Chak De! India (India, 2007)

[Edgy MD]

Largely disgraced former captain of India's men's field hockey team attempts to make a comeback by coaching the women's team. His ragtag unit goes up against opponents with better funding and support.



Let's do that hockey!



[FIMG=450]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTUzODMyNzk4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTk1NTYyNTM@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg[/FIMG]

[MFS62]

One of my daughters was on the field hockey team in high school.

After watching a few games, I realized the sport only has one rule - when it looks like a team will score, the official blows the whistle and the other team gets the ball.



Later

[Edgy MD]

This film was a massive international hit based in part on India's surprising win in the 2002 women's field hockey tournament at the Commonwealth Games. What makes it interesting is also kind of what makes it uneven — the lead actor seems to have been told that he's in a samurai film. He arcs through his fall from grace and his redemption with a Zen impassiveness — breaking down his team where they need breaking and building them up where they need building, and slowly molding them into a winning unit that sacrifices for one another, like a weary, code-loyal samurai training a Japanese town to defend themselves from bandits. This detachment has its entertaining side, but is more than a little annoying, as it makes the film longer than it probably should be and it drains some of the life out of the real burning themes touched on — intra-Indian bigotry, Caste system mindsets, the country's rape culture and the denigrating attitudes that feed it, male privilege, the India-Pakistan partition, yada-yada.



The most satisfying scene occurs when the young women rumble with a bunch of pushy men at a food court, but it feels more gratifying than it should, because the pace had been so slow to that point. Events pick up when the team travels to Australia for the international championships, and even though a cornucopia of sports movie cliches spills out from there, it's a somewhat tastier salad when they get tossed together with a choice selection of samurai movie chiches.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: it makes the film longer than it probably should be and it drains some of the life out of the real burning themes touched on — intra-Indian bigotry, Caste system mindsets, the country's rape culture and the denigrating attitudes that feed it, male privilege, the India-Pakistan partition, yada-yada.

Since I took "History of India" in college (the reason I took it made sense to me at the time), I don't think I need to be taught about those things again by a movie.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'll pass.



Later

[Edgy MD]

I'm not recommending it, only sharing information.



Nothing I've written in any way — and I'm certain no marketing claim the film's producers would make — would suggest that it is trying to "teach" you the "history of India."

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm not recommending it, only sharing information. Nothing I've written in any way — and I'm certain no marketing claim the film's producers would make — would suggest that it is trying to "teach" you the "history of India."

Not you, Edgy. It sounds like the plot information you shared told me I wouldn't like it.

Later