Global Voices: Chak De India or Go For It India
By Kamla Bhatt • Sep 28th, 2007Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison, Bollywood, Bombay/Mumbai, Global Voices, India
Chak De India (Go For it India) is a Bollywood film that was released last month, and what an impact the film has on the psyche of Indians. In India Chak De India has become a magic mantra of sorts and Indian business schools are thinking of including the film in their curriculum. The film is about the vision and determination of a hockey coach, who molds the team’s spirit and thinking and helps them win the world cup.
In general, Indians are not known for their prowess in the sports field, except for cricket. Yes, in the world of cricket, Indian cricket players play a fairly decent game and have won quite a few matches. However, at the recently concluded Twenty20 World Cup in Johannesburg, the Indian cricket team led by Mahindra Singh Dhoni did an outstanding job and won the World Cup after a gap of 23 years.
Many bloggers wonder if the Chak De India effect is responsible for the string of wins by India in cricket, football and hockey?
Sanjay Goel’s post captures the feelings of many bloggers in this sentence:
“Somehow the release of Shahrukh Khan starrer Chak De India has coincided with one of the best time for Indian Sports”
Karteek of K World pursues a similar train of though and wonders if the film Chak De India’s responsible for India’s wins in the world of sports. He writes:
Wondering whether a movie can bring Good Luck to a nation ? A definite logical answer to the question is “No”. Not Just “No”, but it’s “NO!!!”
But, let’s trace through this time line
You will have to read Karteek’s blog to find out about his analysis and the co-relation between a Bollywood film and the Indian sports team.
Mutterings That Matter writes in his post Chak De India:
“This win has eclipsed both of them as I have been waiting for 22 frickin years to be so happy.
Congratulations Team India - T20 Champions¦Chak De India¦.”
Anand Krishnan’s Musings writes:
“But the icing on the cake is that in the past couple of months, Indian tennis, badminton, field hockey and soccer have all taken India to levels that were associated with non-Indian nations. It is this broad based rally in Indian sport that makes me want to say, chak de India!”
The Chak De India effect is not lost on Dave of Dave’s Travel blog. A baseball fan, Dave thinks he is on his way to becoming a cricket fan. In his blog post titled Chak De India he captures the mood of the nation during the final match between India and Pakistan at Johannesburg.
“Luckily for me, the match started late and I arrived in time to witness a furious Pakistani comeback. They were on the verge of victory, and nationwide depression was beginning to take hold, until India salvaged a miraculous win! No sooner was the final ball caught than the firecrackers began exploding all over Mumbai.”
And, when the winning Indian cricket team landed in Mumbai yesterday they got a heroes welcome and the city came to a standstill. Guess what song was playing in the background as the team made their way through the city? Chak De India.
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
Dear Kamla ,
Its absolutely stupid to correlate the two !!! I can never understand why we do such sorts of comparision because i beleive a movie regardless of how inspirational it is cannot make a bunch of players play better … Just imagine if we would be having the same discuss if Misba-Ul-haq has scored a six in the last few balls . Then no one would be talking about this …
Its a sort of dumb corelation according to me
Avinash
Avinash:
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If bloggers and others want to draw a co-relation between the movie and the recent wins by various Indian sports team…they are entitled to their opinion. You are entitled to your opinion on whether this co-relation is statistically true or not.
You cannot deny the huge impact the movie has had on the nation, and people’s thinking. There is a clear need for positive messages, wins and role models and that is what you are seeing at a collective level. At least that is what I think.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
kamla
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