chak de "INDIA" @ Independence Day = :-)

Not many are so great and fortunate to witness a movie like this on our Independence Day (tho the issues with tickets were huge). Nevertheless, I am not writing this write-up as a review about the movie, rather its a story of motivation and building-up self-esteem to fight for pride (just like our freedom struggle).

'Chak de' is directed by Shamit Amin and written by Jaideep Sahani. 'Chak de' is a tale of a coach (played by SRK) seeking redemption from his betrayal marks. A long with SRK, movie also contains a dozen of female hockey players (coverly all geographies of India - Punjab, Haryana, A.P., Chandigarh, Jharkand, Manipur, Mizoram, Bhopal, Bihar, etc). Apart from the national participants, international participation is also there - Austrialia, Argentina, Spain, South Africa, England, etc.

Story starts with SRK as the centre forward in the Indian's men hockey team. The last minute pressure is on him to save the game against Pakistan and as always, the start of the movie is all about the unhappy endings. India loses and he is blamed, shattered and given a tag of traiter. Reality shown w.r.t. to TODAY's news channel is also worth mentioning.
It seems as a big-time coincidence that the technical caretaken of the movie (Mir Ranjan Negi, former Indian goaliee) also went through the same shade in 1982 Asian Games (Delhi). India roared en route to the finals, but layed down with 1-7 to Pakistan in finals. However, he silenced the critics when his coached women's team striked gold in Commonwealth Games (2002).

Next reality scene is about the board's meeting for the selection of coach for the India's national women hockey team. They mock the sport, they mock the respective gender and they mock the national sport..sad but being a hockey fan, I know thats true in todays hockey too. But no probs, SRK volunteers for this job and gets it. His job; to strike GOLD in world championship...and before that, to prepare the team...to teach them the concept of unity.

Story picks up the pace and intro to players is full of mast-chatpata local-flavoured dialogues...e.g
caretaker : tamil?
player : telgu
caretaker : donno mein antar kya hai?
player : wahi jo bihar aur punjab mein hai!!

The crux of the story lies in the the way it has been scripted and presented. Efforts to remove the selfish-state flavours, developing unity in them, the different strageries adopted by the coach and ongoing vamps-coach wars...all given good camera attention. One good thing in this bollywood product is the fair treatment to the realistic events, where it was expected the team would lose, they did lost (the match where men's team play against the females was I think very well thought and one couldn't say it was immpractical).

Hockey wise, I didn't saw scoops, fast travelling long passes, those high-powered penalty corners (for which Sohail Abbas of Pakistan is famous for), no exceptional dribbling. I even saw some basic trapping mistakes (which I can only see in our actual Men's hockey team :p). BUT then if you are so much interested in these, why don't to inspire yourself to watch the actual game (n I quite firmly speculate, that you will, once you see this sporty adventure).

OOPS!
SPEAKing on the technical lines of the sport as a hockey viewer, a hockey team carries two goalkeepers when going to play a tournament (if one gets injured, other can be handy). But in the movie, the team had only one goaliee...!!

Nevertheless, its time to accolade. Special compliments should be given to Komal (the girl from Haryana) and Balbir (Punjab). Both were hilarious and apt according to the scenes. SRK, thank GOD, he has done something good w.r.t acting. Karan Johar n company had earlier drastically degraded his acting acumen. So, finally after all those Kabbadi Karan Klassics (KANK, K3G, etc), SRK will be appreciated in Chak De (I can only hope).

Also, a hope in true despiration lies for the success for the sport culture in India. We tend to appreciate sports in movies; Awaal Number and Laggan (Cricket, Aamir Khan), Jo Jeeta Vohi Sikander (Cycling, Aamir Khan), Apne (Boxing, Sunny Deol) and now Chak De (Hockey, SRK)...but when will we appreciate the real sports??

Okie...a question to all INDIANS about their national sport !!

Ques) For what reason (may be), HOCKEY was selected as our national sport?
Ans) May be, because HOCKEY doesn't have any provision for SIXERS in it (:p)

A line which I liked very much -
“Agar haath nahi milaya to tera sar phutega ya mera. Ya to tu jail main jaayegi ya main. Agar jail main nahi jaana, to haath mila le.”
(let this friendship disease spread worldwide ;)

Made it to Roorkee...thanks to UP Roadways ;)

Hi, the 'unique adventures' series is back. This time on 'unique adventures', we will be going to Roorkee. For all those, who don't have an idea of Roorkee's location. Roorkee, is a small township in Uttaranchal, 30 km en route to Haridwar from Delhi. It houses offices of various Indian Army regiments (like Bengal Snipers, etc) and an institute of international repute, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R).

Well, the run by road from Delhi to Roorkee is approx 5 hrs. I had to make the trip without any preparation as it was on a urgent basis; hence UP roadways from ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) was the lonely option.

The current climatic conditions of Uttarachal played the villainous role for my trip. As I reached ISBT, I came to know that route to Roorkee was blocked. I was told by a conductor of Dehradun-Delhi route bus “bhai kya kare! gadhe haathi baraas rahe hai wahan” (what can we do, when its raining donkeys n elephants there ?).

My stay at ISBT was more than two hours now. Not many UPTC (Uttar Pradesh Transport Coop.) buses turned up and the ones which did, were all destinated to Dehradun (not via Roorkee). I was told that buses meant for Haridwar go via Roorkee. One-two Haridwar bound buses did come but thanks to the Kavadiya season, all were packed.

