Shah rukh khan to 'Lead India'

JWT is handling the creative duties of the campaign, while it is the brainchild of Agnello Dias, NCD, JWT. The campaign breaks on August 14. The campaign will be launched with a two-minute film and will also feature on the front page of The Times Of India.

The Group has roped in actor Shah Rukh Khan for its first film. The TVCs of the campaign have been divided into six films with six different personalities communicating the message of the Talent Hunt. Along with Khan, the other personalities include Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors, Infosys Technologies Limited; Sunil Mittal, CMD, Bharti Group; Navin Jindal MD, Jindal Steel Power Ltd, and MP; Sachin Pilot, India’s youngest MP; Sabrina Lal; lyricist Javed Akhtar, and actor Abhishek Bachchan.

Elaborating on the idea of the campaign, Rahul Kansal, Brand Director, The Times of India, said, “Today we find the quality of politics getting hijacked with words like corruption. We thought of finding a way out where one needs to bring out the idea of meeting young people and explaining to them the importance of politics. As a young and free country, we need young Indians to enter politics. So TOI is taking this step to create a platform for the youth of India who possess the quality of a good citizen, and leadership, thus giving them an opportunity to make a difference.”

The campaign is a six-month long activity in search of young dynamics. On the promotional activities and tie-ups, Dias informed, “The activity will be across the print and television. Under television, we have six films showcasing the personalities roped in to communicate the message. The campaign will go across the Times Group network like Times Now and Zoom channels, and the other print networks like TOI and ET. For digital, the websites will be accessible.”

Talking about the criteria on the hunt, Kansal said, “As the hunt is for the youth, so definitely the age bar will be between 18-45 years. While other considerations like police record and a good citizenship will be taken note of, if a person is educated, it will be an added plus point to his/her characteristic.”

In every issue of the newspaper, there will be a nomination form that the contestant can enrol himself/herself for the hunt or log-on to the Times Group website for the enrolment.

TOI will also have a special content line-up provided for August 15. It will have 24 pages talking on the campaign and will have interviews of the six personalities on their views and their experiences about the whole campaigning of the Talent Hunt.

Kansal commented, “As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Independence, TOI takes a first-of-its-kind initiative to present the youth of India an opportunity to make a difference. So this is one way that we will celebrate our Independence, and so have planned to break the campaign on the eve of I-Day.”

By: Tasneem Limbdiwala Source: TOI

SRK and his family The Khimpsons!

When Homer Simpson, the patriarch of the funniest family on the idiot box that kickstarted in 1989 as a series along with his family made his debut on the big screen in 2007, The Simpsons Movie took the world by storm.

Very much like our very own Badshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, who’s a global face and a name to reckon with. King Khan’s transition from the small screen in 1988 to the big screen in the 90s is the stuff dreams are made of.

Team CT decided to colour the Simpsons a shade of Bollywood yellow with Homer turning into SRK and his family The Khimpsons! SRK’s witty remarks leave you speechless akin to Homer’s wisecracks. Sample this:

Homer: D’oh! Lisa: A deer! Marge: A female deer! Of course SRK beats him in the looks department with his dimpled smile and melting brown eyes. And Marge’s blue hair symbolises the fact that she is indeed the glue of the family very much like Gauri, except she has a brown mane. Bart becomes Aryan and Suhana’s Lisa. Never mind Maggie.

The kids could always eat noodles! Just like Homer, this Khan too swears by his family and places it above everything else. And even though, Aryan and Suhana have a long way to go to be as famous as the Simpson’s brat pack, wife Gauri more than epitomises the quintessential star-wife and is a glamazon and fashionista in the champagne and caviar set.

Paradoxical as it may sound, the two families do show some inherent characteristics that are hard to miss. Whether it’s Homer and SRK who are driven by passion to pursue what they believe in or their love for their respective wives, Madge and Gauri are the women in control when it comes to taking charge of their respective households.

And Bart shares Aryan’s passion for sports, while Lisa is the dahlin’ of the family very much like Suhana. Matt Groening, are you listening?

Source: Naval-Shetye Source: TimesNewsNetwork

Shah Rukh Khan has never played a Muslim character

I should have taken on colleagues who said Chak De! India will flop. But alas, I happened to share Shah Rukh Khan's pre-release prediction that while it will be a good film, it won't be a commercial hit, and let the bet pass.

