Chak De! India (2007)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely brilliant

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Chuck De India is a sports film based on real life incidence. Mir Ranjan Negi, Indian hokey player of inspired Shah Rukh Khan's role in "Chak De! India". Mir Ranjan Negi returned to be the coach of the India women's national field hockey team. The team won the Gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He was also the assistant coach for the Women's team when it won the Gold at the 2004 Hockey Asia Cup.After reading news in press, screenwriter Jaideep Sahani got inspired to write a script of this film. The script focuses on hokey as a game, cultural diversity, women empowerment, new age family system and national integrity. Jaideep Sahani also stated in another interview with NDTV.com that, "the script was conceived before he met Negi, after reading the script he started crying. He said it had happened to me also."Uniqueness of this film is Mir Ranjan Negi personally trained these girls for this film. This film is beyond the documentary of Mir Ranjan Negi. It helped to handle the aspect of sports psychology. Journalist Anand Philar stated, "He had covered Asian Games final. The game tossed goalkeeper Negi's life upside down. Negi was criticized by media; headlines cried: he is a 'traitor." Anand Philar took Negi's interview, Negi's stated, "Everywhere I went, I was abused by the public. Nothing matters to me more than playing for my country. I am a proud Indian and will always be so. Former captain Zafar Iqbal expressed, "The entire team was to blame; we forwards missed chances, the defense had huge gaps that the Pakistanis exploited. After many years Negi returned to train Indian women hokey team. His India women's national field hockey team won the 2002 Commonwealth Games.According to sports psychology, 'self and identity' are pivotal parts of personality over 'the body self'. The self is based on felt experiences of the environment. We find different girls form different background, and are reluctant to change. We find the answer in sports psychology, 'the body self' evolves from this constant flow of experience. The body self is defined in unity with the self-concept or the self as personal construction. There are three strategies need to be followed for the social construction of the self image.In country like India, sports like hokey or cricket are attached with national identity. We find the schoolboy jingoism replaces the patriotism. George Orwell called the "lunatic habit of identifying with larger power units, and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". Journalist Somini Sengupta wrote an article in The New York Times "Bollywood have been keen observer and welder of the national mood. Journalist Shiv Visvanathan, wrote an article in The Hindu, which explains this sub continental rivalry between India and Pakistan. People from both countries take sports as their national pride. We find more chauvinism than patriotism in their support. Shiv Visvanathan aptly notes, "Chauvinism and patriotism are different terminologies. Chauvinism is a belief that the nation can do no wrong. Patriotism is open-ended; it allows error or vulnerability, it is diversified. It does not condemn. A patriot is loyal to the nation and cosmopolitan in outlook. Patriotic individual need not to wears uniform or get involved in any ritual. As social psychology offer two dominant theory of identity – identity theory (Stryker, 1977; Burke, 1980) and social identity theory (Turner, 1979). George J. McCall, Jerry Laird Simmons explained the roll-identity theory. "It suggests that individuals will base their actions on how they like to see themselves and how they like to be seen by others. Therefore, the role-identity requires two components, specifically, the role itself and the identity to be associated with that role. Identity theory is rooted in the concept of roles and role-identities. All players who are selected do have their own identity, it may the identity of India, how is neglected as a good player. Komal Chautala displays her 'self identity 'as a daredevil girl from Hariyana. Vidya Sharma who is married, she plays the role of wife, hokey player and daughter in law. Chuck De India is a film made on sports and sports psychology. What is self and what is identity? These are the basic question every player face. Chuck De India offers the answer in simplest manner. Film also deals with social identity theory, social comparison theory. Apart from Mir Ranjan Negi's real life incidence, weThis is an exemplary film made on sports and the psychological issues faced by every player. This film passes the strong message of national integrity, team spirit, self identity and social identity.

Female Indian hockey team fight hard with male Indian hockey team during a dream ending match and result was close that you can accept.Team coach order a senior player to shift her position from CF to midfielder because it's give stability in team balance,when she was not want to do that it's mean she must be step out from team and during penalty shootout goal keeper wait for coach order to make sure which side she going to jump. Is it a game going on or reality show running on ground? But this is India no one going to see how perfect your story telling and direction is. You can put big names in your movie paint unnecessary emotional color with it then you going to receive claps and money from any kind of crap.

An underdog sports team in need of a serious makeover attempts to win a world championship--you've seen it before, and you can probably guess how it ends, but the production qualities are excellent, Bollywood idol Shahrukh Khan plays the coach with immense sensitivity and charm, and the group of young women who make up the team are a wonderful cross-section of the vast country that is India.This is a national pride film, a film that makes the viewer cheer more than once, and perhaps will even bring some tears; like most Bollywood films, it is inordinately long for those accustomed to two hour movies, but unlike many Bollywood romances, there are no curious musical numbers that to Western eyes often interrupt the logical progression of plot. If you are into sports films with a Boffo Finish, looking for a perfect film for most young women with ambition, or merely a cross-cultural adventure, this is great fun.

"Chak De India!" is a sports film, and like MOST other sports films, it's nearly 100% predictable. However, while it very closely follows the expected formula and has many of the usual sports films clichés, it manages to be enjoyable and worth while.The film begins with a world championship match between the Indian and Pakistani field hockey teams. Kabir misses what seems like a sure goal and then he is treated abominably by the Indian press and his community--as if he WANTED his team to lose! Seven years pass. Now Kabir wants to redeem himself but not as a player but as a coach for a new Indian WOMEN'S field hockey team. His odds look pretty much impossible except for one important thing--it's a sports film and you pretty much know how it's all going to occur! But, as I said above, the plot does offer a bit more. Some nice performances and a few tiny plot twists help it to be a good film.By the way, although you might expect the usual song and dance numbers like you usually see in Bollywood films, this one has none. My aunt was actually pretty disappointed. She really liked the film but wanted the musical numbers as well!