Grrrrrrl power zindabad!

How refreshing Chak De India! is  and what hope it gives me for the future of mainstream Hindi cinema.  

Hope, because this is one movie that isn’t traditional masala (it has few songs, few costume changes, no numbers where the characters lipsync to playback singers) and yet is still entertaining, exhilirating and has something that most anyone can relate to.  

I have nothing against a masala flic, in fact I love them, but it’s great to see that increasingly filmmakers can stretch beyond type and come up with winners that will be seen and enjoyed by the masses, rather than relegated only to small art house cinemas and the festival circuit.

Like Rocky or Lagaan, it’s an underdog story, which is something that should also make it appealing to non-desi audiences around the world, who might not normally go for something like, say, Partner or Jhoom Baraber Jhoom.

Shah Rukh Khan plays Kabir Khan, the disgraced former captain of the Indian hockey team, who missed a crucial shot in a World Cup match against Pakistan seven years before and who was branded a traitor for it.   As the would-be coach of the neglected Indian women’s hockey team, he has an opportunity at professional and personal salvation.   With no competition for the job, he’s a shoe-in.

The film credits roll as we’ve met the 16 diverse young women who’ve assembled in Delhi from even remote corners of the country like Jharkand and Manipur, and it’s a treat, because, like ‘real life’, these girls come in all shapes, colors and sizes, and the movie celebrates that.   It was a relief to arrive at the end of the film and realize that there hadn’t been any fabulous makeover scene where the gals went shopping,  learned how to apply eyeliner and wear a pretty frock.

And what an assembly  they are…. there’s a hot-tempered Punjabi girl with a Kahlo- (or Kajol-)esque brow, two girls with East Asian features who seem to invite lascivious comments from every guy they encounter, a quiet, intense girl from AP, and a cute, petite tomboy from Haryana whose father frets he’ll never find a husband for her, and that’s just a few of the team.  

They are competitive with each other and bristle at living in close quarters, and at times come close to jeopardizing the team’s success, but eventually they develop an esprit de corps and set about meeting the challenges before them, including some tough competition at the World Cup in Australia.   (Favorite scene: how the girls handle eve-teasing at McDonalds.)

It’s remarkable to me to observe that while Shah Rukh is a driving force in this film, and omnipresent, he has been able to deliver a restrained performance that allows the team of actors with him to stand out and shine, while he apparently blends in to the background.   There is no quivering lip, no boyish stammering, and while his eyes do brim up once or twice, mine were wetter than that on several occasions in the second half.

Shimit Amin has created a memorable film that will likely often be held up as a patriotic movie in the future (just as  is happening now, given the proximity of the release date to Independence Day), but I would say that rather than Chak De exalting the Nation  (in some  grand sense), it cheers for how far women have come, and how much they have the promise to do in the years ahead.

See it or skip it?

See it!   It’s a feel-good movie with some great new actors and a terrific turn by a well established luminary.   And like Lage Raho…, it has an inspiring message behind it, without being sanctimonious or preachy.

Sadly, a few boys at the screening we went to, who ended up on the subway with us afterward, didn’t get it.