In hindsight, after watching -- and being swept away by -- the amazingly simple, yet amazingly inspirational film, I cannot stop raving about it. I thought Swades would be SRK's finest effort ever; but Chak De shows that the actor in him -- when not subsumed by his superstar status -- has a vast reservoir of emoting left to satisfy fans and critics alike for many more years.

Chak De's appeal among the audiences shows that even sans commercial considerations like song and dance, the mandatory fights, there is a vast market for a straight-forward, well-narrated tale. We have always known it from the multiplex hits like Bheja Fry etc; now we know such a market exists for stars and superstars as well. No one need remains a prisoner of their image.

Chak De is the tale of a disgraced hockey captain, Kabir Khan, and his attempt at redemption, reclaiming his honour by leading the unsung women's hockey team to world cup triumph. Yes, it is thus a story about gender equality -- a point that gets hammered many times through the narrative with dialogues like 'Tumlog belan chalanewali kidhar skirt pahinkar hockey stick leti ho?'

But to me, the film came across, and appealed, not for the blow it strikes for the country's most neglected sport nor for the fact that it shows that women are no less than men in any sphere they choose.

The film warmed to me because this was the first time the M-word has come to be at the centre of the superstar's oeuvre.

For throughout his illustrious career spanning two decades, Shah Rukh Khan has never played a Muslim character -- if you ignore that cameo in Kamal Haasan's Hey! Ram. Even in Chak De, there is NO allowance to the character's faith barring the name, Kabir Khan, the scraggly beard he sports, and the aadab with which he greets others. Not once is Kabir Khan shown doing the namaaz, not once is he shown clad in anything but 'Western attire', not once does he ever say he is a Muslim.

But, much as the script overtly downplays any mention of Kabir Khan's faith, it is Khan's dilemma as a Muslim in today's India that courses through the narrative.

And that's the way Shah Rukh would have wanted it, I am sure. Unlike the other two Khans who share the mantle with him.

I have no idea if Salman Khan has played a Muslim in his films, and if he has, what kind of Muslim the character was. Aamir Khan, given his nod towards realism, portrayed one that remains etched in my mind, Rehaan of Fanaa. Rehaan was a Kashmiri terrorist, clearly showing that Aamir will not duck any uncomfortable issue when it comes to his cinema. Rehaan fascinates me no end, since it was played by the same actor who also played ACP Rathore in the memorable Sarfarosh, the film that head-on tackled Pakistani terrorism in India.

Since then, I have been puzzling over the kind of Muslim Shah Rukh Khan will ever play, and the kind of film it will be. I got my answer with Chak De.

Shah Rukh has, in the past, spoken about his views on Islam, including to us, and they are reflective of the kind of person he is: Easy-going, and married to a Hindu. He is also extremely careful of the kind of roles he plays, and this extreme discretion is the reason -- I think -- that it has taken him this long to play a Muslim.

It cannot be easy to be a Muslim, in India and especially in these times. The moderate Muslim, who is in an overwhelming majority I am certain, has to constantly fight two demons: One from the past, of Partition and his/her perspective on Pakistan, a Muslim-majority nation inimical to India; and another ghost from the present, when Muslims are usually accused of engineering terrorist plots in India. Their silence often is reflective of the silence of the majority, of which we all are guilty of, but the silence of the Muslim is the one that is constantly highlighted.

A still from Chak De! IndiaI am sure SRK himself has had to face this dilemma, this doubt over his commitment to India. And it comes out in a searing line in the movie: 'Aise log Partition ke time mein hi Pakistan jaana chahiye tha.' It is a line, a charge, that must trouble SRK no end, as it does no doubt to millions of other Indians, for it returns to haunt him during the movie.

In my mind, the central theme running through the movie was: Can a Muslim be a Muslim and be loyal to India? Or to modify that, What must a Muslim do in the face of doubts over his loyalty to India?

It's a pressing question, for as SRK stops short of saying in another place, there is no second chance given to Muslims. When his friend, after pitching for SRK as the coach of the national women's team, consoles SRK's past failure by saying everyone is allowed one mistake, Humsab ki ek ghalati maaf, Shah Rukh Khan disagrees wryly: Sabki nahi, sabki nahi.

