Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, (IANS) Indian missions in the Middle East may organise special screenings of the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Chak De! India” about a gritty women’s hockey team winning the world championships.

According to sources in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs, a proposal to send DVDs of the hit Bollywood movie to Indian missions in the Gulf region for special screenings to be watched by the diaspora was mooted at an informal discussion during the two-day conference of Indian ambassadors to 10 countries held in the national capital this week.

The envoys, who were excited at the proposal, encouraged the ministry to make the necessary arrangements immediately.

The conference was attended by Indian envoys to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as well as Malaysia, Jordan, Libya and Yemen.

Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s efforts to get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to watch the super hit movie appears to have found result too.

According to sources, Manmohan Singh has agreed to watch the movie, which has been playing to packed houses with its message of gender empowerment, unity and patriotism.

Producers Yash Raj Films and Shah Rukh Khan, who plays the role of coach Kabir Khan in the film, might come to capital to organise a special screening for the prime minister.

“The prime minister, who was tense about the crisis over the (India-US) nuclear deal, is in a better mood after opinion polls suggested good prospects for his government and coalition. He has agreed to watch the movie as so much has been talked about it now,” said the source.

Women are taking the field with renewed zeal, thanks to ‘Chak De’

“Yeh chakki-belan chalane wali Bharatiya nari hai. Yeh kabhi knicker wicker pahan ke hockey ke maidan par utar sakti hai kya?”
The ’sports administrator’, who spoke these infamous words on screen, had to eat his words in the end when the ‘Chak De’ girls came home triumphant with the hockey world cup. The movie, it seems, didn’t just end up with the usual feel good factor and a tax-free tag. The SRK reel effect in ‘Chak De’ seems to have rubbed off on the real as more and more girls seem to be taking up active sports.

Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chak De India’ has got the goody girls hooked on to sports. “It’s a revolution,” says Anjali Shah of Premier Indian Football Academy (PIFA), adding, “The number of inquiries and enrolment of girls in the game has gone up by 50 per cent this year. In fact for the very first time, women above 20 years also want to learn the game and play for the country.” PIFA is all set to form a woman’s football team after four women insisted on learning the game and forming a woman’s team. PIFAis on the lookout for 15 women to complete their women’s football team. And as far as hockey is concerned, the sport has suddenly received a huge momentum. Ignatius D’Souza, sub coach of the Bombay Hockey Women’s Association informs that four Mumbai schools namely St Paul Convent High School at Dadar, Pawar Public School in Bhandup, Canossa Convent in Andheri and St Teresa’s Convent in Santacruz have introduced hockey in their sports curriculum.

Even colleges are fast catching up with the game. Nisha Nair, the girl who plays Soi Moi in ‘Chak De India’ is an ace hockey player in real life as well. She along with Ranjan Negi, the one who taught Chak De girls to play hockey, encouraged the Poddar College girls to form their own team. Nisha says, “I felt great when Poddar College actually formed a girls’ hockey team. Things are changing. Everybody around me seem to have suddenly grown fond of sports. It feels great.”
Source: DnaINDIA

Sanjay Trehan

Tuesday, September 4, 2007: (New Delhi):

This weekend I checked out two films of differing styles and character. In a way, it was a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Even if I discount the immediate post-viewing mass hysteria, Chak De India is not just a film.

It’s a revolution of sorts, hitting at the centuries of obscurantism in traditional Indian society that viewed women, for obvious pecuniary and sexual reasons, as second class beings, existing only to satisfy the whims of the superior and powerful patriarchal class.

So, when SRK, subdued, unshaven, sober and refreshingly restrained, gets down to create a World Cup winning women’s Hockey team, he puts a minor but significant foot in the door for women to assert themselves as individuals.

Though it begins as a private battle to redeem himself and regain his lost pride, it ends up breaking a mould, and what a rotten mould it was! Read the rest of this entry »

Much to the delight of the nation, the Indian football team has done a CHAK DE! INDIA by winning the Nehru Cup for the first time. It is the first big triumph for the team after decades of disappointment.

In a bid to keep the show going, the media has this story about a football based film, very much in the CHAK DE! INDIA mould, featuring John Abraham, to be made by the A.I.F.F. (All India Football Federation).

However, when John was contacted he was unaware about any such film. He did add that perhaps the talks are about DHAN DHANA DHAN GOAL, a football centric movie that he intends to show to the A.I.F.A. president, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi.

While on John, though his mobile welcomes one with a 1000 cc mobike tone, he absolutely loves football and is a keen and avid watcher of the game.
Source: GlamSham

By: Priyanka Sinha IndiaFM
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 RSS
Subscribe to Newsletter

Chak De IndiaIt was with great trepidation that I watched Chak De! India after several assurances and I am willing to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. There was, to begin with, Shahrukh Khan looking absolutely dishy in the carefully careless look. He’s been complaining about the facial fuzz but, really, he should keep it. And the shades of silver showing up are not too bad either. Khan can go ahead and age gracefully for the years sit well on him, enhancing, rather than taking away from his sex-appeal. Going by the response from the women in the audience, I am certain that they would agree.

Speaking of women brings me to the other most appealing part about the film-the gender issue. The bit about women’s empowerment. The film is being touted as a sporty film which it most certainly is, but there are several themes that leap out as you watch the story unravel before you on the screen. And the attitude towards women is one such. It isn’t just that hockey, our national game, is not given enough importance-the indifference and apathy, if one were to go by the facts is even more abject when it comes to women players. Cricket may be a craze in India but very little attention is paid even to our women cricketers who have several proud achievements to their credit. Some lame efforts were made — Mandira Noodlestrap Bedi was roped in to popularise women’s cricket though not much came of it. Sania Mirza, the face of Indian women’s tennis, is a happy exception and not the rule. The attitude towards women sportspersons I think can safely be divided into the indifferent and the frivolous. While the first is linked to the notion that expending resources on sports played by women is wasteful, the second believes that as far as women are concerned, only sports with the perception of glamour attached to them, such as tennis, stand a chance. A glamorous postergirl for a sport may add to its following, but it is certainly not enough as sportswomen like Anjali Bhagwat will tell you. Read the rest of this entry »