Music Review: Chak De India

Chak De India, is a film about a loosing hockey team and how a coach Kabir Khan (played by Shah Rukh Khan) brings them to life to make winning their only dream. The film will be released on August 10th and is directed by Shimit Amin under Yash Raj Films banner. Yash Raj Films have always followed eye-candy philosophy so, it will be interesting to see a film from their banner be close to mud and murk.

The music is composed by the Merchant brothers Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant. Lyrics are written by Jaideep Sahni, who also wrote the screenplay and co-wrote the story with Shimit Amin. The album is good and is very much in place from a sports standpoint. Do not expect to have the typical song-dance sequences with the lead pair. There is no lead pair or love angle in this film. It is all about the game. So, lets play.

You can listen to the songs here

Chak de India - Sukhwinder Singh, Salim Merchant, Marianne DCruz
Inspirital marching song for the hockey team. Sukhwinder has a punchy voice and pours plenty of spirit into the track/team. I am sure this song is well placed in the movie, considering it is all about the game. Marianne DCruz sports the english lyrics. This is the only song that will be in the charts. Rest are good but do not have the potential to be super hits.

Badal pe paon hai - Hema Sardesai
Rock style ala Pritam. Well paced to find a spot in sports genre of music. Hema Sardesai is sweet and this is a total girly track. It will play for sure on those St Xavier's tour buses on nationals and regionals. Nice guitar work, but Pritam rules the rock genre in Bollywood music. The Merchant duo do not sprint any new magic, the song is enjoyable nevertheless.

Chak de ek hockey doongi rakh ke - Shah Rukh Khan, KK and the team
Warning: Explicit lyrics in sweet hindi of course
Shah Rukh Khan introduces the Chak team. Quite a hilarious song and the lyricist (Jaideep Sahini) has done a wonderful job in rhyming the Chakk team babes' names into the song. Not a whole lot to be said about the composition, it is just an arrangment of words with few bhangra beats and simple drums. The visual must be better.

Bad bad girls - Anushka Manchanda
Yet another team song mixed in with Ek Hockey doongi rakh ke. This is a racy track and pretty much says how bad girls quit their belans, kitchens, sharmana, thumka lagana...you get the point! Don't get me wrong, they are not really being bad, this is all in good will to be the best Hockey team. The music looks very 'inspired', nuf said.
Trivia: Anushka Manchanda is one of the singers from the VIVA band, which is now rumoured to be broken. She climbed to the top of the charts with her song 'Thee pidikka' from a 2005 film Arindhum Ariyamalum.

Maula mere lele meri jaan - Krishna and Salim Merchant
A simple devotional song, nice and melodious and is the only slow track in the album. Very submissive in style and probably is placed at an appropriate moment in the movie.

Hockey remix - Remixed by Medival Punditz (Gaurav and Tapan Raj)
A remix of 'Hockey doongi mein rakh ke'. The remix is actually better than the original. The track is made with fast paced beats and make a very good background track when the game is its peak and we are on the edges of our seats. Hope the game sequences in the movie are worth falling over the edge, after all the chairs in the cinema halls are not so high you know.

Sattar minute - Shah Rukh Khan
I wonder why this is part of the audio album. I am sorry but, I do not find this speech track very intersting and that is because this kind of dialogue sequence needs a rivetting baritone voice and Shah Rukh Khan ain't that voice. You guys @ moviewalah know very well what I mean.

Well, this is a film in the sports genre and for once I am glad that this is about Hockey, something which is in the roots of India and not on some NRI-esque sport. We don't have too many films on sports theme, the last good ones were Lagaan and Iqbal. I am hoping that the film is shot with an Indian backdrop, locales which make the movie more real. Last year was not so good for Shah Rukh Khan as DON and KANK sank at the box office or rather did not live up to the expectations. Perhaps Chak De India gets him the appreciation that is due. Shah Rukh Khan is a great actor and there is no doubt he will slip into Kabir Khan's shoes easily with a hockey stick.

The album gets my *** stars, the music is very much in tandem with the game spirit.