Chak De Finally
It is very different celebrating your independence day outside your own country, and especially in a work environment which is so cosmopolitan. This is my first experience in an office that isnt dominated by any particular nationality. And exhibiting nationalism (wearing white, distributing sweets, wearing a flag) becomes something of a question, making spirit an interesting line. Somehow reminds me of Chak De. Where spirit was nothing more than ‘neeyat’. An intention?... This actually is also a good way to start talking about the movie, since nothing else could get me down to penning my views on it.
I guess a few things troubled me but nothing really moved me to an edge worth remembering. It was a decent watch with jerky camera movement meant to be pace. A movie dealing with sport (read :action?speed?pace?) and this is what I remember of it... Ofcourse in thier defense, the background score was too brilliant for them to cope up with or even feel the need to make a movie. The characterization was reasonable minus Shah Rukh (who had been characterized as Nobody Shah-Rukh-Khan). Also in double role as the coach with his profound profound knowledge and a very broken honest Indian. It was a beautiful Shah Rukh breaking away from Shah Rukh and then being Shah Rukh again and then finally giving up and spreading his arms in the centre of the stadium as a last resort to confessing the romantically confused state. The rest of the crew (the various states of India), were behaving themselves speaking Hindi with heavy dialects and reminding us again and again of how Indian they think they are, but how ‘India’ does not accept them. I’m ok with portraying that, cause somewhere it is the truth, but if your words are saying it to me and your eyes are just reading the words, then you leave me with a blank. The problem is that Shimit Amin knows how intellectual his audience is but doesn’t know what to do with so much intellectuality. So everything that could be felt, is instead, said. Short short excerpts of the ‘feeling’ of oneness, what a sport deserves, the spirit of playing, and even smaller observations on the nuances of a game. There are a thousand examples in that movie on how sweet nothings were added to the script to make sure it feels like a ‘researched’ subject. 'A touching emotional drama with a revived interest in a lost game…', Did I forget to mention the sweet scent of feminism?.... phew! So much ambition and such little effort.
To a lot of people I may be spurting poison here, but I hate films that cannot do justice to their subject. And this one pushed me over the edge to think so. On the other side, there was an attempt (as a friend rightly pointed), of a Yash Raj banner breaking grounds with no ‘super-hero’ Khan. Fair enough, but that cant be the reason for me to believe a movie was good. And honestly, could they even pull THAT off successfully? A truly precarious, almost over-cautious attempt at reducing the King Khan to just another man. Delibrate and depressing. I would have loved to watch a serial called Chak De, with the nuances of so many cultures coming together for the sake of integrity in extremely entertaining 20 minutes per week. Almost reminding me of Nukkad. A thousand characters and each doing justice adding its own flavor. I guess that is the only ground where a subject with as much potential and a production house so so commercial, could find solace. Yash Raj ji, on a 70mm, without chiffon ki saari aur Shah Rukh ki lipstick, CHUCK DE.
Ratings :
What it was - Paisa- Vasool, Entertaining, Full plate masala.
What is was not ( and cant ever be) - Emotinal, Sensitive or even Sensible!
I guess a few things troubled me but nothing really moved me to an edge worth remembering. It was a decent watch with jerky camera movement meant to be pace. A movie dealing with sport (read :action?speed?pace?) and this is what I remember of it... Ofcourse in thier defense, the background score was too brilliant for them to cope up with or even feel the need to make a movie. The characterization was reasonable minus Shah Rukh (who had been characterized as Nobody Shah-Rukh-Khan). Also in double role as the coach with his profound profound knowledge and a very broken honest Indian. It was a beautiful Shah Rukh breaking away from Shah Rukh and then being Shah Rukh again and then finally giving up and spreading his arms in the centre of the stadium as a last resort to confessing the romantically confused state. The rest of the crew (the various states of India), were behaving themselves speaking Hindi with heavy dialects and reminding us again and again of how Indian they think they are, but how ‘India’ does not accept them. I’m ok with portraying that, cause somewhere it is the truth, but if your words are saying it to me and your eyes are just reading the words, then you leave me with a blank. The problem is that Shimit Amin knows how intellectual his audience is but doesn’t know what to do with so much intellectuality. So everything that could be felt, is instead, said. Short short excerpts of the ‘feeling’ of oneness, what a sport deserves, the spirit of playing, and even smaller observations on the nuances of a game. There are a thousand examples in that movie on how sweet nothings were added to the script to make sure it feels like a ‘researched’ subject. 'A touching emotional drama with a revived interest in a lost game…', Did I forget to mention the sweet scent of feminism?.... phew! So much ambition and such little effort.
To a lot of people I may be spurting poison here, but I hate films that cannot do justice to their subject. And this one pushed me over the edge to think so. On the other side, there was an attempt (as a friend rightly pointed), of a Yash Raj banner breaking grounds with no ‘super-hero’ Khan. Fair enough, but that cant be the reason for me to believe a movie was good. And honestly, could they even pull THAT off successfully? A truly precarious, almost over-cautious attempt at reducing the King Khan to just another man. Delibrate and depressing. I would have loved to watch a serial called Chak De, with the nuances of so many cultures coming together for the sake of integrity in extremely entertaining 20 minutes per week. Almost reminding me of Nukkad. A thousand characters and each doing justice adding its own flavor. I guess that is the only ground where a subject with as much potential and a production house so so commercial, could find solace. Yash Raj ji, on a 70mm, without chiffon ki saari aur Shah Rukh ki lipstick, CHUCK DE.
Ratings :
What it was - Paisa- Vasool, Entertaining, Full plate masala.
What is was not ( and cant ever be) - Emotinal, Sensitive or even Sensible!
Special Mentions :
The backgrounds : A blending of spirit (i mean josh and neeyat), an understanding of culture and the sensibilities of a Bollywood cinema-goer. A seriously rare commodity and only Salim Suleiman could have done it. Hats-off truly!
Komal Chautala, the rock star!
posted by blink blank link at 4:53 AM
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