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E07: Chak De! India Breakdown · Breakdown Besties | Bollywood Screenwriting Podcast

• Breakdown Besties Podcast: Hi Akshay. Hey Ananya, what's up? How are you? I'm cold as you can see. I'm not in Bombay. How are you? I'm seeing layers. I'm seeing sweatshirt. I'm seeing blanket, everything. Yeah, good. Yeah, everything. It's not that cold. I'm just a wimp. So hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. I'm Ananya. I'm Akshay. And together we've got combined 14 years of experience writing for Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus. We've written shows like Mismatch, Wedding.com, Ishq in the Air, Rana Naidu, Inside Edge, Grahan, and Shark Tank. I always forget to say Shark Tank. I have to it to the list. Akshay's Crowning Jewel. Yeah, yeah. I don't think we should talk about that. It's like an IRP based show. Love the show. 10 out of But it's the most identifiable show. Like, you know, when I talk to my friends in Mexico, like I can just say that, yeah, my friend has written like Shark Tank's dialogues. And they're like, okay, cool, because it's such a universal identifier. That's true. Even when I start talking about it to people, they're like, oh, that's interesting. Because even the people who have not seen other shows, they have at least heard about Shark Tank. So that's pretty cool. Exactly, exactly. So be proud. We're in Shark Tank. So we were just bragging about ourselves and on the Breakdown Besties podcast, we're going to break down the scripts which have given us the phenomenal movies and TV shows that we have. We want to show you the mechanics, the gears, all that goes behind making the script come to life. What are the techniques used to enable you to have such an enjoyable experience when you go to the cinemas and how are they created on the page? This is a film school experience that we never got and we're now creating for ourselves and also for you. Right? That was great. One day we will nail this entry. I think we're already there. Okay. So the part everyone's excited about. Today we are going to be breaking down one of India's beloved films from 2007. Written by Jaydeep Sani, starring Shahrukh Khan. Chakde India. ⁓ Yay. Expecting some background noise there. OK. I don't know. Maybe we should edit it in. Yeah. Like we do like confetti poppers, like woo. Yeah. I think it's important. I can do that on Canva. OK. So for the uninitiated, for the Gen Z, I've Chappie, India was Shahrukh Khan's greatest sports film. I don't know. I haven't seen any of his other sports films. I would say India's greatest sports film. don't think we've had this good of a sports film before this and after this. I could be totally wrong. But I don't think I have ever been so involved while watching a sports film like this much. And I'm somebody who can't catch a ball to save my life. So I think the best sports are ever made in India, at least. Best sports film ever made in India. OK. So cool. I think the best way to get into this film is by getting into the log line, right? Yeah. So I have a log line written down, but I have to have a conversation with you about this log line because this film lacks certain elements, according to me. OK. OK. So I'll read out to you what I have. And then we can see, right? So an Indian hockey player with a falsely maligned reputation decides to train the underdog ragtag Indian hockey women's team for the world championship to win back his country's respect. That's interesting. ⁓ What do you think it's lacking then? OK, let's go over the four main elements that we have in a log line. The four elements are. the goal, right? Over here, the goal is to win back the country's respect. Okay. And the flaw is ⁓ that they're underdogs, right? Correct. Here is my problem. First, so a log line has four elements, goal, conflict, flaw, and sticks. Now, in this log line, or if you look at Shahrukh's character, Kabir Khan. There is no flaw in his character. You can't say falsely maligned reputation is a flaw. have said here, I've said the flaw here is underdogs, but that's the team. Yeah. And the second thing is what's at stake. Nothing is at stake because his reputation is already down in the dumps. It has to be covered, but there's nothing more to be lost. even for the team, they're an underdog team. There's no hope from them. Yeah. So again, there are no stakes to start the film. Yeah. I think as the film builds, stakes come in. Once you know that they're going for like the national, the world championships and stuff like that, once they start getting better, then they actually have something to lose. But until then, neither Shah Rukh has anything to lose because he's already as low as they come. Yeah. And does the team have anything to lose? So this is a film which works on conflict yes but this conflict is driven by the B plot if you know right yeah think Shahrukh's character right yeah that he could have won he could have tried to clear his name by going through the media or you know that ways but they use the crutch of the B plot yeah which is the high tag team which has to do well in the which wants to go to the world championship that is the main thing that a woman's team team. Yeah. So I believe that over here, the A plot is dependent on the B plot, like they're almost linked together, but I don't know how to phrase it. And I tried a lot such that you can have a singular log line here. have because it's a Shah Rukh story, right? Shah Rukh story told through the girl's story. Okay, now I'm going to do a hot take for this one. Okay. Yeah. What if we reverse it? Like, do you think you can write a log line from the team's perspective? Because, like, let's say in a hypothetical situation, like, instead of these women who were like, sort of like, actors we didn't know about, let's say there was like a more prominent female actress doing one of the biggest roles, and let's the coach was not, Shah Rukh, then you would think the film is from the team's perspective. So do you think now we can do something with the log line of the film? We could, but we still wouldn't have stakes. We would have ⁓ the flaw, is that