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(4 stars out of 5) Shahrukh Khan fans were reminded of Swades and Laagan as they watched a brilliantly executed hockey movie, Chak De India. The Yash Chopra camp known for its romantic and recently flashy movies offered something refreshingly different as Chak De India and pleasantly surprised movie lovers.

Even though I am a Shah Rukh admirer, I had no plans of watching the movie at the theaters throwing $10 for a not so publicized movie. But after a friend’s review, and some patriotic doses from weekend desi television, Chak De sounded like the perfect weekend movie for me. I loved the restrained Shahrukh Khan .. first in Swades and then in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, where the character he was playing emerged much bigger than the King Khan himself. And Chak De India too made you feel for Kabir Khan, the fallen Indian hero who was playing for his self respect more than India’s glory at the hockey World Cup.

Unlike other movie review where they reveal the plot (well there is not much a plot in this movie though), here we will avoid giving out plot spoilers. The storyline is very straight forward though. But like any Yash Chopa or Karan Johar movie, its the journey that makes the movie good. 16 young unknown girls compose Shahrukh ’s team both in the movie and the Indian national hockey team. And in both, the team and Shahrukh execute perfectly and master every detail elegantly.

If you watch carefully, the movie touches upon a lot of regionalism, sexist attitude and aspects which every Indian faces in his/her day to day life, but without being preachy or boring, the movie highlights these aspects as it sails through. The movie is all about hockey and women’s hockey to be specific. It has almost no love interests, no I-love-you-dad or SRK’s pyar-pyar-hota-hai-with-falling-leaves scenes.

Theatre or DVD : Well if you like Shahrukh, if you love India (especially because Independence day is around), go ahead and watch it. These days people have stopped making movies which have India or national themes because money is the king and producers want to woe viewers from different countries. There is not a single boring moment in the whole movie and no unwanted scenes. You know the plot and if you think a movie which has been executed perfectly with the plot in mind will appeal to you, go ahead and watch it in the theater. You will surely find yourself rooting for India and Shahrukh Khan towards the end of the movie. And moreover its a Yash Chopra movie, so you have to wait atleast 2 months to get a copy of the DVD.

Go out and watch it at the movie theater !! Encourage such movies. This is a different movie … no nudity, not a single lady exposing … no hatred.. no exaggerated romance … (well if these are what makes you love a movie, still).. and you will like the movie.

[ reviewed by Prem ]

PS: Hey Shahrukh, if you are reading this, please send us a few autographed pics for your desifans reading this.