Chak De! India explores religious bigotry, religious prejudice and sexism. The film follows Kabir Khan, an exiled hockey player, ousted from the sport as a result of religious prejudice, following a disastrous loss to Pakistan. 7 years later, in an attempt to redeem himself, he becomes the coach of the Indian national women's hockey team, with the goal of turning 16 of its players into an award-winning team.
Sahni was inspired to develop the Chak De! India's script after reading about the India women's national field hockey team's win at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in a newspaper. Although Kabir Khan's struggles bore resemblance to those faced by real-life hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, Sahni was unaware of Negi's tribulations while writing the script. His screenplay is a work of fiction, and the characters, while inspired by the real team and coaches, were invented by Sahni. On the suggestion of Maharaj Krishan Kaushik, then coach of the women's hockey team, Sahni invited Negi to join the film's production team. They conducted workshops for training the actors in hockey, and the players in acting. Kaushik and Negi would train Sahni, Khan and the other cast members over a period of six months.
Shah Rukh Khan's portrayal of Kabir Khan is considered one of his best to date.[5][6] In addition, the title song is played regularly at sports events in India.[7]
Plot
Chak De! India opens in Delhi during the final minutes of a Hockey World Cup match between Pakistan and India, with Pakistan leading 1–0. When Indian team captain Kabir Khan is fouled, he takes a penalty stroke. His shot just misses, however, causing India to lose the match. Soon afterwards, media outlets circulate a photograph of Khan shaking hands and embracing the Pakistani captain. The sporting gesture is misunderstood, and Khan (who is a Muslim)[8] is suspected of throwing the game out of sympathy towards Pakistan. Religious prejudice thus forces Khan and his mother to leave their ancestral home.[9][8][10]
Seven years later Mr. Tripathi, the head of India's hockey association, meets with field hockey advocate Uttam Singh to discuss the Indian women's hockey team. According to Tripathi, the team has no future since the only long-term role for women is to "cook and clean". Uttam, however, tells him that Khan wants to coach the team. Initially skeptical, Tripathi agrees to the arrangement.
Khan finds himself in charge of a group of 16 young women divided by their fiercely competitive natures and regional prejudices. Komal Chautala, a village girl from Haryana, clashes with Preeti Sabarwal from Chandigarh; short-tempered Balbir Kaur from Punjab bullies Rani Dispotta and Soimoi Kerketa, who are from remote villages in Jharkhand. Mary Ralte from Mizoram and Molly Zimik, from Manipur in Northeast India, face widespread racial discrimination, and sexual comments from some strangers. Team Captain Vidya Sharma must choose between hockey and the wishes of her husband Rakesh's family, and Preeti's fiancé—Abhimanyu Singh, Vice-Captain of the India national cricket team— brushes off hockey as unimportant to their future as a couple.
Khan realises that he can make the girls winners only if he can help them overcome their differences. During his first few days as coach, he benches several players who refuse to follow his rules—including Bindiya Naik, the most experienced player. In response, Bindiya repeatedly encourages the other players to defy Khan. When she finally succeeds, Khan angrily resigns; however, he invites the staff and team to a farewell lunch at McDonald's. During the lunch, local boys catcall Mary; Balbir attacks them, triggering a brawl between the boys and the team. Khan, recognising that they are finally acting as one for the first time, prevents the staff from intervening; he only stops a man from hitting one of the women from behind with a cricket bat. After the fight, the women realise Khan's intentions and ask him to remain their coach.
The team faces new challenges. When Tripathi refuses to send the women's team to Australia for the World Cup, Khan proposes a match against the men's team. Although his team loses, their performance inspires Tripathi to send them to Australia after all. Bindiya is upset with Khan for choosing Vidya over her as the captain of the team. Her consequent behaviour results in a 7–0 loss to Australia. When Khan confronts Bindiya about her actions on the field, Bindiya responds by attempting to seduce with Khan, to which he rejects & asks her to stay away from the game. Khan goes on to train the girls again, which is followed by victories over England, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina. Just before their game with South Korea, Khan approaches Bindiya, asking her to begin playing once more and break the strategy of 'Man to Man' marking used by the Korean team so they can win the match. Bindiya goes onto the field and with the help of Gunjan Lakhani manages to beat South Korea and enter the finals.
