CHAK DE!

Just came back. More than anything else, the movie brought back memories of the only time I have watched a game live. Not football, not cricket, but hockey, and quite a game it was. This goes back to the 1998 Asian Games final in Bangkok, between India and South Korea. It was the last time that India won a major trophy in hockey(9 years is a helluva long time!), and I was actually surprised with the number of details I remembered!

I still remember the chants of 'Ganpati Babba Moriya, Haarega Bhai Korea!'. I still remember the names....Dhanraj Pillay ofcourse, along with Mukesh Kumar and Baljit Singh Saini. INFACT, I just opened my autograph book, and I have their autographs from then! Ashish Ballal, the star goalkeeper who saved 2 penalty strokes in the shootout. Yes, I am proud I was there. Yes, hockey is an exciting game.

Other than all that, a few conclusions I came too:

- Firstly, having the national anthem at the start of every movie is one of the best things to happen to this country ever. As i've said before, sport and movies are the only two things which bring India together. I always wondered why they didn't have this before, having seen the same in theatres abroad, but the piece was done beautifully, and this makes me look forward to watching another movie in a theatre, rather than on LAN.

- Another reason to watch such a movie in the theatre: Every goal was cheered, every miss was jeered, and there were whistles after every one-liner, especially, 'Kyunki Hockey mein chakke nahin hote!'!

- The movie is pure Hindi Cinema masala, no doubt. Total timepass. But its got a feel good factor. Each an every person will yell 'Chak De' for the next few days to come. It was good fun to see 16(and a few more) girls running around, different states, different lifestyles, different interests. But no doubt, this movie wouldn't have been any good without Shahrukh. No matter what anyone says, he is THE showman, he delivers the goods, and no one exudes the same confidence and charisma. I don't think anyone can play the role of a lovable loser any better. Screw you if you crib that the movie is unrealistic, you have no heart.

- We do not respect our national heroes. Period.

And for all those who do not know yet, Chak De means 'Come on'.

Hope you liked it too.....