This is the blueprint for Indian sports movies.

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2019)

Chak de! India is a different beast. It is a Bollywood sports movie, and hence contains the usual trope of underdogs v the world. It contains enough moments of dramatic tension. Unexpected pitfalls, sports heroism and ultimate redemption are themes that pervade the movie. Yet it is well-made, in the sense that the characters seem real, situations believable and the song-dance-routine is benched for thoroughly enjoyable training montages.
The Indian Women's National Hockey team which won the Gold medal in 2002 Commonwealth Games inspires the movie. This was a monumental event in Women's hockey in India because it was the first Championship win of any kind after the 1982 Delhi Asian Games. On the way to the gold the Indian Women also defeated the mighty Australia in the semifinals, which contained three of the greatest ever hockey players among them, who were also the reigning World Cup champions, Olympic, Commonwealth and Oceania cup winners. The Commonwealth Gold was such an inspirational event that it sparked a revival of Women's Hockey in India, as they followed it with medals in the ensuing Asian Games, Afro-Asian Games, Asia Cup Commonwealth Games, and plenty of other tournaments. At the present, the Women's Hockey team is a medal contender in the tournaments it features in, with a world ranking of 10.
To add to the rags-to-winners story, the goalkeeping coach of the women's team was a former men's hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, who was unfairly blamed by many Indians and hounded for decades after a particularly humiliating loss to eternal rivals Pakistan, in 1982 Asian games. It didn't help that the tournament was held in Delhi, the capital. He had sought his own redemption and had somewhat achieved it with this victory. The wounds on his soul had healed, even if the scars would never go.
One would think such an extremely inspiring story would prove to be a profitable cinema effort at the Box Office, and would have studios wrangling over movie rights. Yet it took half a decade for the story to finally release as a cinema because of many challenges. For one, it was doubtful if Indians would be interested to watch a movie where the main cast was a bunch of girls who played sports, and had no central love story or song-dance routines. The casting of Shah Rukh Khan, in the middle of a mid-career resurgence, gave the film the fillip it needed, and the production moved quickly. The casting of actual hockey players helped to keep things realistic, and even watching the match and practice session montages would never give one the doubt that these girls aren't hockey players.
Coming to the story, it deals with many issues such as calling out toxic patriotism and eschewing a compassionate one, misogyny in Indian society in general and sports, meagre resource allocation to sports other than cricket, regional and linguistic differences, and assorted issues that I wondered if the movie might be enjoyable at all. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly the director had fit everything into a linear yet compelling narrative, getting out great performances from not just Khan but also the young actresses and the supporting cast. It still focuses a lot on Khan's coach. It is his story of redemption told through this wonderful sporting achievement by Indian women, but I didn't mind it for once. Shah Rukh, all intense and quiet yet fiercely determined, doesn't take over the movie and lets his costars shine around him, and the movie does pay tribute to women in the credits.
Definite watch.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
Watch out for: Vidya Malvade as the captain, Sagharika Ghatke as fiercely independent forward, Chitrashi Rawat as the pint-sized dynamo, and Shilpa Shukla as the irate senior and Tanya Abrol as the angry Punjabi girl are simply marvelous.