Review of Chak De India

“A Reflection Note on Chakde India” Submitted By: Bikram Thapa (03) Manikkya 

Background of the Movie 

“Chak De India” is a Bollywood movie produced under the banner of Yash Chopda. It is a beautifully made film that makes you laugh, makes you cry, gives you goose bumps, and stirs up patriotism inside you. It is a film that every lover of good cinema must watch. 'Chak De India' is the story of a coach's fight of making his team, Team India, by overcoming their diverse backgrounds, by learning to use everything that life hurls on them as a secret weapon. It's a story about honesty, sincerity and integrity and a story to remind the nation of its National sport. The movie is directed by Shimit Amin and it stars Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role as the coach of Indian girls' hockey team. 'Chak De India' has a host of young girls as the players of the hockey team. The girls are: Vidya Malvade , Sagarika Ghatge, Chitrashi Rawat, Shilpa Shukla, Tanya Abrol, Anaitha Nair, Shubhi Mehta, Seema Azmi, Nisha Nair, Sandia Furtado, Arya Menon, Masochon V. Zimik and Kimi Laldawla. 

 Chakde India is a social movie that comprises the entire human and the behavioral aspect of the human beings. The human attributes like motivation, perception, leadership, psychology, and team dynamics are clearly and explicitly presented in the movie. In this regard, we can call ‘chakde India” as a behavioral movie. 

The movie starts with the hockey final match between India and Pakistan. Indian captain Shahrukh Khan (Kabir) misses the penalty and loses the match. After the completion of the match, the handshake between the players misinterpreted by the media and the public which costs him a lot, his career, pride and he is labeled gaddar (betrayer) by his own fellow countrymen. He becomes passive for 7 years. Now he has decided to make a last comeback to the game he once loved, to reclaim his lost honour and prove his point to the nation he still loves. And when he returns back, he comes with an enthusiasm to erase his dishonor and to uplift the Indian Hockey team. Kabir Khan aims to achieve the impossible by making a rag-tag bunch of loser girls into a team. And he is eyeing nothing less than World Championship. After the three months hard work by the team management and the 16 players, the Indian team become the new world champion. 

The defining moments of the movie is the McDonald's scene where the entire team shows team spirit by entering into a physical fight with the eve teasers, the applause team gets after playing against the men's team , the phone call from Shukla and coach telling Preeti and Komal about how they can make or mar the match. 

Objectives: 

The primary objectives to watch the movie is to understand the concept of Organizational Behavior and Leadership and how this theoretical concept can be applied practically. Besides this, the secondary objective is to understand the behavior, attitude and culture of the people from different background and how to manage the diversity as well as refreshment and entertainment. 

Reflection of the movie 

The film's story is simple and yet it carries so many undercurrents. Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh), the best center-forward in Indian hockey team, misses the crucial, last-minute penalty stroke against Pakistan and is blamed for the Indian team's defeat in the finals. That’s why he is labeled gaddar (betrayer) by his own fellow countrymen. This is related to the perception of organizational behavior. The perception of the Indian people towards the Kabir Khan is negative. So, Kabir Khan leaves his parental house with his mother and disappears into oblivion.

Seven years later he appears again, not as a player but as a coach of a bunch of girls in whom even the Hockey Federation has no confidence. Kabir Khan has just three months to coach and train these girls for the Hockey World Cup in Australia. This situation wants to show the leadership capability of the Kabir Khan. He had an interest in the women hockey team and wants to take every challenge as an opportunity. So, he became the coach of the Indian women hockey team. This scene also shows the organization politics of the Hockey Federation. 

The girls come from all over India - Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, North East and other states. The perception about the Jharkhand and North East state is also different for the Indian people. On the outside, Kabir Khan is very strict with the girls. Through his toughness he wants to instill discipline and integrity in the team, something which is significantly missing. When the registration of the player is closed, one player from Chandigarh is coming and Kabir Khan said that “late aane wale ko team mai jaga nai hai”. This shows that time management is very important in every sector. 

Within the team, there is hardly any friendship. There are usual girlie fights and arguments. Somebody is egoistic, somebody too self-centered, somebody is hot-tempered. This shows the individual behavior, attitude and culture because they come from different background. It is very difficult for him to form the team. Using very unconventional methods, Kabir Khan manages to create a team spirit among the girls. But some differences remain, only to be sorted out in the World Cup tournament in Australia, which the team must win to make India proud. But Kabir Khan is fighting for more than pride for India. The movie also shows the aggressiveness while playing against Argentina. At last before taking the penalty stroke he said that “ hamla goal par nai golie ko dimag pe karna goal kudh ma kudh ho jaya ga” this shows the intelligence about how to read the others mind and strategy of the coach. For him the victory would bring redemption (for his momentary failure 7 years ago) and reclamation of his lost honour. And when that moment of reckoning does come, he looks on with disbelief in his teary eyes. 

Learning 

Learning through films is actually very helpful because they reflect the society and we tend to understand the societal dynamics through movies. The management students get quite inspired with the exercise. They are thrilled and motivated to participate, learn from the theme, discuss and analyze. Such an exercise makes them think analytically and teach a sense of participation. 

It’s a movie on how an Indian women hockey team, a team that exists more on paper and less in reality, goes on to win a world cup against all odds. These 16 girls initially believed to be “chakla balen chale wale ladkiya” finaly win the world cup thanks to their hard work and coach Kabir Khan’s mentoring and guidance. 

