'Chak de India' is reviving indian sports

About the film

In the movie, released on Aug 10,2007, Shah Rukh plays the role of hockey
coach Kabir Khan, who turns a rag tag bunch of hapless girls into a unit that goes
on to win the World Cup on the silver screen.
Movie Chak de India is a great success in India and in its first two weeks this
movie has earned more than 20 crore rupees.
The story is based on the real life story of former Indian goalkeeper Mir Ranjan
Negi, who fell from grace after conceding seven goals against Pakistan in the
1982 Asian Games final, after which he was dropped from the side.
Negi, however, managed to extricate himself from disgrace by guiding the women
team to Commonwealth Games glory in 2002.
In a country that eats, drinks and sleeps cricket, a movie on hockey
certainly bucks the trend. So when Shah Rukh Khan waves the magic
stick saying Chak De! India, the audience rises to cheer

Reasons in support
1. Former hockey greats believe the Bollywood Badshah might just score for the
national sport in this regard
2. Hockey, we all know, lags far behind cricket, football and even tennis in the
Indian popularity stakes.
3. Our sportsmen are making their mark internationally in other disciplines, but the
national sport is languishing
4. there is all round appreciation that Bollywood has decided to do something about
it.
5. SRK and Chak De India might just be the shot in the arm that hockey so
desperately needs, feel sports people who also follow films
6. It might encourage youth to take up hockey again.
7. Former Indian hockey captain Dhanraj Pillai says positively , "This is the very
first film based on hockey and it is sure to pep up the youth.
8. Talking of the status of Indian hockey currently, veteran player Viren Rasquinha
says, "Shah Rukh Khan's film will definitely make this fascinating sport popular
again.

9. . Parents push their children academically but sports always tends to take a
backseat." In Chak De India , the Bollywood hero reportedly plays the role of
former goalkeeper MR Negi whose reputation was tarnished when India lost the
1982 Asian Games final to Pakistan.
10. The film gives a push to women hockey players as it could revive public interest
in the dying game, which is also our national games,"
11. This film is a shift from a regular Bollywood movie as it diverts from the usual
and delves into the unexplored arena of sports.
12. Film Chak De, in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, while playing
the role of the coach of national womens hockey team, highlights the qualities of
great nationalist and a genuine sportsman as Mir Ranjan Negi has been.
13. "It is good to see that the culture of sports movies is growing in our country. It can
do a whole world of good to the sports culture in our society.
14. The successes at the 16th Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Malaysia in May
and at last months Champions Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, where India
won the bronze, were a ray of hope for hockey lovers. After watching the movie,
most people are sure that it will definitely attract more young people to the game.
15. Indian sports really need number of such movies which can motivate players for
higher performance.
16. Chak de India and its motivation are today not restricted to sports only, however
large number of Indian organisations are also showing this movie to their
employees to motivate them.
17. leading business school of Chandigarh has added chak de India in its syllabus.
These are really great achievements by movie chak de India, its stars and its
producers

Reasons against

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Its not about hockey at all: The multiplex audience will watch
Chak De India, enjoy their popcorn, show their pop-patriotism and quickly forget
it all, says Amjad Maruf (a former hockey player )
Chak De India is a good film but certainly not great, as is being portrayed by the
media. The film does deserve praise, but let no one kid you into believing that it
would revive Indian hockey
If films possessed so much power, India would have had a cycling champion in
the years following Aamir Khan starrer Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander.
We would have been playing the FIFA World Cup after Hip Hip Hooray and our
cricket team would have won the World Cup after watching Iqbal and Lagaan
Clearly, Chak De was made for commercial reasons, and not out of love for
hockey
Following the success of the film, only three of its actresses - Sagarika Ghatge
(Preeti Sabharval), Shilpa Shukla (Bindiya Naik), and Vidya Malavade (Vidya
Sharma) - have been hogging the limelight. They are all over the place giving

interviews and talking about hockey. But what are they doing to promote the
sport?
7. Why don't they tour the interiors of India and promote the film if they care about
hockey? The reality is that these actresses and the producers of Chak De... are
only interested in selling the movie.
8. With numerous cinematic liberties, clichs and an inconsistent script, Chak De...
is like any other Bollywood flick
9. Chak De India will make no difference to Indian hockey simply because the
producers don't seem to have made enough efforts to promote the film in small
towns and cities, from where hockey players will emerge
10. The multiplex audience will watch the film, enjoy their popcorn, show their poppatriotism and quickly forget all about it.

Close on the heels of "Chak de! India" is coming up another sports

movie, "Goal". A John Abraham and Arshad Warsi starrer, this movie
plays around the central theme of football
Some other Indian movies based on sports that have done very well
are "Lagaan", "Iqbal" and "Awwal Number", "Hip Hip Hurray" and
"Saheb".