FilmiKhabar

Chak De India

By IndiaFM News Bureau,

Synopsis

Jo nahin ho sakta hai, wahi to karna hai…

Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) knows what it’s like to come back from the dead. The ex Indian Captain has now come back in the avatar of the Coach of the Indian Women’s National Hockey team. A team that exists more on paper and less in reality.

The team is a rag-tag bunch of girls with their own agenda. A bunch of girls who have forgotten what it is like to play for the love of the game. Of playing because you want glory for your country. Not because you want a pensioned job or a government flat. They have all forgotten the sharp thrill of just holding the hockey stick, keeping their eyes on the ball and playing for all they are worth. They have played every game but hockey to make sure they get selected every year in the Indian National team. But what does it really mean to play for the Indian National team? To play for India?

Mujhe sirf ek mulk ka naam sunaai deta hai –India

The girls have never known the thrilling energy of being Team India. Of giving their all to see their country’s name on a trophy. But Kabir Khan, once a captain, now forgotten, does. He knows what it takes to get there. And what it means to return empty handed. This time, he wants to make sure that it’s different. He knows there are no second chances. Despite his past, he believes that if only the girls played as one, anything would be possible.

Because Kabir Khan believes that it is not that we can’t win. It’s just that we have never believed we can.

Chak De India is the story of a coach’s fight of making his team, Team India by overcoming their diverse backgrounds, by learning to use everything that life hurls on them as a secret weapon. It’s a story about honesty, sincerity and integrity. A story to remind the nation of its national

Character Sketch

The Coach

Shahrukh Khan as Kabir Khan

Once the hero of Indian Hockey, the best Centre forward in the world, the man a nation found a hero in.

And the man it sentenced to hell.

Now he has decided to make a last comeback to the game he once loved, to reclaim his lost honour and prove his point to the nation he still loves.

By doing the impossible.

Making a rag-tag bunch of loser girls a team.

And the World Champions.

The Girls

Preeti Sabarwal

Fair, Athletic, Stunning
Position: Center Forward
Jersey Number: 9
Home State: Chandigarh

Preeti went to Sanawar, but on her way to Harvard from there, took a sharp left towards the Punjab University and its hockey team for reasons best known to her. Chandigarh captain, she looks like Princess Leia and plays like the terminator, the only one she’s close to is her iPod. Would you then blame the rest of her mostly rural team-mates for calling her mem? She has a secret, but then, that’s a secret.

—
Komal Chautala

Short, Tough
Position: Right In
Jersey Number: 8
Home State: Haryana

The Rohtak Express, also known as chhokra in her village for her tomboyishness, and as chhipkali in her team for her devious dribbling. Born to tough Jats, she has just one regret that she wasn’t born a boy. But she’s doing all she can to make up, including not using make-up. Ever!

Bindia Naik

Tough, Seasoned
Position: Center Half
Jersey Number: 5
Home State: Maharashtra

Experience corrupts, and too much experience corrupts completely. A veteran of field positions, federation politics and award manipulations, she could make any team’s dirty tricks department proud, if she wasn’t the department herself in real life.

Vidya Sharma

Mature, Experienced, Nice
Position: Goalie + Captain
Jersey Number: 18
Home State: Madhya Pradesh

Just married. And it already looks like she will have to divorce hockey. She knows this is probably her last tournament but can she give up hockey for marriage?

Balbir Kaur

Big, Intimidating
Position: Left Defender
Jersey Number: 3
Home State: Punjab

Known as tataiya, bhootni, rakshas and ghatotkach depending upon what she has done lately, everybody in the team is terrified of her temper. Fearless, sometimes to the point of being brainless. She is the team’s main hope against the giant Australian girls and the manly Argentinean zagalonas. Heart of gold, in a body of armour-plated steel.

Aliya Bose

Sultry, Sexy, Carefree
Position: Right Out
Jersey Number: 7
Home State: West Bengal

Sexy Aliya should have been born in the swinging 70’s. The world is a winery of boys and she’s the taster-in-chief. And she takes her job very seriously. In spare time she also plays hockey, unfortunately she’s good at it, and so year after year, team managers and coaches have tolerated her.

Gunjan Lakhani

Tall, Fast, Smooth
Position: Right Half
Jersey Number: 4
Home State: Andhra Pradesh

This Hyderabadi potti has seen it all, because she knows when to shut her eyes. Playing with seniors Bindia and Aliya has taught her only one thing there are more games off the field than on it. And a smart player knows how to stay out to stay in.

Rani Dispotta

Dark, Tall, Wiry
Position: Right Defender
Jersey Number: 2
Home State: Jharkhand

What Soimoi is undergoing now, Rani underwent when she moved from her jungle village to Ranchi Sports School. And that makes her an expert on how to handle the city-breeds, or manhandle them if need be. She knows enough Hindi to offend anyone and enough English to defend herself, especially on the field.

Soimoi Kerketa

Dark, Sinuous
Position: Substitute
Jersey Number: 17
Home State: Jharkhand

From Jharkhand Grameen Adivasi Balika Kalyan Kendra Vidyalaya on the edge of Ghamaorni jungle, straight New Delhi. Dicey Hindi and devious English confound her as much as hair-raising roads, blood-curdling cars and monstrous skyscrapers. Not to mention the other creatures around her who call themselves girls. But she knows what to do with a stick and a ball. That she knows.

Nethra Reddy

Dark, Tall, Quiet
Position: Left Out
Jersey Number: 11
Home State: Andhra Pradesh

The grounds-man’s little daughter who grew up in stadiums among players, and dreamt of being one herself. All she ever wanted to do was to make her dad proud, and finally, she’s an inch away from her dream…

Gul Iqbal

Medium, Lovely
Position: Left In
Jersey Number: 10
Home State: Uttar Pradesh

Hockey legend Zafar Iqbal’s grand-daughter. Her family’s history is Indian Hockey’s history. And nobody ever lets her forget that. Whether she wants it or not.

Molly Zimik

Rough, Competent
Position: Left Half
Jersey Number: 6
Home State: Manipur

Mary Ralte

Stocky, Reliable
Position: Substitute
Jersey Number: 15
Home State: Mizoram

They are clubbed as one because that’s how they eat, live and behave. Their school books taught them that they are Indians but Indians taught them otherwise. The only reason they play for the national team is that it is the only national team they can play for. They’d love to belong, but not to the team that calls them ‘foreign’, and definitely not to the people that call them ‘loose’. So they stick together and play. For the love of the game, and the honour of their people.

Related posts:

1. Chak De India Movie Review: Indiafm
2. Indicine Gives A Perfect 5 To Chak De India
3. I’m no harta karta in hockey, fumes SRK
4. CHAK DE GIRLS BACK ON THE FIELD
5. Chak De India: A real story of a hockey coach

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