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Between all the praise flying around for Chak De India, combined with the occasional whine by people prepared to hate SRK no matter how well he acts, I saw the movie twice last weekend. Tricolour marketing and ‘India’ in the title aside, I couldn’t help thinking the story stood for much more than the mere patriotism flick it was being served as.

I can imagine the producers rubbing their hands in glee at the multiple marketing pitches the story presented. Patriotism, feminism, sports (a friend decisively labeled the movie ‘SRK’s Lagaan’). I got to thinking about what Chak De India really meant.

The way I saw it, the movie seemed to be about the importance of the big picture. ‘Big’ is a relative concept and they had to symbolise it with something important. So it was India – bigger than the individual players and bigger than the ‘states’ that SRK kept snarling at.

Had the team been playing an inter-galactic space hockey championship, SRK (clad in a space suit, drifting, and speaking through radio) might have been making an impassioned case for playing for Earth and rising above petty nationalism. The meaning would have remained the same.

The movie itself, at various points, seems to nudge one towards this meaning. SRK’s character Kabir Khan was suspected of being a sell-out because he was a Muslim and the crucial match was lost to Pakistan. Yet, never once does any key character mention the possible reasons behind Khan’s media trial and shaming. Except once, fleetingly, when his ex-teammate Uttam says, “Ek galti toh sabko maaf hoti hai,” and Khan disagrees, smiling.

It is as if the storyteller is prompting us, telling us that it doesn’t really matter. It is not about Muslims, or Pakistan. It is about something bigger. As if to prove the point, there is no India-Pakistan match in the coveted world cup. There are no scores to be settled.

No one is demonised. Neither Pakistan, nor any other team that the girls go up against. Even the Indian men’s hockey team is kind and applauds their hard work. As Khan says, ‘niyat’ (intent) is the point.

The only true villain in the story is narrow-mindedness and a limited outlook, personified in the holier-than-thou media, the apathetic hockey board, and characters such as the self-obsessed new vice captain of the Indian cricket team.

Chak De India’s message shines clear through all the cloaking.

Towards the end, when Khan returns to his ancestral home with his mother, the words of praise from the media, resounding in the background and clamouring with each other to make sense, appear shallow. The hurt should not have mattered to Khan. Now at last the praise does not.

Posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 12:04 am and filed under movies, essays.

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