Chak de tries to make you believe that impossible is nothing and never give up. One might say, there is lot of difference in real life and reel life, but an inspiration that I took from the movie is to have faith in yourself and keep trying. After watching the movie when I analyzed it critically I realized that apart from the entertainment, which this movie has in abundance, it even offers several lessons, which we can learn and apply them at our work, and with our teams.

1. Perception: 

The scene of Kabir Khan, the captain of Indian team shaking hands with the captain of Pakistan team as a sportsmanship is misinterpreted and is perceived as a traitor. The Indian people perceived this thing in a very negative way. This shows how a misinterpretation of information can bring the change in the way people perceive things. All team members from different region have different background so they have different perception, attitude and behavior. In the movie, the perception about the Jharkhand is very different than the other developed state. 2. 

Formation of the Team: It is very difficult to create a team who come from different background. The formation of team includes the following stages: 

 Forming: A common goal brings people together. In the movie the Hockey stars from different Indian states meet at Delhi to form the Indian’s women world cup team. 

 Storming: In this stage there is diversity, personal ego and create conflict. Cha De shows struggles regarding allocation of bunkers, playing position and non-acceptance of leader. 

 Norming: Informal leaders emerge who influence the others to follow particular code of conduct which may conflict with the code defined by leader. From the movie we can take the example of Bindia Naik. 

 Performing: When the goals, rules and roles are clear and accepted then people start delivering. But this will not guarantee a winning performance. For example: Komal/Preeti

3. Teamwork/Team Goal: “None of us are as Strong as all of us…..”. The first learning the movie portrays is the team work. Organization or team is bigger than the individual. Individual success is only possible when the team succeed. Coming together is beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success. Individual goals and agendas are always counter-productive (as proved by the way two forward players try to become the highest goal-scorer at the cost of the team’s fortune). So to achieve the success team work and team goal both are very important. 

4. Motivation: Intrinsic: When they played against men’s team, the comments and the words motivated them and raised their pulse and confidence. Similarly, after the first failure in the world cup, the words and rigorous practice motivated them a lot. Extrinsic: Coach telling Preeti and Komal about how they can make or ruin the match, as he was trying to explain to play the match in the team instead of thinking individually. The crucial 70 minutes just before the final match motivated and helped them to get the best out of them and created a “do or die” situation. 

5. Leadership: Leaders are visionary. The statement from the movie “Jo ho nahi sakta wohi tyo karna hai” shows the vision of the coach. The coach Kabir Khan wants to take challenge as an opportunity. The first challenge for him is to become the coach of the Indian Women’s Team. Second challenge is how to form a team from people coming from different background. The final challenge is to win the world championship. All these things are done by the coach Kabir Khan so he can be taken as a Leader in the context of movie. 

6. Conflict Management: The coach changed the sleeping position of the girls to resolve conflict and encouraged team spirit. He also passed a rule that no staying with same state girl. Komal Chautala, the ace center forward of Haryana state got punished for entering into the argument with Preeti and punished for a week with 5 similar offenders. In the same way, Balbir Kaur, Aliya Bose, Bindia Nayak and the one more girl from Manipur got punished for misbehaving. At the end Komal and Preeti resolve their conflict and the team had won the final match against the Australia. 

7. Change: The victory of Women hockey team had changed the life of players as well as the coach. Komal’s father, who initially was against her playing hockey changes his opinion and is more supportive at last. Preeti’s refusal to the proposal of her fiancé because she wanted to make a name for herself and not be a shadow of her husband is also a change. The Punjabi girl Balbir Kaur is able to control her anger and use her strength for the benefit of the team. And, the press reports of Kabir as a hero and praises him forgetting the past that had almost ruined everything for him. 

Key Learning: 

 Never lose hope 

 Do not underestimate anyone 

 Leadership qualities 

     i. Full of enthusiasm and energy 

    ii. Strict disciplinarian 

   iii. Tough as well as Caring 

   iv. Identify the areas of reinforcement and development 

 Sacrifices to achieve goal 

 One fault can spoil your career 

 Learn from the mistake 

 Appreciate the better performer 

 Experience is required to accomplish the big project 

 Inspire by right person 

Conclusion 

'Chak De India' is not just a sports film. It is full with numerous emotions. The movie has a number of intelligently conceived sequences. For instance, a sequence when the girl's hockey team has to prove their courage against the men's team. The girls lose by a narrow margin, but they get an applause and salutation from male players. These sequences and the last portions of the second half - when the crucial matches are played - evoke a flood of emotions inside a viewer. A constant thread of humor runs through the film's narrative. The humor is vernacular, and genuinely funny at that. The funniest of the lot is the rustic Haryanavi girl Komal (Chitrashi Rawat) and the hot-tempered Punjabi girl Balbir Kaur (Tanya Abrol). SRK isn't the sole focus of the film. Ample footage is given to the girls. Shilpa Shukla (as the egoistic Bindia) delivers a laudable performance. She maintains a snooty, high-headed demeanor throughout the film. Sagarika Ghatge (as the attacking forward player Preeti Sabarwal) is convincing. Vidya Malvade (as the goalie) plays her part well. The movie Chak De India is a very well researched and well-made movie which has all the Organizational Behaviour theories put into practice. It serves as a great way to learn about the subject matter. The teaching methodology with the help of a movie is a good thing in itself. We have been well benefitted with the effort as we have been able to see how the theoretical knowledge that we have gained into the practice. “We is better than I”, is the focal concept of this movie. It highlights the areas like team building, team work, team management, and team spirit, along with role of seniors, coaching leadership, strategic planning, positive affirmation and power of subconscious mind. It also throws a light on talent management, aligning organizational goal to individual goal. Last but not the least, the movie teaches not to underestimate women competencies.