Movies & Plays

There's no mystery in this show. No love triangles. No boy meets girl, boy goes through a whole lot of hooplas to get girl. No running around trees and slick group choreographic moves.

It's about hockey. It's about a disgraced team captain who came back to bring glory and honor to his country. It's about team spirit and determination to finish the race against insurmountable odds.

It's Chakde! India which means "Go for it! India". A Hindi movie by Yash Raj Films starring my favourite Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan. And a bevy of 16 unknown ladies who gave superb performances as the motley crew of flawed hockey players. They may be girls but they have chips on their shoulders and egos as big as Australia. They get tired, they do grumble and each think that they know how the game should be played better. Most times they are not interested to hear what the weird and eccentric coach has to say. In short, they are humans just like us. These girls don't have it easy either. They face objections from their families and even prejudice from the Indian Women's Hockey Association members.

I watched it because I was getting tired of the tripe that are being shown on the big screen and TV lately. Meaningless horror movies. Shows that strongly advocate you to be strong to get what you want (including revenge) and woe betide anyone who stands in your way. Flicks on dalliance, cheap love and bed hopping. Movies that glorify cunningness and intelligence over integrity and good honest living.

And I'm so glad I watched Chakde! India. It was time well spent. An investment to the soul and refreshing to the bones. Of course it helps that the coach Kabir Khan (brilliantly played by Shah Rukh Khan) was easy on the eyes, too.

It was good to see him in a non-romantic flick and playing the role of a gifted coach and a good man tainted with slander so well. Most importantly, he taught the team in many interesting and unconventional ways what it means to play for the country first and foremost, for the team secondly and lastly, if they still have anything left - to play for themselves.

The pace was good, intense and not cheesy. The main characters were well-developed and left a big impression on my mind.

And if you like the Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film Lagaan (a Hindi movie about how cricket saved an Indian village) as much as I did, you'll love Chakde! India. Watch both of them, if possible. You will be inspired.

And no, I do not understand Hindi but the subtitles helped a lot! Hehe.

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In reverence to the Malaysian Mega Sale, my love for gadget shopping and parody. Sung to the tune of My Fair Lady's I Could Have Danced All Night.

I want to shop all night
I want to spend all night
And live to shop some more
I want to spread my wings
And buy a thousand things
I never bought before

I never know
What makes it so exciting
When all at once
My eyes took sight

That P1i is sleek and black
It’ll look good with my laptop bag
I want to shop, shop, shop
All night!

A typical day in Remy's life

... But I can't help liking Remy a lot. He's the star chef in the very endearing and funny Ratatouille. Managed to catch it yesterday with a dear friend. It was a truly wonderful evening.

I think everyone who's anyone can relate to the movie. That's because there's a Remy in everyone of us. We have big and seemingly impossible dreams. And sometimes we feel like such a small fry in the face of giants and that everything else is against us.

Being a cat lover, I naturally detest rats. They are so cunning, dirty and have screechy voices. There were some parts of the movie where I cringed upon seeing a bastion of rats swarming about the kitchen. Yeeech.

Coincidentally, just last week, I was introduced to a character very much like Remy. He's none other than Detective Conan.

• Both of them have a hero. Remy's is a famous dead French chef, Conan's hero is Sherlock Holmes.


• Both of them are especially gifted. Remy has amazing culinary skills, Conan is a brilliant detective.


• Both are small. Remy's a medium-sized rat, Conan shrunk to the body of a 7-year old kid.


• Both are the hidden genius behind their unskilled and often-times idiotic 'bosses'. Remy controls his chef alter ego like a puppet, Conan tags along this big and lumbering adult detective in his cases.

Another observation is that a couple of my guy buddies were inspired to cook French cuisine after the movie. Whereas for me, I just wanted to pig out on authentic French foodies. This just confirms my belief that men make better chefs. If my dad were to watch Remy in action, methinks we'll have French food this whole week at home

Anyway, after the movie, I thought that maybe rats weren't that horrible after all. That was until we were crossing this road and I saw a real-life rat appearing from the sewer and skulking under a car. It was huge and black. Its fur glistened with droplets of drain water.

Eeeeeew. Nah, I still hate rats.

But do go catch the movie if you can. The typical Pixar intro in the beginning is great, too

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