He doesn't use the M word here, or in any other place, but the message is very clear. There is no second chance to the Indian Muslim if he fumbles. As he repeats it towards the end, the burden of failure is too much to carry, most don't have it in them to survive.

But Kabir Khan has it in him. Falling off the radar for seven years, he resurfaces to reclaim his honour, restoring the public's faith in his nationalism. All the while training the young girls he only harps on one theme: India, nation, the tricolour. Submerge your regional identities, he exhorts them, play as Indians, be Indian, you are not from Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Manipur, Jharkhand... And, though he doesn't say it, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, Sikh. And when you play as an Indian, not only is the acclamation sure to follow, but it also wipes out any lingering doubts over your love for your country.

In the public domain, Kabir Khan worships the tricolour, breathes for India. We don't know what he does behind the doors of his home, which he so eloquently shuts on us in the last scene. The message is clear: Whatever I am in my home, when I step out, I do so as a proud Indian.

For someone like me searching for the kind of Muslim SRK will play, and I daresay the kind of Muslim SRK is, Kabir Khan is the answer. For Muslims caught in the pincer between extremism and majority scepticism, Kabir Khan provides the answer. For the others, Chak De provides some great moments.

By: Saisuresh Sivaswamy Source: Rediff

Interview With King Khan

Film City is the dream factory. But it has been commandeered for the next stage — the conversion of dreams to action.

Shah Rukh Khan is to kick off The Times of India's 'Lead India' campaign, the dynamic follow-up to its 'India Poised' campaign so inspiringly launched by Amitabh Bachchan.

On January 1, 2007, the Big B had presented the vision of an unleashed India. On August 14, King K will tell the nation to harness that awesome power into action. His message consists of two simple letters which combine to form pure, hard muscle, 'DO'.

Amitabh Bachchan had stood against the magnificent sweep of the Bandra-Worli sealink. The venue for the SRK film is the unvarnished Studio 4 of Film City. It looks like a dilapidated warehouse. Its walls are a scabrous black,
a leftover from a previous incarnation as a set which needed this somber feel.

Studios can change their garb faster than an actress in a song sequence. The next film shot here might convert this into a mock marble mahal. But, for the Times production, Studio 4 has been left unadorned, except for a small cocoon of intimacy created with the help of a curtained window (false), a wicker armchair (real), and mood lighting (generated).

Under the orchestration of a mop-haired director, the set is being readied; the shots being framed. The dolly camera glides up and down the track like a railway inspection cart.

Nests of yellow bulbs are being suspended from the roof's iron webbing by a trapeze electrician undistracted by the buzz on ground zero. Amidst the huddle of technicians and production assistants, the teaboy bustles, his stalagmite of paper cups glowing eerily in this darkened cavern.

The anticipation is as palpable as an item girl. And just as it is becoming unbearable, the hero arrives — King Khan dressed as a commoner in fashionably faded blue jeans and simple, V-neck tee which shows his lean, six-pack frame without showing it off.

Stud is not his name, or his game. A hush falls, all action freezes, and is immediately defrosted by the white heat of flurried action.

The director spells out the sequence, SRK listens as intently as though he were back as a 10-year-old at St Columba's, rehearsing for his first role in 'Oz'. He lips the script with coiled concentration; measure tapes are uncoiled from his head to the camera.

The crucial letters, D and O, are buffed to a gleam; a gleaming forehead is puffed over. The director barks out the LCA cliche. The camera rolls as the lights go on and the action begins.

Shah Rukh Khan plays with the alphabetical duo, suspends the 'O' from the ledge of the 'D', ting-tings them together like a bus conductor's bell, and starts speaking. He doesn't act, he lives, breathes, exudes the script. It's a two-minute, controlled depth charge, an intense, condensed Chak de India, spurring the nation to action. By the end of it, you want to rise from your seat and surge forward, in much the same way as he stands up and walks into the camera's rapt face.

He does several takes, first in English, then in Hindi. He reviews the results, goes through the revisions. Then Shah Rukh Khan has to rush to shoot for Om Shanti Om. There is no time for the leisurely interview we had planned in the spotted 'vanity van' which has been sitting like an expectant monster Dalmatian outside Studio 4.

