Revisiting 'Chak De India': When SRK waved the flag of women empowerment high

"Har team mein bas ek hi gunda ho sakta hai, aur iss team ka gunda main hoon" (Every team can only have one goon, and I am that goon, as far as this team is concerned). We all remember this now-iconic dialogue from the 2007 release Chak De! starring superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the leading role along with a bunch of (mostly) new faces, as the female hockey players (Shilpa Shukla, Vidya Malvade, Chitrashi Rawat to name a few).

Fifteen years later, many things have changed but some things have also remained the same. Like SRK promising a scorcher in the form of his September release Jawan, where he will once again share a crackling chemistry with his female co-stars who will aid him in his secret mission as he promises to lead them to victory, much like he had done in Chak De! India.

The women empowerment angle seems strong with Jawan, as had been the case with Atlee's last directorial Bigil, as well as with Chak De! India itself. In Chak De! India, Shah Rukh's grounded performance as coach Kabir Khan shone the brightest even as he tried to take a backseat to let the girls shine. Be it his palpable emotions that jumped out of the screen when he spoke of the game, or his country, or when he gave his beloved '70 minute' speech to the players as they got ready for the finale -- Shah Rukh, thanks to his subdued and nuanced approach to his character, ensured that his young co-stars also got their chance under the sun.

In fact, there have been many times when Shah Rukh Khan himself has claimed that Chak De! India is quite close to his heart, thanks to the film's subject and its treatment. For the unversed, in the movie, Kabir Khan is subjected to ridicule and humiliation because of his faith. And when one looks at Khan's real life, the parallels, albeit in hindsight, seem uncanny, because SRK too has been questioned in various ways, multiple times, owing to his own faith as a modern Muslim man -- Be it the incident when people trolled him for his innocent and well-meaning gesture at the late Lata Mangeshkar's funeral, or the internet trial he and his family had to face during his son Aryan Khan's case in 2021.

Chak De! India is special for many reasons, and here's hoping the actor's upcoming Jawan too manages to create that kind of lasting impact in people's minds.

Jawan releases everywhere in cinemas on September 7.

Meanwhile, Chak De! India is available to stream on Prime Video.