They are again matched with Australia for the final. Khan urges Komal and Preeti to put aside their differences for the team's sake. Preeti, in order to prove Abhimanyu a point, is determined to finish as the tournament's leading goal scorer. In the final few minutes of the game, the Indian women are trailing 1-2 when Komal passes the ball to Preeti, who scores and pushes the game into penalty shootouts. There, they go down 2-0 initially but come back to win the penalty shootouts 3-2 and thus claim the world cup against all odds. When the team returns home, their families treat them with greater respect while Khan, his good name restored, returns with his mother to their town and ancestral home, where once angry neighbors greet them with immense pride.
Cast
Shortly after the film's release, the media began referring to the 16 actresses who portrayed the players as the "Chak De! Girls".[11][12] The panel of judges at the Screen Awards also used the term, awarding the Best Supporting Actress award to the "Chak De Girls" at the 14th Screen Awards in 2008.[13]
Shah Rukh Khan stated in a speech delivered at the University of Edinburgh that the phrase Chak De! was originally "an inspirational martial cry that Sikh soldiers used while lifting logs in order to make bridges across rivers on their campaigns against their enemies. It implies the will to get up and get on with it."[15]
Development
"I felt why has the girls’ team been given so little coverage. I shared the idea with Aditya (Chopra). He liked it and said stop everything else and concentrate on it. I started my research by spending time with hockey players ... It’s just a matter of chance that Negi's story matches with Kabir Khan. There are many cases, like in Colombia, football players are killed for not performing well for the club. I had no idea about Negi’s story while writing the script, and he joined us after the script was ready. In fact, his name was suggested by M.K. Kaushik, who was the coach of the team that won the Commonwealth Games’ gold. On day one, when Negi read the script, he cried and it was then that we came to know about his story."
Shah Rukh Khan took this role partially because he used to play hockey in college.
Although Salman Khan was initially signed for the lead role, he later withdrew due to creative differences with director Shimit Amin.[24]Shah Rukh Khan (who had originally declined due to a scheduling conflict with Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Farhan Akhtar's Don (both 2006) was later confirmed as Kabir Khan.[25] Khan accepted the role partly because he used to play hockey in college.[26] Some media sources called the actor's role offbeat, since it departed from his usual romantic image and included neither lip synched songs nor a single female lead.[12]
Casting of the 16 actresses as the hockey players took over six months. Amin described the process as "very, very difficult" and "very strenuous because the requirement was they had to play – and act". A four-month training camp was held where the girls learned the rules of the game, took acting lessons and followed a strict diet; safety precautions were also taken.[27] According to Amin, it was "tricky" to teach the actors how to play hockey, and those who were hired because they were hockey players, had to learn how to act.[12] Some of the actors, such as Chitrashi, Sandia, and Raynia, were cast because they were hockey players.[28]
Rob Miller was the sport action director, choreographing the sports scenes,[29][30] and worked with Negi to train the actors. About working with Khan, Negi recalled that everything was planned "including the penalty stroke that SRK missed. That shot alone took us nearly 20 hours as I was keen that it should be very realistic."[19]
The soundtrack album of Chak De! India and the film's background music is composed by Salim–Sulaiman. This film marks the duo's first collaboration with actor Shah Rukh Khan. The lyrics for all the songs were written by Jaideep Sahni. The album features seven tracks with a remix song and a dialogue by Shah Rukh Khan from this film. The album was released on 11 July 2007, and upon its release 11,00,000 units of the album were sold, making it the eleventh highest selling soundtrack album of the year, according to the Indian trade website Box Office India.[31]
The album received positive reviews from critics. Planet Bollywood rated the album 8/10 stars, with "Chak De! India",[32] "Badal Pe Paaon Hai",[33] "Ek Hockey Doongi Rakh Ke"[34] and "Maula Maula Le Le Meri Jaan"[35] as their top picks. Then stated "Salim-Sulaiman have shown that just like the girls' hockey team, every underdog has his/her day. The album is a relief from the usual Himeshsonic-Pritammatic soundtracks that are flooding the Bollywood music scene today. Here's hoping that the duo get more contracts and bring us some more fresh tracks."[36]
Chak De! India premiered on 13 August 2007 at Somerset House in London to an audience of over 2,000 during the Film4 Summer Screen and India Now festivals.[37][38][39] It was released globally in theaters on 10 August 2007,[40] playing on only 400 screens in India because of the middling response of Yash Raj Films's two previous films, Ta Ra Rum Pum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.[40]