He offers to speak to us on his drive to Studio 11. Arguably the BMW is more comfortable, so we willingly sink into the champagne leather seats. It glides like a panther through the lush monsoon grass as SRK responds to questions at a speed to match.

On the way back, ensconced in the plush depths of the ultimate driving machine, we resist the temptation to fiddle with the gizmos, or play the poseur with the D&G shades which wickedly beckon from the arm-rest. Mohan, who has been instructed to drop us back to reality aka Studio 4, points out the permanent sets.

"Yeh courthouse hai, wahan Church hai, aur baju mein college. Jiska kaam pade, wahan shoot karo." We luxuriate in the extra bonus. The next best thing to be given the tour of Film City by Shah Rukh Khan is to be given the tour by Shah Rukh Khan's driver.

Source: TimesNewsNetwork

Khan, of course, is King

The prodigal Khan returns.

Chak De! India is the basic, every-single-sports-movie story of a disgraced player, here called Kabir Khan, pulling together a team of misfits to do the impossible -- here winning the World Championship.

This is also a return to glory for Shah Rukh Khan,the superstar doing excellently as he tackles a cast with (almost) entirely deplorable acting chops and makes you believe. Director Shimit Amin shoves a hockey stick into the actor's hand, and -- fitter than he's looked in years -- Khan flies across cinematic AstroTurf, and shines.


Stop looking up Miracle, A League Of Their Own or The Mighty Ducks DVDs -- it's a straight sports film, and you walk into the theatre knowing how it's going to turn out.

We start, of course, with the fall. Kabir, India's most successful Centre Forward of all time, flubs a crucial penalty and is castigated by his nation -- an Islamic last name and a meteoric temper make for a media-unfriendly mix -- as Pakistan win the cup.

Thus surrounded by awful actors, Khan bids farewell to his beloved sport, even as insufferable little kids clamber onto shoulders to get a better look at the traitor. Insert typically strained background music here, and you're wincing for both Khan and the film.

Seven years later, mercifully cutting out the tiresome Rambo-esque routine of having to persuade the self-pitying hero to return, Khan is raring to go. He hasn't been on a field since, and is eager to resolve -- as evidenced by strategic fidgeting with waiting-room bottle caps -- hockey issues.

His plan is simple: to start from the very bottom. The Indian Women's Hockey Team is an outfit so utterly neglected that its administrators aren't even actively seeking a coach. Anjan Srivastava dips a Marie biscuit in tea, raises an eyebrow, and not having anything at stake, lets Khan go for it.

So girls, then. A motley assortment of Reddys, Boses and Sharmas from the length and breadth of the country, each falling into conveniently label-friendly stereotypes but -- and here's what makes all the difference -- the tags are affectionate, the cliches run warm and friendly. And we grow to see a mostly-gangly gang of 16 indisciplined non-actresses, trying to keep up with a coach who actually takes himself seriously. And pushes them hard.

It's completely par for the genre-specific course -- dissent, pressure, defiance, infighting, lack of self-belief, external skepticism, and of course, ego. Again, what matters is the fluidity with which writer Jaideep Sahni has coloured inside the lines. The film's true star, Jaideep's ensured that screen-time is divided mostly evenly among the lot, yet separating a few characters for obvious star roles -- Experienced, arrogant Gunjan (Shubhi Mehta); attractive, ego-driven Preeti (Segarika Ghatge); massive, Punjabi Balbir (Tanya Abrol); and pint-sized, defiant Komal (Chitrashi Rawat).

The rest are all warm and likeable enough -- Vidya Malvade plays almost-sobbing homemaker Vidya; Anaitha Nair's Aliya is tremendously attractive -- but these are the four players leading the pack by far, taking the story towards the goalposts.

IndiaThe first half takes its time to buildup, predictably. There's no surprise as the tale unfolds, and the horrible, overwhelming background score tries too hard -- this is, after all a Yash Raj film, and considering that they've gone for a no-heroine authentic sports movie, we ought allow them that major concession -- and is further undercut by trite, jingoistic dialogue. Granted, these come at occasional moments, but the melodrama truly jars. A stellar Khan holds the film together as Amin and the girls gradually get to grips -- with both lines and sticks.

