Movie with a message

Chak De does not preach and yet succeeds in putting across its point to the audience.

What I've liked

Inspiring storytelling at its best
There have been times when I've digressed from advertising to talk about outstanding work in the Indian movies and this is one of them. It's about Chak De "" the most 'unfilmy' film, if I may, and after a long time.

Shah Rukh is the 'hero', but yet what we see is one heck of a coach. There are girls aplenty, but we don't see any tears and chiffon nor objectified beauties. We see them as who they are "" people battling against stereotype and team egos. It's an old story, told many times over and therein lies the challenge.

The director has surpassed himself with his storytelling skills and superb casting. He keeps the suspense alive till the end, portraying the hard reality of winning and losing without a single frame to disappoint. And judging by the house-full shows, this modern day fairytale is proof that the Indian audience does not need masala song and dance sequences only, to be entertained.

What is even more endearing is that there has been no in-your-face pre-film publicity with lengthy one-on-ones from the director et al! The film, in this case, is the one that does the talking, and how! Everything about the film focuses on the story and that is why like its message, it emerges a true-blue winner. Take a bow Mr Director, and everyone in your team in as well!

What I've learnt

The power to discriminate "" our greatest gift
Back in the days when animals could seek an audience with Brahma, a group of them went to the creator with a major grouse: "Why is it that you have placed the Human above all of us, when it is we who possess the finer traits? For instance, the Human is not as powerful as the Elephant, nor as brave as the Lion, or even as loyal as the Dog and so on..."

To which Brahma replied: "You are right, but you as a group lack the one quality that makes the Human superior. And that is the ability to discriminate good from bad, right from wrong."

Well...that might have been our key advantage over the rest of God's creations back then, but we seem to be rapidly losing it of late. Take the way the political parties in Andhra Pradesh used a terror attack to cudgel the ruling party. Rather than offering their solidarity to counter a common crisis, they have chosen to stand aside and criticise, exposing their own inability to discriminate between the immediate, and a far greater predicament.

This reminds me of another Jataka tale where a Guru, well versed in the art of Sanjivini (the ability to restore life) passed on his secret knowledge to only one of his forty disciples.

Encountering a dead tiger in a forest, the chosen one, eager to test his new skill and show it off to the rest of his team, revives the tiger. The tiger characteristically eats him up, satisfying its hunger rather than expressing gratitude to its saviour. A simple illustration of how power can be self-defeating in the hands of the indiscriminate.

Our inability to discriminate can be seen in so many instances, all around us. For instance, people chase money staking their all, and fail badly in the process, ignorant that their name and reputation are the "products" for which money is paid! Isn't it time we regained our power to differentiate and started justifying our so-called 'superior' status in the universal scheme of things?

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