahrukh Khan used his facial expressions and intense eyes to his advantage, with utmost conviction SRK played a man simmering and seething within. The acting of girls in the hockey team was also praiseworthy.Chak De India may not be the best bollywood movie to watch but is it among really good movies that Bollywood has produced. It was much more than my expectation from YashRaj production and Shahrukh Khan. I feel that a lot of credits must be given to the director of the movie, Shimit Amin who did such an awesome work in his second movie. I am also glad to mention that the movie went on to win 8 best movie awards including International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) awards in 2008.At the end I would like to applaud the Indian team for winning silver medal in Commonwealth Games 2014 and is eagerly waiting for the day when Indian will again win gold in their national sport, Hockey.

What happens when the reigning actor in India joins a small banner film about sports, and not just any sport but specifically hockey. Not India's cup of tea, you might think, but surprising enough it works ! Shahrukh Khan is Kabir Khan, a washed out center forward of the former great Indian hockey squad. After a mishap in the world-cup final, where he misses a penalty-shot and gets blamed by the media for betraying his country, he makes a comeback. But as a coach not as a player and his goal is, to lead the women of the national Indian hockey squad to their first world-cup. As you can guess coach Kabir faces his lot of troubles; the hockey board who doesn't approve, the girls who wouldn't play under him. At first his goal seems not only far fetched but impossible at that. And what happens next is... magic. Not the best sports movie I have seen in my life, but Chak de is surely the most inspiring one and most surprisingly it comes out the land of love, love and love India. India is infamous for it's bad traffic, high pollution and romantic movies, so Chak de India comes as a breath of fresh air in the land where sports is a untampered subject. Don't get me wrong it shows, the script is not an original one, it's not the best written movie I've seen, the dialogues just don't come across naturally. The movie utilises before seen underplays, like the rivalry in the team between the two main strikers, the complete impossible goal, the failure of the main character (Kabir), ... The acting isn't the best piece of acting I've seen in a while, it's quite the contrary, this movie has a list of newcomers and a seasoned veteran to guide them, Shahrukh plays his role convincingly but yet he is not the star, for me this is Chitrashi Rawat who plays Komal, the tiny striker I think this girl has played her role to a "T" and together with Shilpa Shukla who plays Bindia Naik they keep their ground pretty well against King Khan. But the rest of the cast is just not up to the task and this shows. But enough of the negatives lets get to the points where this movie just stands out let's begin with the overall feel, because of the way the hockey matches are shot the movie lifts up 10 notches, the other is the perfect use of background music in comparison with slick editing, I think at this point I think the movie is easily comparable to Hollywood 'A-listers'. You know what's gonna happen but still because of the sheer craftsmanship the movie pulls you to the edge of the seat and just for that I give Chak De India 4 stars out of 5. If you're in need of something else than that sobby bollywood romance, go watch this and feel proud to be an Indian.