they'd be an under-resourced team. We'd have the goal, which is world championship. We would have the conflict, where they're going up against some of the biggest and well-trained teams. which is what the sequence of whole Badal Pe Paan where they're seeing everyone's training facilities and stuff you see that they're going up against the best but what is at stake? You'd have to have like someone protecting something right? Where you have something to lose. I think the stakes are built as I said through the course of the film but they're not there to begin with which is fine because it's an underdog story right? For both the team and Shah Rukh They're both at the bottom of the pecking order. ⁓ I think you already have the buy-in. So you maybe don't need the drama of stakes that it lends. ⁓ this is they're going to lose this. No, you want them to rise from the ashes. ⁓ So that is the motivating factor. That's pretty cool. So I believe stakes don't exist in the beginning. And I'm trying to think of this from a pitch point of view, right? Like If I had to pitch this logline to a studio, how I wouldn't have the stakes written into this logline to be able to pitch it. I would pitch it on the fact that it's an underdog story. Yeah, correct. Totally, totally. And you would, I would also sell the movie on the basis of the world that there are these 16 hockey players, female hockey players, and they're being coached by this ⁓ sort of like glorious hockey, ha, glorious hockey player who got like shunned for being called a betrayer for the country, you know? Yeah, that's what my selling point of the film would be. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, that is the log line. This is an incomplete log line. But as we know, a log line is our guiding light, right? Okay. But when you say, so that's an interesting thing when you say it's an incomplete log line. So ⁓ That only makes us makes you think that so every screenwriting rule is not set in stone. Right. ⁓ So even though we are trying to write a block line, we're trying to ⁓ break everything down. And we will tell you like techniques and tools and this and that. But the fact that there's still room to break these rules. I think that's what like makes films beautiful again, but because you've done something different. So different for sure. Yeah. So now that I'm thinking about it, maybe this was there in some draft and it got cut. like we see his mother character in the opening and closing of the film. So is it maybe because in some draft, his mother really wanted to go back and she was losing something in the Mahalla. ⁓ and they wanted to return there and those were the stakes like she wouldn't get something which she wanted in the Mahalla like for example let's say it was very bad but like a friend of hers was dying and they couldn't go back until he like won the respect of the country back because they're being seen as gada that she needs to say a last goodbye like I feel like this one element was lacking there and they had the mother character so it could have been added Or maybe it was added but it may cut because they realize that the focus of the film is not the mother character and it might feel almost contrived to add that. Yeah, that's an interesting point. I didn't think of that. Yeah. OK, so that is our log line. Our log line is our guiding light of the film. It shows us usually four elements, conflict, flaw, goal and stakes. These four elements should be present in every scene, every sequence and in the story overall. There you're guiding light. If you're ever confused as a screenwriter as to what you're trying to achieve, go back to your log line, look for these four elements, and you'll know what you need to do and what you need to achieve when you're writing on the page. Righto. Are we ready for the hero's journey? Let's break it down, bestie. The hero's journey is the structure for the emotional spine of the film. It tells you what beats your hero needs to hit on the way to achieving their goal across the film. It organizes your emotions such that the audience receives an emotional hit at certain points, which takes the journey forward. So sometimes, even if your character is not as well developed or your plot elements are not as strong, as long as you're hitting these turning points and you have these sequences, you will have a glue that holds your whole story together. Now, Akshay and I were talking about this the other day, where we said that your hero's journey is something that comes to you almost intrinsically. As humans, we are creatures of story, right? That's how we pass down information before books, before anything else. So you know what a hero's journey is, and you do tend to write that way automatically without thinking about it. So we don't really go in when we're writing our scripts. plotting it against the hero's journey saying, okay, this is this, this is this, this is this. We follow that instinct, which has obviously been honed over the years. Yeah. And then what we do is we check the hero's journey to ensure that each of these bits have been met. Are we missing anything? Are all the emotion experiences expected here being delivered? Most of the time they are. And the more you do these exercises of breaking them down, like we are right now, The sharper your instinct becomes of being able to do this instinctively. Like you don't have to map it out at all. Right? So this is a great exercise. So do it on your own. Do it with us. But when you're writing it, just write as you would enjoy the writing process. Yeah. Don't restrict yourself while writing. At least not in the first draft. Not at all. Yeah. Unless you have worked with a mentor who told you otherwise. Okay, so the hero's journey. We start with the ordinary world. This is the world in which the hero exists before they set off on their journey. So in this film, the ordinary world is the world is introduced to us in the Mahalla in which Shah Rukh Khan lives, where he is forced to leave because he is termed a Ghadar for allegedly playing on the side of Pakistan in a historic India Pakistan hockey match and letting Pakistan win. And he is blamed, and he and his