The second half shuts you up, with a McMasterstroke. Here, they play. And, considering you watch several sections of hardcore women's hockey -- my personal viewership of womansport is limited to tennis and the occasional game of beach volleyball -- in silence, glued to the screen pretty much throughout, Shimit's done very well indeed. The film is compelling, constant, and leaves little room for filler. While certain tracks are painfully obvious, the fact that the director neatly cuts through several at the same time ensures a drastic reduction in complaints.

And by now, the girls actually seem to be acting okay -- well, either that or the more impressive achievement, that we've warmed up to the characters enough to like them despite their raw edges. Preeti and Komal, warring attackers, keep us nicely hooked as the director tries to keep their angle unpredictable; Gunjan does well to get frustratingly under our skin; and Balbir gets us to chuckle, sometimes despite ourselves. Vidya is a bit of a moaner, an essentially unimpressive goalkeeper, adding to the lament of Indians having a knack for choosing unimpressive captains.

Khan, of course, is King. This is a bravura performance, a gritty drive by an actor who clearly has sport in his blood. The fit of Shah Rukh as a hockey coach -- inspiring, canny, frustrated, helpless and profoundly hopeful -- is so naturally perfect that it's a wonder he hasn't done a sports film before. It's been a while since we've seen him visibly relish a role like this, and while he has to mouth some clunky dialogue, Khan is simply super.

Chak De! India isn't quite a Lagaan or an Iqbal, selecting the sport more trodden rather than the one conventionally heralded, and so it isn't likely to expect applause in the aisles as the team manages to unite together. It is, however, more of a sports film than both those, the story of a team overshadowing the story of an individual. It's shot nicely, but my wishlist for Amin would be that he had found a better commentator to do the play-by-play and, for heaven's sake, taken some aerial shots.

Shimit Amin's film struggles a bit, clearly trying hard to strike a balance between classic melodrama and the sporting genre. There are times when it tries to straddle the fence hastily, even failing badly, and as a result the movie, while a perfectly good sporting film, seems to have lost the edge we might have expected from the Ab Tak Chhappan director. It's a fine, true-blooded sports movie though, and deserves applause.

Sure, you know what's going to happen, but it's a good ride -- and especially satisfying to see Swiss flower-fields replaced by Australian stadiums. Not to mention the return of the King.

By: Raja Sen Source: Rediff News

Chak De India has no romance and no villain: SRK

More than 2,000 movie buffs attended the world premiere of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chak de India, a film on women's hockey in India, at the famous Somerset House. Describing it as a new experience, Khan told the packed gathering at the open air theatre ....

that it was a different kind of movie, "a little irregular film".

"It has a noble thought. It is important to talk about team spirit, women and their role in the world," he told the cheering crowd.

The premiere was part of the film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House and one of the glittering highlights of 'India Now', a three-month season celebrating London's growing relationship with India and exploration of India's culture and contribution to London life.

Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Shimit Amin, Chak de India is the comeback story of an ageing hockey player (Khan). The two-and-a-half-hour-long film, which kept the audience spell bound, has Khan starring as a coach, fighting his personal demons as he takes a motley group of girls to the pinnacle of the world hockey.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who was present on the podium with Khan, said "we have many wonderful events taking place across London throughout the three months duration of 'India Now' and the world premiere of Chak de India is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most exciting.

"It is a great honour for London to host this launch event for a film, which, like so many Bollywood blockbusters, touches the hearts and minds of millions across the world."

Asked whether he has any advice to Indian coaches, be it hockey or any other game, on how to win, Khan said "I am only an actor. What advice I can give. It is the job of the coaches to prepare the teams and win matches."

About Chak de India, he said "this is a film about sports. There had been films on sports like Lagaan and others. I always wanted to do a film on sports, particularly on field and women hockey, much neglected in cinema."

"I play the coach. I have 16 girls around me playing hockey. It has no songs but only sporting capabilities. The film has no romance and no villain."

Earlier in the day, the actor joined Sunil Gavaskar in the commentator box at The Oval during India's third and final Test against England, where he said "I occasionally watch Rahul and Sachin and I have grown up watching Sunny Saab."

Khan was buoyant when asked about his sporting lineage. "My father used to play hockey. I too enjoyed playing hockey. I used to carry my hockey stick on my back when I went to school. I used to try and play all sports. I kept running behind the ball all the time but never used to catch it."