My eyes locked at the entry door of ISBT caught the sight of one of the buses of the Shatabdi-Sheetal series (Shatabdi-Sheetal series refers to the chain of AC buses of UPTC). And the best part, it was bound for Haridwar. Now was the turn for my legs to perform. I copied the Ben-Johnson style and managed to enter the bus first. An Olympic Gold stands nothing in front of this. Luck has never supported me and this case was no exception. The jat conductor with his gabbar smile strictly told me to deboard the bus as it was fully occupied (AC buses don't allow standing passengers)...and I was on the receiving end, but I saw this excellent opportunity to reach Roorkee.

My boldness factor attained its max value and I refused to deboard. Though, I did ask him to allow me to travel to Roorkee...6hrs standing pose!! Bingo!! he accepted ;)
I entered into the AC cage where I was greeted by already sitting animals with eyeballs protruding to eat me...; a human standing and all animals sitting...all it created was a strange night-club-FEEL. This wasn't the end. Conductor suddenly switched off the lights. I can't translate the horror which I experienced at this stage. 10 sec beyond, a faint night-bulb outside the AC cage came up and by now, my mind was witnessing hallucinations full of ghosts, skeletons and all those lovely beauty pageant winners.

Conductor came to me, gifted me a blanket and asked me to travel by sitting on the gallery floor b/t the seats. I tried to fold myself in every possible way but the space wasn't good enough. Hence, sleeping above the chassis of the bus was my best option. That blanket acted as a bed-sheet for me.
As soon as the bus restarted, by GOD...each n every part of my back vibrated with the same frequency as of chassis. All the Physics laws of inertia and resonance were implemented on my back. For the rest of my journey, my back witnessed those numerous speed-breakers jerks.

3 hrs traveling...half Journey over...after a halt of 20 min at Cheetal Grand (click on right pic to see the logo and plz don't laugh, this can happen to your child too)...journey resumed.

The sleep notion was over for all. My destination was just two hrs away. AC buses do carry a TV for entertainment. Public demanded for that at 3 a.m. What I saw, was something damn creative and fabulous. Have u guys heard of an album namely 'NAYA LIFAFA' by Dhaiya Music ? It houses some really awesome stuff. Some of its creation were – Mera Bhai Thanedhaar, Mere Bappu Bhaya Karwade, etc. Man, the videos were fabulous...actors were chosen with ult perfection...and what to say abt the make-up artist...(will be recived in a separate blog later)
Finally, I reached Roorkee at 5a.m. amidst a cloud burst (with my umbrella lying inside my college bag back in Delhi). Would like to end this episode of 'unique adventures' with few lines -

“Baarish ki rim-jhim se ek aas lagi hai
Uski boondoin se meri pyaas bhuji hai
Jindagi mein mauj ki talaash thi
Aaj is safar se vo kaafi milli hai”

Those Females had something WRONG inside !#!

Those Females had something WRONG inside !#!
(andar bhout kuch gadbad tha)

Strange things happen in life and I am always there to witness them. I happen to visit a metro-in-making “Mussoorie” for the fifth time. Return trip to Dehradun of 24 kms by public transport is about 1.15 min long. The twists n turns of the hills were sharp n curvy, thanks to which, the experience was unique and unexpected.

Before narrating my experience, I will have to mention about my location in the bus. I was on the last sit (window seat!!), right opposite to the driver. Main characters of the story included 1..2..3..a lot of ladies, a young lad, a hot phirang...hmmm...lets see if I can recall some more ;)

Unleashing the suspense of this blog, I take no pleasure (:P) in informing you all that I saw all these above mentioned people vomiting (VO) from my hot seat...YAIK

The starting act of the innings was performed by the young girl, sitting in front of me. Poor 4-5 yr old, got the wrong call early in our journey. Then was the turn of her mother (assuming his fact ). The urgent help was provided here as the much-needed-gentleman arrived here (YES! it was ME); I sacrificed my viewpoint (my windows) for her and offered her my Mt. Dew-bottle-full-of-water to her...addicted to the Dew after that lottery (still not cashed) :(. The vomiting pipeline processed further and the couple before the seat before me joined the strange party...the lady first and then her man (“hum bane tum bane ek dooje ke liye” )
to be continued after a Break!
Break over! A lady raises her hand and swaps her position with the lady sitting in front of me. In the next second, she too continued the VO, smooth (now predictable) process and raised herself to that fame and the glory.

Driver realized that something was wrong inside (am taking about their stomach) and halted amidst the hills. All the participants of the VO process got down, food packets were out, out came hordes of capsules and tablets. Remaining journey was moving a kitty party for them and HORROR for me. All the ladies of the VO process did there kitty in front of my seat, literally slaughtered the restaurants and the food of 'Mussoorie', each complemented about her stomach and felt proud of not participating in VO further...why GOD chose my ears for these modest talks?? Thankfully I had my 3250's earpiece...bach gaya!

Hey guys wait! the VO isn't over yet. The hot phirang is still left. She survived the hills but not the plains. She too did.....the VO process...and the climax of Scary Movie 4 was full of horror. Later, her accompanying male gave her the treatment along with some kisses...and the climax turned from horror to romantic horror !!
She too joined the kitty...and the kitty got international thereafter...

Moral of the story -
We Indians live in/on/for emotion. We can take any stupid topic and spend huge quantams of precious time on it (like reading this one :P)
And the most imp thing...this emotions thing even work for phirangs too ;)

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL, esp. all those brave men who were driving across our bus.