Whoop-dee-doo, Sholay is out again, next Friday!

Er, oops, this is ‘Aag’. Damn, and I thought I had the classic. Let me sit through this one anyway, for Company’s sake. RGV, this is your last chance from a die-hard fan. You give us Company/Satya, and then (yuk!) horedung link James and Shiva. Risk was, well, watchable, thanks to Randeep. Can’t wait for the fire. Just don’t bullshittify it the way you did in Shiva to James, an already substandard flick. And hey, Sarkar was fine, but the Godfather was - oops, sorry, no comparisons. Hush.

But I love Sholay! Until this date! And I can’t wait to watch again.

Oops, this is ‘Aag’, isn’t it? Damn, and I thought I had the classic. I repeat, RGV, I’m your fan, but for Sholay? - a disciple, so don’t you dare bastardise the original, otherwise the nukes Dr. Singh is working around will have an additional purpose.

And that’ll light an aag, a fire-and-a-half. Up yours. So, careful, bro.

Chak De India is, what SRK could call, a masterstroke.

Forget the whole patriotism thing it has going for itself, this is a movie that raises the bar for other flicks that try. This is work worthy of praise by the guy who gave us Ab Tak Chappan, and it doesn”t try too hard to be artistic, or mainstream. It”s just there, it”s an honest narrative and it proves a point: a good story when told well can entertain, period, without really the need for bikini-clad sex-Sherawats as fillers.

Kabir Khan (SRK) is the captain of the national hockey side, and oops - he misses a penalty stroke against Pakistan in an all-important final. The media manufacture treason, and Khan is soon under the microscope. Eventually, he”s tagged a traitor, and it”s done oh-so-filmi - chalked on the Khan”s residence - before he leaves in a tearless farewell.

We fast-forward seven years. Khan is back, applying for the God-forsaken post of the women”s hockey team coach. Why? To regain the lost pride, etc. No major motivational speech to rope Khan in, mercifully, as he puts forward his case. The women”s hockey board, of course, have nothing to lose, having little faith in their team”s ability. That leaves Khan and his new beard in the company of sixteen girls from around the country, literally, as he begins his harsh mentorship. Sadly for the girls, this isn”t a coach, it”s an authoritarian, a dictator - King Khan at his stringent best - as he makes them toil hard, both mentally and physically, instilling them with confidence and inspiring them with the pep-talk.

Yes, it does get shaky, but Khan prevails, taking the team into the World Championship, not before they had to play a match against their male counterparts to prove their worth. The World Championship, of course, is the big showdown, as Khan guides them nicely with victory after victory, and in the “bharatiya nari running around in knickers for their win”, Kabir Khan tries to win the hearts of people. Again.

Unfortunately for director Shimit Amin, when you do decide on a sports flick, something of this nature, you have to compromise on a lot. The end is all too obvious, and rather predictable, but the journey throughout was more than enjoyable, and that”s where he scores. The final moments of Chak De India actually grip you, although you know the end result at the back of your mind. More than anything, I loved this flick for the honesty - there is no real overdone masala talk, no item tracks, no I”m-going-through-a-depression parallel narratives, absolutely no dilution of the sort. It figures - at just over two and a half hours running time, it”s made an impact. The girls do their bits pretty well, and although not all of them hog the screen, there are a few prominent players, namely Chitrashi Rawat as Komal Chautala, Shilpa Shukla as Bindia Naik and Sagarika Ghatge as Preeti Sabarwal. Did I mention Sagarika”s hot? Nope? Okay, here goes - she is.

But, hello, this is a welcome surprise, a Yash Raj flick with no lover boy Khan? And wow, I mean wow, King Khan can act. Disarmingly so convincing, that even those witty one-liners which ought to have had no place in the script is delivered with such precision. Chak De doesn”t try too hard to remain subtle throughout, and there are flaws and the clichés, but he makes them all believable, and proves yet again why he ought to do more rules like these and Swades.

Oh, and the most important factor that deserves mention, either Khan puts up a real phenomenal act or he really loves hockey, or both - because it shows on-screen. The bloke belongs to the field.

So if you haven”t watched it yet, buck up. Best film around patriotism in theaters this year, and a Bible for Indian film-makers who want to make sportflicks.

*****

There are flicks that enlighten you. Gandhi, My Father is one of them that tries, and nearly succeeds.

Like the promos go, it’s about the price one family had to pay for the nation’s freedom. The Mahatma’s eldest son, Harilal, is a product of the Gandhi’s ideology — albeit negative, and the movie is a daring effort by the makers to add depth into Harilal’s character on film. It revisits the reasons behind Gandhi being so popular, yet being a total failure as a father to his eldest son.

The plot is somewhat familiar — we are ferried across the South African timeline of Gandhi (Darshan Jariwala) and wife Kasturbha (Shefali Shah). A middle-aged Gandhi shows the first signs of dedication to his cause, as he considers every child in the community his own. The other side of the coin, of course, is the fact that Harilal (Akshay Khanna) wishes to be treated like a son. His ambition — to become a barrister like the father, but Gandhi is opposed to the idea of a Western education, insisting that Harilal builds firm roots in his andolan against racism.

Gandhi also separates Harilal from his wife Gulab (Bhumika Chawla), hence inflicting a wound so deep that the son couldn’t recover.

Post-interval, the movie extends the hatred between the father an the son, and it does this very slowly, trying to build emotion on the way. Darshan Jariwala is a class act, lending the respect buried in books to the fragile frame of the Mahatma. Shefali is a treat to watch — entirely natural — she makes this role her own, and it’s almost unimaginable who else could have portrayed Kasturbha with that kind of intensity. Bhumika Chawla does her bit well, an honest presentation although she doesn’t enjoy a lot of screen presence.

But the sincere effort for me, by far, is Akshaye Khanna. His Harilal strives for his own presence in the might of Gandhi’s, and although the title suggests that he is the protagonist, one finds it hard to take their eyes away from the character of Gandhi that keeps dropping by with eternal words of wisdom. Akshaye Khanna’s ex-pressions in this movie are awesome — watch out for the scene at the railway station where he brings his mother a gift, blinded by his interpretation of what is right and wrong. In fact, the entire flick is studded with a few scenes of brilliance where the two contrasting lead roles come together for a silent showdown.

Unfortunately it’s also smudged with flaws.

The editing is, er, inexplicable — there are scenes floated in that just don’t make sense, adding neither depth nor intensity to the story. The background music tries to be soulful, but is quite familiar throughout, and criminally goes missing in a few shots where emotions run high. Although it is indeed an honest effort by the makers, for me — they didn’t evoke much sympathy for the son, and when I look back, it was more of a documentary, a celluloid documentation of a story you won’t find in your history books from school. I applaud the makers for exploiting the power of cinema and giving me a subtle perspective of whom we know as the ‘Father of our nation’. Unfortunately, like Hey Ram, it tries too hard to build dislike for the Mahatma instead of building love for the protagonist.

But it does have a stinging message that many of us need to realize. The nation has often called for the people to come forward and serve. It beckons us, every now and then, and many of us run away in spite of nurturing a real desire to improve our country. Gandhi, My Father makes a point — the kin must take a backseat if one really intends on dedicating himself for the country’s development.

And in the process, families might be demolished.

*****