He said Chak de India is not country-specific. "It can be Chak de London, Chak de Pakistan or Chak de Bangladesh."

Khan said the audience in UK has always been very kind to him. "I am humbled by the reception I get here."

"Winning or losing is not all that important. What is important is participation in sports. This film teaches sportsmen and women to be positive and aggressive," he said.

Replying to a question, Khan said he spent a month in Australia playing with National Level women hockey players.

Source: KhaleejTimes

"Chak De India" is an outright winner. A triumph of the spirit, and of craftsmanship!

While director Shimit Amin of "Ab Tak Chhappan" fame has crafted a film with immense staying power and exceptional integrity and gusto, the thought-process behind the endearing endeavour harks back to a series of well-crafted Hollywood films about team spirit, the low-spirited team and the burnt-out disgraced and exiled coach who motivates the team and galvanises his own dormant spirit into a wide-alert status.

Dig in. It's all there. And yet writer Jaideep Sahni takes the expected tale to heights of great expectations with an endearing tone of expression.

Amin turns the triumph-of-spirit formula inside out.

While narrating a fairly predictable story of a down-and-out all-girls' hockey team's journey into global triumph, the director brings into play a kind of abiding charisma that's born out of a sincere passion for a neglected sport and that even more neglected spirit of collective aspirations.

A certain formulism runs through all films about seeming losers who triumph on the field against all cynicism. But beyond that elementary reading there ticks a substantial heart of gold in this tale of molten motivations.

The question of the Indian Muslim's identity in the face of an often-suspicious majority surfaces early in the clenched narration, as Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh) is accused of selling-out a crucial game of hockey to Pakistan.

Amin and his writer don't let you down. Every grim layer of 'message' is toned down and polished up to highlight and accentuate the cinematic quality without losing out on sheer relevance of the moment and its after-shocks.

The ragged bunch of girls from all over the country gather under one umbrella to give the cynics a run for their money. You watch them with a distant curiosity, which soon evolves into a keen interest in their progress report.

The game never looks contrived. And the greenroom chat is filled with punctuations of immense mirth. Happily, the film never lapses into a verbose rendering of the awakening conscience.

By the time the director and his grim protagonist get a grip over the girls' athletic abilities and their blind spots we are completely hooked, watching not the socio-political issues but a film that pushes the envelope by taking the formula film on a jaunty journey across a craggy hockey field.

The dialogues are quite often the stuff bumper stickers are made of. "There's room for only one goonda in this team, and that's me," the snarling coach tells team bully Bindiya Naik, played with instinctive strength by Shilpa Shukla.

The drama emanates in a rush of warm feelings from the interactive tensions between pairs from the team, for instance the vain Chandigarh player Preeti Sabarwal (Sagarika Ghatge) and the diminutive 'mirchi' from Haryana Komal Chautala (Chitrashi Rawat) or for that matter the flavourful frisson between the ostracised Kabir and the hockey federation which collectively sneers at his aspirations for the all-girls' hockey team.

Of course, you know it's all going to come together in a magnificent whoosh of athletic splendour at the end.

Still, you are completely hooked, enraptured and in total empathy with the girls as they head for Melbourne to bring back the gold medal for a neglected game. By the time the girls get into bordered white saris you are smiling protectively at these children from the third world.

Idealistic and dreamy? You bet! Isn't that what cinema was always meant to be?

"Chak De India" takes us back to the joyous days of watching movies where the heroes began by being unfairly cut down to size and then progressed to being warriors of the dark night fighting their way out of the negativity that surrounds their dreams.

Several sequences stand out for their glorious grip over the grammar of cinema. The sequence at McDonald's, where the hockey team beats up a gang of eve teasers, is so deliciously fulfilling you want to applaud the writer and director for manoeuvring the gender war into an urbane recreational zone without trivialising the larger issues involved.

In terms of the tight but unobtrusive technique applied to Amin's narration "Chak De India" qualifies as one of the finest sports-based dramas in living memory, on par with the poignant sportsmanship of "Chariots Of Fire", if only there was theme music to match the other film.

The editing is never cruel to the sportive spirit. We get to watch the girls playing hockey for as long as required without being subjected to redundant visual hammering.

