Chak De blues

Here’s the reason I completely loved Chak De, and if you haven’t seen it yet, please do so: The lessons in organisational politics and leadership skills the film showcases. Forget for a moment it’s the game of hockey, and you’ll notice the same issues we deal with in organisations. The backstabbing, the plotting, the favouritism, the selfishness, the inability to work with others, the ego clashes… we see all that in our workplaces all the time. But sadly, what we don’t find is the sort of leader the coach plays, his commitment to the cause of the team, the fanatical urge to succeed, the courage to keep team ahead of oneself, the ability to slot the right workers for the right jobs, and then to motivate them… such leaders don’t exist in the corporate world.

I can well imagine if the coach had been the CEO of a company, what might have happened. He would have fed on their division and ruled, he would have covered his arse for the hockey association by bad mouthing the players, he would have sacked girls with ‘attitude problems’, he would have leaked stories to the media, promoted himself, and in the end, taken all the credit for the team’s success, and blamed them for failures. And perhaps even slept with some ambitious ones and promoted them out of line.

And if such leaders like Kabir Khan do exist, they would get knocked out sooner than later, labelled as being difficult to work with, and inconvenient.

They say cinema is all about escapism, and I sure agree. And it’s good to see the escapism with Chak De has gone beyond soulful love stories and expensive Karva Chauth songs. We now can escape into the arms of a leader who can only be imaginary.