The film was screened in New Delhi on 17 August 2016, as part of the week-long Independence Day Film Festival. The festival was jointly presented by the Indian Directorate of Film Festivals and Ministry of Defense, commemorating India's 70th Independence Day.[41][42]
In an NPR interview via affiliate WBUR-FM, Mumbai Mirror columnist Aseem Chhabra called Chak De! India "an example of a film that's been made within the framework of Bollywood and yet it is a very different film. It does take up some realistic issues, and what I really liked about the film was that the women who acted, you know, who are part of the team, each one of them got a chance...so, the superstar in the film was Shahrukh Khan, who was the coach of the team; he doesn't sort of take over the whole film."[45]Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film four out of five stars arguing that it was a film of "great performances by a bunch of unknowns."[46]India Today called Chak De! India "the most feisty girl power movie to have come out of Bollywood ever."[47] Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu wrote, "At another level, Chak De is about women's liberation. It is one of the best feminist films of our times."[48]Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Chak De's ... a winner all the way."[49] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express called the film "the most authentic, meticulously researched sports movie India has made".[50] In Kolkata's Telegraph, Bharathi S. Pradhan wrote that the film combines "an extremely well-knit screenplay with unrelentingly deft direction, 16 unknown, and not even glamorous, girls simply carried you with them, with one single known actor compelling you to watch Chak De India without blinking".[51] Jaspreet Pandohar of the BBC gave Chak De! India four out of five stars stating that "while the tale of the sporting underdog is hardly new, Jaideep Sahni's screenplay offers a rare look at a popular Indian sport often overshadowed by cricket."[52] Andy Webster of The New York Times wrote that the film gave a fresh look to the conventional underdog sports film, comparing its premise to the U.S. victory in the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup.[53] Derek Elley of Variety called Chak De! India "a patriotic heartwarmer that scores some old-fashioned entertainment goals."[54] In The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wrote that the "technical credits are first rate with excellent cinematography, quicksilver editing, musical montages of practice and a fine use of locations."[55]
Michael Dequina of themoviereport.com was more critical of the film, giving it 2.5 out of four stars and calling it "a very familiar, very formula underdog sports movie with nothing to distinguish it from similar, equally slick Hollywood product."[56]Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave Chak De! India two stars out of four, writing that the film uses "sports-movie conventions to address larger cultural and political issues, and while it doesn't miss a cliche, it also invests every one with vigorous conviction."[57] Although Subhash K. Jha gave the film 3.5 stars, calling it "a fairly predictable story" with dialogue "quite often the stuff bumper stickers are made of", he wrote that "Chak De! India is an outright winner" and "one of the finest sports-based dramas in living memory.[58]Khalid Mohamed gave the film 3.5 stars in the Hindustan Times stating that the film "may be predictable but compels you to root for a team of losers whom only an earth-angel can save from disastrous defeat".[59]
Due to the film's strong critical response, cinema halls reported 80% occupancy for its opening weekend.[40]Chak De! India topped the Indian box office during its first two weeks,[61] and played to full houses during its first two months.[62] The film was particularly successful in large cities.[62]Chak De! India was the third-highest-grossing film of 2007 in India, with domestic net earnings of ₹66,54,00,000 that year it was declared a box office 'Blockbuster'.[63] By the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed ₹102 crore ($27.05 million) worldwide, including ₹85.86 crore gross (₹66.54 crore net) in India and $3.94 million (₹15.76 crore) overseas.[64]
In 2016, the British Film Institute named Chak De India one of the "10 great Bollywood films of the 21st century."[65] Later in 2023, Time Out ranked Chak De India #35 on its list of the "100 Best Bollywood Movies,"[66] and it was profiled in the 2023 Netflix documentary The Romantics.[67] Shah Rukh Khan's work in this film is also discussed in critic and author Shubhra Gupta's book, 50 Films That Changed Bollywood, 1995–2015,[68] and it is considered one of his best films to date.[5][6] In addition, India Today discusses how Chak De! India influenced Shah Rukh Khan's 2023 film, Jawan.[69]
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