Finally though, the film is a triumph for Shah Rukh Khan. Stripped of the lover-boy image, unadorned by the romantic props that have given his super starry image that supple longevity and power, Shah Rukh stares straight into his character Kabir's conscience and isn't afraid to mirror some uncomfortable home truths about how we treat our minorities, be it the Muslim Indian, the publicly active woman - watch the arrogant cricket player smirk at his hockey-playing fiancée's dreams - or just the female gender trying to be on a par with the opposite sex.

The girls on the team remain with you after their on-field victory because there's a far larger victory navigating their karma to a final hurrah.

Beyond the tale of the triumph of the spirit, there lies the triumph of the spirit of cinema.

After a point it doesn't matter whether the girls are playing hockey.

It's not the sport. It's the spirit that shines through in every glistening frame of this tale that needed to be told before hockey became as obsolete as films about people who play to redeem their souls.

Rating: 4/5

By: Subash K Jha Source: Khabrein.info

Cheers for Chak De! India

Milk shake, rattle and roll. Sporty girls are bashing up a bunch of eve-teasers in a fast-food restaurant. The hockey coach doesn’t intervene, whips on his dark glasses and smiles lightly. His girls have scored a hit.

Cheers for Chak De! India, which may be predictable but compels you to root for a team of losers whom only an earth-angel can save from disastrous defeat. Written by Jaideep Saini and directed by Shimit Amin, this inspirational effort echoes Hollywood’s Hardball, The Replacements, and Escape to Victory whose influence has already been evidenced in Lagaan.

But what the hell? If a story is retold with varying riffs, a sliver of imagination and sufficient skill, just chill.

Over to Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), the disgraced captain of the Indian hockey team, who’s out to redeem himself after seven years of vanvas. He lands the assignment, just by a whisker, of coaching the raggedy Indian women’s hockey team. So far, so hopeful.

The 16 girls from various states are a mess – either too raw or too cocksure. Begins the training which does get far too protracted, what with the girls snarling, whining and ready to tear one’s eyes out. Slowly but surely, Khan makes them understand their strengths and above all, their Indianness which alone can get them to the winning goal.

The sequences showing Kabir Khan(Shah Rukh) losing his cool, his request to two competitive players to see the larger picture and the finale’s clarion call, are marvellously done, often making your eyes moist.Obstinately perhaps, the focus remains on Kabir as the coach. There’s no backstory, no glimpses into his heart and mind. Only his mother pops up at the outset and at the end, full stop. In addition, the introduction of the girls – through hideously antiquated wipes – doesn’t make you connect to them, except with the ones who’re either too nice or too much spice. And pray, why linger unduly over the kabhi-bedroom-kabhi-ignore routine of one of the girls with a creepy cricketer?

Chalo Australia, then. Now, you’re hooked as the team takes on the Goliaths, thanks to the coach’s psychological jugglery. The sequences showing Kabir Khan losing his cool, his request to two competitive players to see the larger picture and the finale’s clarion call, are marvellously done, often making your eyes moist. And then, you’re at the edge of the seat for the decisive showdown intricately crafted by sports action director Rob Miller.

Auspiciously, the director fits in strong comments on national unity, gender equality, secularism and team spirit.

Shah Rukh Khan is outstanding – it’s a performance that is comparable and at points even more internalised than the one in Swades. He carries the proverbial burden of the project on his shoulders. Intense and steel-like, he stays in character throughout, shunning any traces of glamour.

Of the girls, the little stick of dynamite Chitrashi Rawat, the independent-minded Sagarika Ghatge, the team’s zip-unzip vamp Shilpa Shukla and the anger-spewing Tania Abrol are marvellous discoveries.

Yup, so go for it!

Rating: ***1/2

Chak De India is the most authentic, meticulously researched sports movie India has made

Yay, yay. Hear it for hockey, for sports movies, and yes, SRK. Chak De, India is by far the most authentic, meticulously researched sports movie India has made. Sure, there are some populist cracks against cricket and cocky cricketers which will gladden the hearts of those who don’t worship at the game’s altar, and yes, there do exist such creatures in India, unbelievable thought it may sound. But ‘Chak De’ is a movie which goes about its purpose seriously : to show how a beloved sport, having fallen into the clutches of opportunists and bagmen, and petty, greedy, self-serving Dilli babus, can be rescued, with vision and determination.

