Ripples on the brain

Yeah, I know…Pretty late. But saw it, nevertheless. The same old cliches, stereotypes, stories of superstardom packaged in a different way. That the Hindi film industry is in such a sorry state can be confirmed when movies such as these are acclaimed as hits and hog media attention.

Just five minutes into the movie, the plot and the ending are amply clear to an average viewer. The residual interest in the movie, if any, lies in how the director takes the movie towards that ending. Here too, the director does not deviate from the established Bollywood rules of valour and heroism.

If the viewer hasn’t figured out already as to why hockey was chosen for the movie (over cricket), he/she is reminded time and again through comparisons with cricket (in the form of inconceivable, Hindi filmic dialogues of Preethi Sabharwal’s fiancee). Again, if the viewer isn’t sure why women’s game was chosen over men’s, he/she is provided with ample opportunities to understand why through the Hockey Federation Chief’s character. Moreover, a women’s team provides ample scope for the story-teller to talk about the determination of women to overcome personal obstacles (almost invariably in the form of marriage, typical husbands and in-laws) and Chak De… doesn’t miss out on any of those opportunities. Whoever said Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t hog the limelight in the movie needs to watch it all over again.

Even in the main plot, the director wants the viewer to believe that passion, discipline and team work are sufficient to win the world championship. The coach’s only job, thus, becomes resolving personal issues and bringing the team together, rather than forming strategies and discussing tactics with the team. The only tactics he gets to talk about is when he spells beforehand the order in which passes will happen in a match. To achieve his suitably altered objective, the coach becomes a punch dialogue churning machine. The lack of effectiveness in the coach’s dialogues are always overcome by the background music. In fact, in most cases, the background music and the characteristic shrinking of coach’s eye (or the lifting of his eyebrows) signal the arrival of a punch dialogue (I honestly didn’t find any punch in most of the dialogues; however, that is partially attributable to my dwindling Hindi comprehension).

Several instances show the lack of imagination of the screenplay and script writer. The ESPN commentator’s lines are definitely one. In one of the scenes, 4 of the girls have similar scratches (3 red lines) under their left eye to indicate to the viewer that they are injured. They look more like injuries out of quarrels rather than those in a match. The format of the championship and the way India plays so many teams and moves up the order reminds one of the cricket worldcup super eights.

The major advantage of the movie seems to be its time of release. Just after its release, India has performed well in men’s hockey, football and cricket and that has definitely aided its promotion. However, I must state that the movie does, in no way, deserve the attention it has received for the last couple of months.