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I wanted a solo heroine role:Sagarika

As a normal newcomer who's always wanted to be an actress, even I wanted a solo heroine role.

When Sagarika Ghatge went to audition for the role of Preeti Sabharwal, the 'mem' of Chak De India, the pretty girl was taken aback when she got to know that there will be 15 other girls in the film with her.

"As a normal newcomer who's always wanted to be an actress, even I wanted a solo heroine role. The thought of waiting for something else did come into my mind," she admits.

But today, Sagarika feels grateful that she didn't say no to the role. "When I heard the gist of the story, I was convinced about doing this film. Every girl is so unique and has her own story. Once I got to know the graph of every character, I said yes," she says with a smile.

But nothing had prepared her for the rigorous training session that the group of girls went through for three months. "We used to wake up at 5 every morning and learn hockey, be back home by 2 and then rush to the studios after that. It was quite a task but we enjoyed it thoroughly," she says. But was it easier for her, considering she was a national athlete?

"I was never a national athlete," she clarifies and adds, "I was in a boarding school and there, one tends to play all sorts of games. Apart from volleyball, basketball and others, I have played hockey too and I was pretty decent at it."

The shooting of the film too was a memorable experience for Sagarika and she laughs when you ask her to pick out any one incident that has stayed on in her mind. "Each day was memorable. How can I pick out one?" she asks.

But yes, the one thing that will always remain with her are the memories of Melbourne where all the girls stayed together for almost two months. So were there ever any ego clashes? "When you put 16 girls together, there are bound to be little arguments," she admits but that was also the time, she adds that the girls really got to know each other.

But the question on everyone's mind is, how did she fare with her on-screen rival Komal Chautala played by Chitrashi Rawat? "People don't believe this, but we were the best of friends once the camera was switched off.

In fact, the assistant director used to shout at us and say, 'In dono ko alag karo' because in the next scene, we would be required to fight!" she laughs.

And of course, working with none other than Shah Rukh Khan in her very first film, was something she could have only dreamt of. "He's a phenomenon!" she gushes about her on-screen coach and adds, "Even though he's SRK, he was so approachable.

I remember when we would not be able to get a scene right, he would talk to us separately and explain the scene correctly. He shared his knowledge with us and that's what makes him such a great actor."

While the country is still reeling under the effects of Chak De India, Sagarika is gearing up for some new projects in Bollywood. "There are a few good offers in the pipeline but are yet to be finalised," she says. So till we see you on screen again, Chak De Sagarika!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/I_wanted_a_sol o_heroine_roleSagarika/articleshow/2334228.cms

A tale of two films

Sanjay Trehan
Tuesday, September 4, 2007: (New Delhi):

This weekend I checked out two films of differing styles and character. In a way, it was a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Even if I discount the immediate post-viewing mass hysteria, Chak De India is not just a film.

It's a revolution of sorts, hitting at the centuries of obscurantism in traditional Indian society that viewed women, for obvious pecuniary and sexual reasons, as second class beings, existing only to satisfy the whims of the superior and powerful patriarchal class.

So, when SRK, subdued, unshaven, sober and refreshingly restrained, gets down to create a World Cup winning women's Hockey team, he puts a minor but significant foot in the door for women to assert themselves as individuals.

Though it begins as a private battle to redeem himself and regain his lost pride, it ends up breaking a mould, and what a rotten mould it was!

In this, lies the true triumph of the film, besides the obvious winners in terms of a taut script, invigorating cast of actors and a never before seen SRK minus his customary stutter, cultivated drawl and over-the-hill flamboyance.

The film tugs at your heart and makes you want to do something for this much maligned, much abused country, desperately short of heroes and good tidings.

In a subliminal way, Chak De India is very much the story of the underdog that too deserves her moment in the Sun.

On the other hand, RGV Ki Aag is a self-indulgent fantasy unfolding without any logic.

Looks like the film was made when RGV was in a prolonged state of daze and most definitely had ear plugs on. For the soundtrack is so loud and pompous, it is designed to wake up even the dead.

RGV has managed to accomplish an almost impossible feat of making Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgan look trite and wastrels as actors, not a minor achievement by any score.

Urmila's pelvic-in-your-face movements notwithstanding, the film does everything in its power to make your spirits droop to a new low. You begin to get angry at the sheer stupidity of it all.

Was this Sholay revisited? Bull! Even if you don't compare it to the original classic, it's a waste of a film. Things happen because a crazy self-obsessed director willed them to be, with absolute disregard to the intelligence of his audience.

The script is almost non-existent, and whatever little is, is banal, pedestrian and overly pretentious in trying to evoke gutter-like and guttural quality from its lead protagonists.

The film is shot with dark overtones and darker undertones, in the belief that it's the new mantra of gangster flicks, and each character is like a caricature of his or her self, bereft of dignity and conviction, choking on an unreal brooding intensity that seems so whacked out. If it was meant to be a spoof, it falls flat on its glitzy egg-splashed face.

What the hell was RGV thinking? That he would crap a truckload of stars and the audience will lap it up? Loud, pretentious, contrived, it's **** served on a silver platter with a generous dash of stale perfume, which simply doesn't work.

The audience has moved on; RGV needs to move to a rehab.