It’s not all rousing action and winning streaks, though. The first half, especially, is predictable, and a little stodgy, in the way it brings state champions into Delhi’s national stadium, and has coach Kabir Khan holler at them: I don’t want to hear the names of states, I only want to hear the name of my mulk, India. Welcome excitement creeps in, post interval, as the rag-tag team, gets whipped into shape, and goes on to win the world cup.

What makes Shimit Amin’s film, his second after the gritty Ab Tak Chappan, stand out from the Yashraj clutter this year, is its ability to keep the tracks undiluted. None of the girls breaks into song and dance, and no one is allowed to show skin. Yes, really. Even when one of them comes onto the coach, in her desire to be made captain, we only hear the sound of the zip. Khan zips the jacket right back up, and with that, seals her desire to be part of Team India.

So does Shah Rukh cut it as a hockey player cum coach? This is SRK in realistic mode again, after Swades. When Coach Khan and his girls are out on the field, whacking everything in sight, and rampaging through the world’s best teams, you think, hey, that looks do-able. When you hear a mob targeting the disgraced Kabir, who muffs a penalty shot in the dying moments of an important match at the peak of his career, as a Muslim and a gaddaar, you can see the pain and anguish in SRK’s eyes. That’s real, too. But Kabir Khan doesn’t get as far from SRK, as NASA scientist Mohan Bhargav in Swades did.

Still, it is a brave role, executed with finesse, minus starry flourish. And some of the girls spark into life in the best moments in the film: especially the tiny Haryanvi spitfire, the Punjabi lass who lets fly in anger at the drop of a hockey stick, and the pretty thing from Chandigarh who wants to show her cricketing boyfriend just who the real star is. That’s hockey, and the game. Chak De.

By: Shubhra Gupta & Shalini Langer Source: EconomicTimes

Chak De India received a warm welcome

After flooring cine lovers in London, Chak De India - first Indian film based on country's women's hockey team- released to a tremendous response across the country on Friday.

The film, which stars Shahrukh Khan, revolves around the story of a women hockey team that goes onto win a World Cup.

The film received a warm welcome from cricket crazy Indian audience for its subject and storyline.

"The movie was really very nice. It was worth," said one of the cine goers, who admitted of being a great fan of cricket star Sachin Tendulkar than Shahrukh Khan.

"The film gives a push to women hockey players as it could revive public interest in the dying game, which is also our national games," she added.

This film is a shift from a regular Bollywood movie as it diverts from the usual and delves into the unexplored arena of sports.

"The film is very good. It's a complete Shah Rukh Khan film with lots of sporting action," said another viewer.

Not many films have been made on the subject and after 'Lagaan'-which was made on cricket, its 'Chak De India' that comes packed with a heavy dose of hockey for the audiences.

'Chak De India' is a story of a coach's fight of making his team overcome obstacles and motivate his team members to a historic victory.

"What happens to people who play it and what goes on a regular daily basis when you play it? How much training is done, how much drama happens behind the scene. What kinds of characters play this sport? Who plays it actually, when nobody really wants to play and what kind of women are involved in playing this. I had to gain that kind of knowledge," said Shimit Amin, director of the movie whose earlier directed 'Ab Tak Chappan" received rave reviews.

The story depicts a hockey team consisting of a rag-tag bunch of girls who get disillusioned with the system and resort to other games just to get a pensioned job and a secure future.

Their interest and passion is revived by a forgotten a hockey coach, played by Khan, who enters into their lives and fuels them with a new vigour and enthusiasm to take up the sport with a new agenda- to bring laurel for their country.

The film also stars model Vidya Malvade along with a plethora of newcomers including one real life hockey player.

The film is devoid of the typical song-and-dance routine characteristic to Bollywood films.

"It has a very serious take. People who think after seeing a film will like it. People who just want more entertainment, they might be a bit disappointed and say, 'Oh, this is not having a song at all'. But, I think every good thinking person will enjoy the fact that we have attempted something like this," Khan said.

The character of Kabir Khan, the hockey coach, is believed to be inspired by a real-life former goalie Mir Ranjan Negi, who was charged with allegations of match fixing after India lost to Pakistan in 1982 Asian Games.

Seven years later Negi's honour was restored when he was absolved of the charges. He coached the national women's hockey team to win gold at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Source: DailyIndia