I had to review this film, even though it came out over a year ago. It is easily the most eccentric Indian film I have ever seen. It's Indian Gothic at it's best: Dark, moody, atomspheric, full of dread, torment, insanity, murder and dark secrets.
The film begins with the sick Queen, attended by the King and her daughter. The king reads to her from Romeo and Juilet. The Queen feverish, starts calling for Eklavya, the palace servant. The king tells her to stop. She doesn't. So the King kills her suffocating her with a pillow. The daughter, smiles at the camera and says "Mummy has died".
I can't imagine how Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the director of the film expected that this film would work in India. Gothic is alien to Indian sensibilities. Its out of fashion even in the western world. But I just loved it.
Whats even more amazing is that VVC manages to blend gothic with the Indian Epic Mahabharat, a combination that is as demented as the rest of the film.
The film is about, Eklavya named for, and like a character in the Indian Epic Mahabharat. Eklavya in the Indian epic is a low caste nobody who aspires to be a great warrior. In the absence of a guru to teach him, he becomes a great archer "taught" by a mud statue of the guru Dronarcharya. One day, he gets to meet the real Dronarcharya, who is astounded by Eklavya's skill and then outraged, as he realises that the low caste Eklavya was a better archer than his upper caste star pupil-Arjun. Dronacharya demands Eklavyas thumb in return for "teaching" him to be an archer and Eklavya complies and of course without his thumb is an archer no more. In Eklavya's place I would have buried an arrow in Dronarcharya's eye.
The Elklavya of the film is in a similar position. The servant in a minor royal family of Rajasthan, he has the zeal of his namesake in the Mahabharat, holding on to secrets that threaten his very life. He is also as well an accomplished marksman displayed in a bravura sequence where he shoots the bells off a pigeons feet blind folded.
The secret that he carries in his bosom is very Mahabharat in flavour. He is the father to the heir of the Kingdom. The King is sterile and Eklavya is forced to impregnate the queen. The Kings sterility and cuckold status eat at his mind over the years turning him into a pathetic and eventually homicidal monster. Boman Irani, who plays the king is funny and terrifying at the same time. After finishing off his wife, he decides to go after his heir and of course Eklavya. The latter has to overcome his loyalty to the king and goes on splendid killing spree to save his son.
A must see. No songs. stunning looking
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Chak de India
Chak de India combines two of my least favourite genres- Patriotism and Sports. Individually, they are cringe worthy enough. Together, I couldn't imagine anything worse.
Yet I was intrigued. The film was made by Yash Raj Productions, who get more daring and classier by the film. Also, Shah Rukh Khan, the films lead, didn't have a heroine. And finally I was very curious to see what the film would do with two such dire genres.
Chak de India is about the Women's Hockey team in India and it's coach- Kabir Khan a former champion hockey player wrongfully accused for deliberately losing a match to Pakistan. Driven out of his neighbourhood in shame, Kabir surfaces some years later to coach the Women's hockey team. He is given the job because nobody else wants it. The team is made up of girls from all parts of India and Kabir has his work cut out trying to get them to co-exist, let alone play hockey as a team.
The first part of the film shows Kabir creating a team out of the hostile girls. The second part of the film is about the girls playing in the Hockey World Cup in Melbourne.
The film avoids the cliches and pitfalls of its genres with the skill the players show in dodging their opponents.
Firstly the film is very low key. The title Chak de India is superimposed patriotically and bollywood like on the Indian Flag, but the accompanying score is tinged with sorrow and bitterness. While the film has songs, none of them are presented as item numbers. My mother thought how strange it was that the film didn't have any songs.
Secondly the films cast is outstanding, original and easily the most daring ever put together for a big Hindi Film. The characters and the girls playing them come from all parts of India and only two are even remotely pretty enough to appear in films. The player from Punjab looks like a wrestler, the one from Haryana is short and tomboyish, two others are too country and frumpy, one is too dark, and two heavens forbid, are too chinky to be even Indian. But the film makes sure, we know how fabulous they all are.
