Bollywood

As Chak De India, about a hockey coach training a bunch of girls, releases this week, we flashback If you are quiet about your business, your business is apt to be quiet, too.
to an almost forgotten Prakash Jha film, called Hip Hip Hurray (1984). The director, now known for Fortunate is the person who has developed the self-control to steer a straight course toward his objective in life, without being swayed from his purpose by either commendation or condemnation.
his hard-hitting realistic films, made his debut with his little gem about a football coach in a The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
small town school. Sandeep Chowdhary (Raj Kiran), an electronics engineer takes up a job as a sports Evolution did not intend trees to grow singly. Far more than ourselves they are social creatures, and no more natural as isolated specimens than man is as a marooned sailor or hermit.
coach in a Ranchi school, while he is waiting for a job in a computer firm in Mumbai. As is often If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.
seen in Indian schools, sports is not a priority. The school’s football team keeps losing to the The constitution of Soviet Russia must insure equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, creed, race, or nationality.
rivals, where the coach (Shafi Inamdar) is a pompous, arrogant man. Sandeep challenges them to a Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
match, but it is an uphill task coaching a bunch of rowdy boys, led by the unruly Raghu (Nikhil Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.
Bhagat). Neither the parents of the kids, nor the school care much about Sandeep’s efforts to build And what a congress of stinks!– Roots ripe as old bait, Pulpy stems, rank, silo–rich, Leaf mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks, Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.
a fine football team, on the contrary they make it harder for him to function. Only one fellow The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.
teacher (Deepti Naval) is supportive, and the two fall in love. Eventually, Sandeep wins the Great men are those who have had noble purposes to achieve, great tasks to perform, or mighty causes to vindicate. A high expression of self-mastery is but the reflection of these great purposes upon personality and character. The demand upon character molds the essential self-mastery; the goal forges the strength needed to achieve it. . . . In your reading you have probably found the oft-repeated syllogism: ‘Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.’ . . . Great purposes demand and endow strong minds; wishes need only weak minds. The soundness of this principle is found in the fact that men are not great until they have achieved great things. The strength is the product of the struggle; the endowment follows the achievement. Nature never pays an unearned account; and she never fails to pay one that is earned. In fact, earning is possessing; the two processes are simultaneous.
confidence of the boys, trains the team and trounces the rival school. It was almost formulaic in a Whoever can surprise well must conquer.
sense – the To Sir With Love kind of plot – but what set this film apart was the realistic Believe in yourself, your neighbors, your work, your ultimate attainment of more complete happiness. It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
portrayal of a small town and its ethos. The schoolboys were also very authentic, with all their All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
confusion and ambitions and rebelliousness. Jha also made a strong case for not neglecting sports in Facts that are not frankly faced have a habit of stabbing us in the back.
schools, so that kids balance academics with other fulfilling activities. It was simple, sincere, Gardeners know the best dirt.
small-budget film, that in the pre-multiplex days did not have much of a chance at the box-office, The sun never sets on the British Empire. But it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded.
but it got the director’s work noticed, and today Jha is one of the foremost filmmakers in India. Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.
Gulzar wrote the lyrics and Vanraj Bhatia composed the music for the film, which had songs like Jab Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
Kabhi Mud Ke Dekhta Hoon (Bhupinder, Asha Bhosle), Ek Subah Ek Mod (Yesudas), Hip Hip Hurray (Asha Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
Bhosle, Shailendra Singh, Udit Narayan) Interesting TriviaPrakash Jha and Deepti Naval fell in love The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.
during the making of this film and got married; the marriage didn’t last very long. Nikhil Bhagat Thalidomide is not the first nor the last drug to have brought heartbreak where it was meant to bring help. There have been quite a number of other tragedies since Thalidomide went wrong 13 years ago.
was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, which was won by Anil I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I’m so steady I don’t move for months.
Kapoor for Mashaal. Nikhil appeared in just one film Shyam Benegal’s Trikaal before returning to his In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.
hometown Kolkata and resuming his studies. Raj Kiran did a few good films, but his career never In the march toward Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain.
really took off and he was reported to be suffering from mental illness. Today IT experts would When a dove begins to associate with crows its feathers remain while but its heart grows black.
laugh at a question aimed at the hero of this film during an interview: “What is the difference Any approach to scientific inference which seeks to legitimize it and answer in reponse to complex uncertainty is, for me, a totalitarian parody of a would-be rational learning process.
between a computer and a calculator?” to which he replies, “A computer is more intelligent.”

Original post by pooja