MUMBAI, 7 September 2007 — Every time India’s sporting achievements dip into the doldrums and the spirits have been low, the strugglers have desperately looked up to some form of inspiration and that too has been hard to come by.
In the last decade, however, there have been at least a couple of occasions that the Indian cinema has suddenly been the source of great encouragement.
It would not be too far fetched to state that these celluloid blockbusters have been the greatest source of inspiration and have even helped the Indian teams to turn their fortunes. Today, the first Indian film made on a pure sports theme, Chak De, India, is all the rage, as much in the multiplexes, as the sporting arena. There is hardly a major sporting event with India’s participation these days that does not have the theme song “Chak De, India, as a part of its very being.
It has in fact become the signature tune of the Indian cricket team currently on the tour of England and doing creditably o far.
At every match center this song Chak De, India is played for the benefit of Rahul Dravid and his boys. This was not so at the start of the tour when India barely survived a defeat in the Lord’s Test.
Then the promos of the film preceded its premiere in London, for which the movie’s main protagonist, Shahrukh Khan personally flew to England and even visited the Oval ground to greet and encourage the Indian team. The result was that India won the Test series in England for the first time after a gap of 21 years.
Having won the Test series, the team was again in the dumps in the one-dayers, being down 1-3 and in danger of losing the series in the fifth game of the seven-match series at Healingly, Leeds.
The Indian team took time off, a day before this crucial match, to watch Chak De in a Yorkshire cinema and a highly charged up Indian team turned in probably its best performance in the one-day series to give themselves a chance of winning the series.
As if not to be left unaffected, the Indian hockey team showed remarkable improvement over the frustrating years gone by, to look like real champions in the Asia Cup. They were closer to the theme of the film that is based on the story of the triumph of the Indian women’s hockey team after fighting disunity and built-in differences, not to mention a lack of encouragement.
It may be recalled that eight years ago, a similar film, though not on a pure sports subject, Lagaan, had greatly inspired the Indian team during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The theme song Bade Chalo ...had inspired them to make the final of the World Cup where they eventually lost to Australia.
Chak De, along with its theme song, is a landmark film in as much as it highlights the awareness that, given the pluck and resolution, there is no hurdle that cannot be overcome. It is a message that Indian sports so badly needed.
