Chak de! India

Chak de! India was the first sports based movie I’ve seen in my life, and will always be a movie that’ll never fail to make me inspired by the same. The movie beautifully showcases hockey as the sport it actually is, and at the same time showed what girl power truly is, and will always be! Blamed and degraded for loosing the hockey world cup finals due to missing out a penalty as the captain, Kabir Khan redeems himself by wanting to become the coach for the national women’s hockey team a few years later. When the Indian Hockey Association almost was on the verge of cancelling the women’s team with the blatant thought process that all women were expected to do were cook and clean and would not be able to successfully play, he reiterates that he’ll coach them, believing in them when nobody else did.

Divided by culture and religion, coming from different states, with different personalities, experience, and problems of their own, the team is eventually formed. Failing to instil team spirit and obedience among the team, he resigns as the coach. But when an incident makes them realise how important it is to set aside their differences and act as a team, Kabir then realises that the team is finally ready. The association refuses to send them to Australia for the world cup, but after a match with the men’s team, they win their respect, and the association finally agrees. The film then showcases their journey through ups and downs, with many grudges still being held among the players, costing the team many wins. But through it, the team finally wins the World Cup.

There are some scenes in films which one can never forget. The reason why one can’t forget is that we’ll always remember how it made us feel at that time, and how it will always make us feel when thought about later - and the scene which showcases the Indian women’s hockey team winning the world cup, the tears of euphoria, Kabir’s victorious expression - is a perfect example of that for me. It really did make me feel proud to see India represented and win at the same time. It also showed how beautiful the relationship between a coach and the team is. By releasing such a film, the makers sent a powerful and impactful message on women representation in sports. Every girl wishing to pursue a sport needs to have someone believing in her – someone like Kabir. The deep rooted perspective of what a women should do and be, must change, and such change begins at home. We need more Kabirs to help uplift women, and like I said, believing in them when nobody else does.