Check out Chak De India, it will restore your faith in good cinema, and hopefully, in India. And check out RGV Ki Aag only if you lack self-esteem and want to feel sorry for yourself.

http://www.ndtvmovies.com/newstory.asp?section=Movies&id=ENT EN20070024925

Climax over, let the sequel begin

UMPIRE'S POST
Suveen K Sinha / Mumbai September 02, 2007

Success makes money, so players of low-priority sports like football and women's hockey earn much less than their cricketing counterparts.

Chak De! India is a very courageous film. Its central theme is that most ignored of all ignored sports, women's hockey. Protagonist Shahrukh Khan, who after committing a spate of screen murders early on in his career became everyone's favourite lover boy, does not have a female romantic lead against him.

The film manages to capture succinctly how official cynicism and apathy can peg back a game. Yet, Shahrukh does not revolutionise the system like Amitabh's Vijay would have done 30 years ago. Kabir Khan merely slips through it as there is no other contender for the post of the national team's coach.

The film works because it is so believable. It shows how a team can triumph through hard work (the women begin the day with a 10-km run) and by playing as a unit, which is achieved partly by cutting prima donnas down to size and partly by eliminating internal disparities.

There is also, obliquely, a rationale provided for the apathy of officials and others. The team never wins anything. Presumably, if the women's hockey team was in the winning habit, things would have been better for it. The circumstances do change dramatically after the victory at the climax.

What if the climax, the world cup win, had happened at the beginning of the film? One can safely assume that things would have been a lot better for the team, as they would be if there is a sequel to Chak De!.

In winning the Nehru Cup, the national football team has defied five decades of losing history. Curiously, the footballers are not paid any match fee. They would split among themselves the prize money, which will work out to just above Rs 1 lakh for each player for winning the tournament by registering four wins in five matches.

To put things in perspective, the members of the cricket team received Rs 1.6 lakh as fee just for turning up for Thursday's one-day international against England at Old Trafford, which they proceeded to lose from a very strong position. Throw in the Rs 1 crore bonus for winning the Test series, Rs 2.5 lakh fee for each of the three Tests and the Rs 3 lakh tour allowance.

That will make every cricketer richer by nearly Rs 16 lakh for making the trip to England. This is in addition to the retainership money that they get under the contract with the board, which at the highest level can touch Rs 50 lakh.

Money apart, the All India Football Federation has not exactly covered itself in glory in handling the team. With Thursday's victory in football, the climax has been played out. Can the sequel begin?

http://www.business-standard.com/lifeleisure/storypage.php?l eftnm=5&subLeft=7&chklogin=N&autono=296539&tab=r

Chak De! dribbles its way to B-school

4 Sep, 2007, 0052 hrs IST,Aniruddha Ghosh & Ambika Naithani, TNN

MUMBAI: Chak De! India's Kabir Khan is not just a hit at the box office and with critics. The inspirational character and the movie are now subjects of a case study at Mumbai's SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR).

And the reel-life example is not just limited to the obvious issues of team spirit and women's liberation, it's also about turning around a company.

Case studies as a learning tool, pioneered by Harvard Business School, have been a part of Indian B-School curriculum for a while now. While IIMs used movies such as Lagaan as case studies, it's the first time that SP Jain has picked a Hindi movie.

"Selection of movies is crucial, and all the movies showcased during this module are based on real-life situations. For example, this movie encompasses all the human nuances," says SP Jain's head of the assessment and development of managerial and administrative potential (ADMAP) course Dr Narayanan.

"The idea is to provide a rigorous learning experience that is entertaining at the same time. Watching movies and then deliberating on them forms a part of the experimental learning," she adds.

The case studies are a part of the ADMAP programme, which is a core subject in the institute's first-year curriculum. Taking up movies as case studies at SP Jain was the brainchild of SPJIMR's dean, Dr ML Shrikant.

As in any other case study, the students were given a synopsis of the movie and a concept note of what the learning objectives from the movie could be. They were then asked to replace a character with themselves. "Their reactions were gauged during the different phases that the character goes through, the ups and downs and the points of inflexion," says Dr Narayanan.

Suchita Sanghi, one of the first-year students who was part of the exercise, said she identified most with the character of Indian hockey team's captain, Vidya Sharma.

"She was always a team player and pursued her dreams despite the challenges. For me, the lessons to be learnt are that determination and dedication are crucial while working for an organisation," she added.

Various perspectives are expected to be thrown in during the classroom discussion and presentations, as the case had been during the previous movie-case studies. There is, of course, no right or wrong answer in such exercise, but a holistic understanding of the characters and their decision-making processes provides students with valuable perspectives, feels another first-year student of SP Jain Arpit Dhariwal.

Further, the movie has been compared to the real-life case study of a large Indian multinational where 40,000 employees had to be laid off in three years. "Kabir Khan can be seen as a quintessential administrator," says Dr Narayanan, justifying the choice of her movie. The instances of organisations resisting change and misgivings towards the cause of change have been highlighted very well in the movie, she feels.

Though discussing a movie in class sounds like an exciting proposition, it isn't quite as simple, feel students. However, they do admit it's a welcome change from the strenuous schedule of a B-school. It's also a course they feel they gain a lot from.

"Everyone watches movies, but after going through this course, apart from the experiential learning that I picked up, the way I watch movies has changed drastically," admits a second-year student at SP Jain Gaurav Agrawal, who went through the course last year.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Features/Corporate_Do ssier/Chak_De_dribbles_its_way_to_B-school/articleshow/23358 26.cms

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Originally posted by: love srk

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Originally posted by: indiandoll89

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Originally posted by: fizzwizz

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