Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Tribute to our National Game....CHAK DE!!!!!




I, hereby posting all the Film-Reviews that I've penned till date. Leave ur valuable comments and suggestions!!!


I presume the title of my review is baffling for few...Yes!!!! To keep records straight HOCKEY is our National Game though our country eats, sleeps and breathe Cricket. There are handful of movies based entirely on cricket and few more on the backdrop of this game but this is first full-fledged movie taking Hockey as its prime subject. So lets toss the ball into the hockey turf :




16 Beauties and Beasts: Referred as "Rakshson ki Sena" these 16 gals from every corner of Indiamakes up a dream combo of experience and youth, exuberance and patience. It’s difficult to concentrate on each and every character so the focus was primarily on 5-6 gals throughout the movie. Going by the characters they enacted, Priti Sabarwal dons the role of a forward in the team & adds to the glamour quotient of the movie, Komal Chautala another forward is the pocket size dynamo that will catch your attention with her hardcore Hariyanvi accent. Balbir kaur, typical punjab gal, using heavy Punjabi lingo and taking on the Bulls with the horns. Vidya, the Captain and Goalie of the team and most experienced and arrogant-self Bindiya makes up the top five protagonists of the dream-team. All of them have done commendable job in their respective constraints and deserves accolades for their endeavor. None of the players looked as if they are acting, but it seems that they all the trained athletes (few of ‘em certainly were).




The Coach: SRK is back after a short but well deserved hiatus. He left the silver screen, limping, with a walking stick in his hand and came back, all charged up, with hockey stick as his companion. If his last release (KANK) has Chucked his super stardom a bit then this flick will surely do a Chak de Phatte to him. Its refreshing to see him moving away from his usual running around the trees and romancing the bollywood's beauties in his designer suits amidst foreign locales. Instead, he portrayed the character ever-so-efficiently giving all the desired expressions through his eyes. The grey stubble embellishing his new suave look will give something more for his fan following to go ga-ga over him. Personally I would prefer him to enact the characters in the likes of "Swades" and "Chak de" than doing the run-of-the-mill flicks like "Main Hoon Na".




Chak de India: The title track sung by Sukhvinder is played through-out the movie in back ground along with "Chak de-- Ek hockey doongi rakh ke" and goes well with the mood of the movie. The music and Background score by Salim Sulaiman are flawless and deserves full points. Shimit Amin as a director has raised himself to another level with this classic and expectations would be sky-high from his coming projects. For a patriotism driven flick, the dialogues makes its soul but one feels punches could have been more effective at some places. But there are few mind blowing dialogues as well, for me the best one was when SRK was taking a dig at the most popular sports in India and said: "Hamari hockey me Chhakke nahi hote". Its a fast paced moving and hardly gives time to think, but at the same time gives ample of opportunities to smile. Till the climax you will be totally engrossed in the Hockey matches, which again were well conceived and equally executed, as if you are actually watching a Hockey World cup.




Harjeet's Verdict: “Chak de.....India” is “Lagaan” of sorts with Hockey Backdrop. If Lagaan has rewritten history books, this one will surely add a page or two to it.


Chak De.....India!!!!

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