These girls, from all parts India, initially hostile to each other learn to like each other and work with each other. In doing so, the film transcends its genre and presents a portrait of India that normally would have been the province of low budget Art Films. It exposes the internal tensions of a country divided by language, religion, race and culture struggling to function as a whole. A very telling moment occurs in the beginning of the film when two players arrive in Delhi from either Manipur or Mizoram whose inhabitants look very oriental. They are greeted in a very patronising fashion as visitors from the very far end of the country. One of the players remarks bitterly on how is it possible to be a visitor in your own country.
The film is frank about racism in India and it's crude and twisted sexuality. The girls from Manipur (or Mizoram) are treated as prostitutes based on their oriental looks. In one of the film best scenes, all the girls finally gell as a team when they get together and thrash the living daylights out of a gang of thugs who are abusing their team mates from Manipur.
And finally there is Shah Rukh Khan, who takes on a rare non-romantic role, an honourable man wrongfully dishonoured. His very name, Kabir, represents the ideal of India. Kabir, the saint, who was beloved both by the Hindus and Muslims.
At the end of the film, when the girls come back triumphant, idolised by the nation, Kabir the coach, who is seen as the Architect of the amazing victory isn't interested in getting his share. He isn't even concerned with the restoration of his honour. All he cares for is that he can take his mother back to their ancestral house in the neighborhood they were forced to leave, after his disgrace. This final moment, played with such understated grace ends what is one of the finest films to come out India this year.
Yet I was intrigued. The film was made by Yash Raj Productions, who get more daring and classier by the film. Also, Shah Rukh Khan, the films lead, didn't have a heroine. And finally I was very curious to see what the film would do with two such dire genres.
Chak de India is about the Women's Hockey team in India and it's coach- Kabir Khan a former champion hockey player wrongfully accused for deliberately losing a match to Pakistan. Driven out of his neighbourhood in shame, Kabir surfaces some years later to coach the Women's hockey team. He is given the job because nobody else wants it. The team is made up of girls from all parts of India and Kabir has his work cut out trying to get them to co-exist, let alone play hockey as a team.
The first part of the film shows Kabir creating a team out of the hostile girls. The second part of the film is about the girls playing in the Hockey World Cup in Melbourne.
The film avoids the cliches and pitfalls of its genres with the skill the players show in dodging their opponents.
Firstly the film is very low key. The title Chak de India is superimposed patriotically and bollywood like on the Indian Flag, but the accompanying score is tinged with sorrow and bitterness. While the film has songs, none of them are presented as item numbers. My mother thought how strange it was that the film didn't have any songs.
Secondly the films cast is outstanding, original and easily the most daring ever put together for a big Hindi Film. The characters and the girls playing them come from all parts of India and only two are even remotely pretty enough to appear in films. The player from Punjab looks like a wrestler, the one from Haryana is short and tomboyish, two others are too country and frumpy, one is too dark, and two heavens forbid, are too chinky to be even Indian. But the film makes sure, we know how fabulous they all are.
These girls, from all parts India, initially hostile to each other learn to like each other and work with each other. In doing so, the film transcends its genre and presents a portrait of India that normally would have been the province of low budget Art Films. It exposes the internal tensions of a country divided by language, religion, race and culture struggling to function as a whole. A very telling moment occurs in the beginning of the film when two players arrive in Delhi from either Manipur or Mizoram whose inhabitants look very oriental. They are greeted in a very patronising fashion as visitors from the very far end of the country. One of the players remarks bitterly on how is it possible to be a visitor in your own country.
The film is frank about racism in India and it's crude and twisted sexuality. The girls from Manipur (or Mizoram) are treated as prostitutes based on their oriental looks. In one of the film best scenes, all the girls finally gell as a team when they get together and thrash the living daylights out of a gang of thugs who are abusing their team mates from Manipur.
And finally there is Shah Rukh Khan, who takes on a rare non-romantic role, an honourable man wrongfully dishonoured. His very name, Kabir, represents the ideal of India. Kabir, the saint, who was beloved both by the Hindus and Muslims.
At the end of the film, when the girls come back triumphant, idolised by the nation, Kabir the coach, who is seen as the Architect of the amazing victory isn't interested in getting his share. He isn't even concerned with the restoration of his honour. All he cares for is that he can take his mother back to their ancestral house in the neighborhood they were forced to leave, after his disgrace. This final moment, played with such understated grace ends what is one of the finest films to come out India this year.
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