First things first kudos to yashraj films for having the courage to take up a script like this. Without doubt script is the mainstay of this movie.
Casting director deserves a standing ovation for resisting the temptation to cast famous faces as players. It is really heartening to see that all
the hockey players look real. Shahrukh, Only an actor of his stature could have provided the much needed star value to a film like this, lest scripts
like this run the danger of going unnotioced.
The story is inspired from a real life one. Mr. negi who 25 years back happened to be the goalkeeper of indian national hockey team which lost 1-7 to pakistan
Then he is labelled a traitor on grounds of accepting bribe from the rival team. Shahrukh plays the disgraced player, who missed a penalty stroke in finals
of world cup. Later he dons the mantle of coach of indian women's hockey team. Where he has to build a 'team'from scratch as they are 16 devils up
in arms against him plagued by regionalismand personal rivalry.
Now shahrukh khan of late has generally been playing himself onscreen. Here is one movie where where he is kabir khan the coach and not king khan.
He remains the character through out th movie. One could remember only of swadesh in recent times where he achieved a similar feat. It is an achievement
of sorts for him, as people are used to watching king khan onscreen and love him for that. Here the actor in him again resurfaces and comes out
with flyig colours. My personal favourite being the last scene where after winning the cup he succumbs to emotions and cries.
Other actors i.e. all of the team pitch in perfectly. Particularly the gals who played bindiya naik, preeti , komal and vidya . They have managed to hold
their own against a star like shahrukh.
Some of the dialouges are really good. Qiute a lot of them have been writtenkeeping in mind the gallery. Playing to the gallery at times is not that bad an idea
but the speech shahrukh gives before the final match could have been edited. Cinematogarphy is upto the mark, editing has been done quite nicely.
All the matches that are played have been scissored properly and hence are quite engrossing. music is soothing.
About the director, shimit amin has come up with a brilliant effort. Ab tak chchappan and now chak de india this guy is endowed with genuine talent. The
kind of sensitive treatment this kind of script required has been dealt with in an adequte manner. This new brigade of film makers have the guts to take
up scripts and implement ideas which generally the formula guys would safely wash their hands off with.
All in all this is a must watch. It is been quite some time since one came across such a genuine effort. Go for it.  


Rating 3.5/5