When this block buster film was released in India I was not in a position to see it due to other pressing commitments. From all that I had heard about it and the impact it had on the Indian Hockey administration, I had always wanted to see it and was able to finally do so on DVD.
It is everything that it was cranked up to be. It stirs up an Indian’s emotions like few things can. It offers a grand mixture of bigotry, nationalism, jingoism, patriotism, petty mindedness, team politics, clash of egos, discipline and / or lack of it, suspense, pride and any other emotion you want to include this film will gladly accommodate it.
Despite being seasoned and hardened film watchers, and Manjiree having seen it before, both Ranjan and she were also reacting to each emotion like they were in a movie theater as I was too. A heady mixture of entertainment and final relief!
Thankfully Shah Rukh Khan did not bore us with some song and dance routines and the romance angle was negligible and handled with aplomb where it did come in.
Time well spent on a nice and pleasant Sunday evening and since I am so pleased with myself I would rate it with a [rating=5] because of one short coming. Some tighter editing could have cut short the length of the film without compromising the total effect.