Movie Review: Chak De India

Eminently watchable, mainly because Shah Rukh Khan doesn't have much scope for the kind of histrionics that make my hand start twitching involuntarily for the remote. Though there are some scenes -- the slo-mo stride through the tunnel after the melee at the McDonald's, for example -- where the usual Bollywood macho BS is evident, such scenes are mercifully few in number.

The barbs at cricket, though well-intended, seem overdone and artificial; especially the way the cricketer boyfriend is spurned in front of the paparazzi.

If you set aside the fact that the undisciplined-underdogs-transformed-into-champions by-coach-with-something-to-prove motif has been (ab)used by Hollywood at least 1372 times, Chak De... is definitely an entertaining watch, with the added bonus of rekindling some much-needed patriotism in the viewers as well.

Note to some folks in audience: guys, it's a given that India will win the championship -- it's Bollywood we're talking about, after all -- so don't tell me you *really* didn't know that the goalie saves the final penalty stroke?