Introduction
Aamir Khan's 'Sitaare Zameen Par' got a lot of praise for rightfully highlighting the spirit of sports among intellectually challenged people, whom society considers backward. The film got further acclaim for casting actors, who, in real life, are not only intellectually challenged, but also unpopular. Cut to 18 years back, into the year 2007, and a same instance appears! A hockey film based on an original script, unlike Sitaare Zameen Par (The Aamir Khan starrer was a remake of the Spanish sports drama 'Champions'; I'm not saying a remake is bad BTW)- had a National level hockey player as a lead cast member along with other unpopular actors- got critical acclaim- had a song that people in India relate with sports till today- won a National Award as well! Sounds cool right? I'm talking about the Shahrukh Khan starrer sports film 'Chak De! India', that was directed by Shimit Amin. Considered a milestone in Khan's career, this was a critical and commercial success, and was also the third-highest grossing Hindi film of 2007. As 'Chak De! India' completes 18 years today, stick with me to know how well this film holds up in 2025.
Basic Plot
An ex-Indian hockey caption, accused of dishonoring his country, goes on to coach the Indian Women's National Hockey Team, to prove his honesty.
Positives
Performances
Cast performances really do majority of the talking here, with Shahrukh Khan flexing his acting prowess in every passing scene. He plays the character of coach Kabir Khan, a strict, determined, and an emotion-less person who is hell bent on making his team win the Hockey World Championship. I loved how SRK nailed every emotion and expression in the film, in spite of playing a role who is straight-faced in majority of the portions. The entire trajectory of him training his team of girls, gaining their trust, and finally winning the cup was very maturely established, which made enough room to spice up the drama in the film. The climax where SRK gets emotional and just breaks down after the penalty shooter, is pure gold. The final act was set up emotionally, where the coach did not have to flaunt his capability with aggressive celebration. Instead, his actions spoke louder than words—and the world finally listened. The hockey team members, played by actors Vidya Malvade, Shilpa Shukla, Sagarika Ghatge, Seema Azmi, Tanya Abrol, Anaitha Nair, and Chitrashi Rawat among others, did synergically well to present to us the entire essence of the film. It is because of them and their joint effort which made Chak DE! what it is. The antagonization of Shilpa Shukla's character 'Bindiya Naik' was fantastic from both ideation and portrayal point of view! She performs with full conviction as the team bully who resorts to non-cooperation towards her team, and you would be really irritated by what her character does; such is the level of acting!
Direction and Screenplay
We have all heard the proverb: 'United we stand, Divided we fall'; and I'm sure, Chak De! best describes this age old phrase. Director Shimit Amin has conceptualized the entire story very well, by starting off with the team members being self-centered and scattered with no passion, and developing it to show how the team members mature, as each layer of drama passes. The director has skillfully shown some really brutal eye-openers, which are still prevalent today not just in sports, but in other aspects of the Indian society as well. A person's home state being used a criteria to determine whether she's fit for hockey, language being used to alienate a few from the group, deliberately create a ruckus inside the player dorms only to stand against their coach, and even, the Women's Hockey Association Head, sitting in his office and laughing at the coach's plan to coach the women's hockey team, and brushing off responsibilities saying 'yeh lotha belan chalane wali bharatiya naari hain' (Indian women are born to cook and clean)- these are some scenes, which make this film all the more credible. Writer Jaideep Sahni smartly infuses a 'layered drama' into the screenplay, that keeps the film up and running, without a single boring moment. The entire screenplay is evenly cooked as the hockey scenes, drama, emotions and even the subtle humor find ample place in the story, without the audience being exhausted in this 150 minutes film. Talking about the hockey scenes- they're carried out really well, and what maintains the essence of those scenes is the makers' call of not including any over-simplification of hockey-grammar for the audience! Those sequences look clean, organic, and gives you the feel of watching a genuine and well-researched movie. I even liked the occasional scaling up of scenes (especially where SRK was on screen), to give a tinge of commercialism- SRK playing mind games, some dramatic scenes during the Championship, SRK's initial rift with the team members, some close-up shots of his eyes and some cool slow-mo's here and there (all thanks to Sudeep Chatterjee's camera work), make up for some subtle over-the-top moments as well.
Underwhelming Aspects
Minor Quibbles
Of all the things that are majorly positive in this film, I found a couple of minor issues worth mentioning. Firstly, the film has a very flat narration and is quite predictable. See, I know that non-linear screenplays and suspense-building are things that we see in recent films and were not really in fashion in the 2007 era, I felt even a little bit of that would've been nice. I don't know if I'm expecting too much from a film which is a sports drama that released 18 years ago, but this is what I personally felt. Secondly, halfway into the film, there's a scene that shows a serious breaking point where coach Kabir Khan decides to quit coaching the women's hocket team as a response to severe fake allegations against him by the team members. It is followed by a scene where the girls realize that they cannot be beaten if they stand united, and hence, they request the coach to resume the practice. This is a pretty good scene on paper, and even the staging is nice, but I found the execution to be a bit off and hurried, taking into account the gravitas of the issue that unfolds just before it. I think a less-hurried approach would've served the scene better.
Conclusion
A role, devoid of prime focus and character elevating scenes, is difficult for a commercial actor to play, any-day, especially when he's not only fresh out of a couple of hardcore commercial roles in the previous year, but also has an insanely commercial film waiting for it's release just three months later (Om Shanti Om)! But this gamble of a decision was taken up by Shahrukh Khan, which resulted in this film being made. 'Chak De! India' relies on it's ability to present a well written original story, executed by a good direction, which has hockey at it's core. The makers even roped in 'Mir Ranjan Negi' (the real life hockey player SRK's character is based on in the film) as a consultant for the film's production, to make things look genuine. Such was the level of detailing! The entire concept of the narrative driving forward a star like SRK and not the vice-versa is where this film achieves majority of it's success, while power-pack cast performances and an upbeat music seals the rest of the deal! It's sad that Shimit Amin doesn't direct films nowadays and even SRK is in such a position where picking up projects like these will do nothing but affect his humongous box office streak. But I think it's time for Khan to do something like this, and given the pull he's having currently, he would kill it if he gets a good director! That being said, this film has officially become an adult today (18 years), but the acclaim that it god when it was a child still remains fresh; Salim-Sulaiman's 'Chak De India' song being the best example! While there were reports which called out Khan's decision of breaking his image to star in a non-commercial and song-less sports drama; 'iss team ka gunda main hoon' said SRK in the film, and proved all the reports wrong!
Watch Out For
- Cast performances
- Subtle addressing of social issues
- The emotional climax
WTF Rating
8/10