mother have to leave the Mahalla. Right? OK. Then we have the call to action, where his ⁓ friend, a liaison between him and the association brings him to the association, the Hockey Association of India, I assume, where they say that, where he's like, I'm here to coach the Indian women's hockey team. And. ⁓ He never refuses the call. In fact, the refusal of the call comes from the association people who are like, you just want to restore your reputation. Right. It's like, yeah, OK, but do you have another coach? And they're like, no. Kind of stuck with me, aren't you? Yeah. Fine. OK, cool. Yeah. So that's ordinary world, call to action, meeting the mentor and refusal of the call. They're all kind of bunched together into one long scene sequence. Right? Yeah. And then we go into crossing the threshold. Crossing the threshold is the point in which our hero enters the next phase. They enter the new world where they see the mechanics of the world, they understand what's wrong with it, what's going on and they take their first action which determines that they're not going to be returning from this world, that now they have... So the point of no return that is called. I believe the crossing the threshold is the introduction of all the women hockey players and then Shah Rukh Khan meeting all of them and them introducing themselves each of them says like Balbir Kaur, Punjab all of them until Vidya Sharma says Vidya Sharma India and he's just like yeah that's that's how it's done. I also did while chalking the hero's journey out for this one. That, yes, from coach Kabir Khan point of view, this exactly what the beat you told me like they hit. Yeah, what is interesting about this film that if you consider the journey from the team's point of view, they also hold, they also have a hero's journey arc in them. Absolutely, which is quite rare in films for like multiple people to have that journey. It doesn't happen in rom-com movies or it doesn't happen where two characters are against each other. ⁓ And I tried this technique because when I was reading about Avengers Endgame, they couldn't crack the story for that movie. So what they ended up doing is that they made the hero's journey from Thanos' point of view and then put everything together. And I... And I felt that this could be interesting to do from the team point of view also in this one. So, ⁓ and so again, regular life and call to action was fine. And in call to action, again, I want to bring my favorite line, which is the Ragtag team of misfits come together. And you, and you start seeing how they have disagreements, how they have differences, we see different personality traits and all that. And to me, I thought the refusal of the call to action came when the girls decided that we don't want to work with coach Kabir Khan anymore. Like in the girls heroes journey. the girls heroes journey. Okay, so go on. So test allies and enemies. So this is essentially that whole sequence where the girls go up against him, right? Like So first the girls start infighting amongst themselves. He separates them. He benches a bunch of them. Then he over trains them really hard. Then they get angry. They all unite against him. Then he decides to quit. And on his final day, on his farewell, they go to McDonald's. There they get catcalled by the men and all the girls come and like beat that man, beat those men up. And then they're like, okay, Kabir sir, please stay. and he wins their trust. So this is Tess allies and enemies. there are Tess, these are his enemies who he now turns also into allies. Yeah, pretty cool. Then you have the approach to the innermost cave, which is where they're told that you the women will actually not be going to the world championships, just as the team is getting good. They're like, we're giving this to the men. And then you have the ordeal. The ordeal is ⁓ the match against the men where women are asked to play against the men and they lose but they win the respect of the men for playing really hard. So the reward at this point is that they're going to Australia and they're allowed to compete in the world championships. Now I need some help here. Okay. So you have the way back, right? So the way back is they go to Australia, right? and they see that everyone is doing so much better than them and they're just generally quite impressed and wowed and slightly intimidated by the atmosphere. And then they have the first match where they lose early badly. It's like India 0, Australia 7, right? Yeah. Now in our hero's journey, the next beat is resurrection, right? So to resurrect from somewhere, you have to first be down and out. Yeah. And it is after this losing the first match badly beat, Hmm. That they start getting up again, right? After this, they don't lose a single match all the way up until the end of the film. Hmm. So do you think this is where the resurrection begins? I didn't think that way. I thought until the moment they reach the finals, the moment of quiet when and when Kabir Khan says, ⁓ we're going to lose the match tomorrow. against the team. Yeah, because and that's the moment when you're, you know, sort of have to decide now what do they have to do? Like, do they win? And or do they take the higher road? Like their question? Yeah, they have that model question. Like you're kind of keen to know what route will these girls take? You know? So for me, that was the moment of the road back where Coach Kabir says we're going to lose and now it's up to you to decide what do you want to do? Right, right. So and then and then when then it easily led us to the resurrection, which is where Komal Chattala does finally pass the ball, you know? Yeah. And that is the time when we actually see the full smile on Coach Kabil's face. Like, like, I don't think he was happiest. He was like this ever in the first, you know? Yeah. So that to me felt like the resurrection. Yeah, I like what you said. It's whether they, when they have to choose, like whether they have to take the high road or not. That is the resurrection. So yeah, I think they are at their lowest, maybe at, that moment of quiet, which is the end of your road back. And true, in your road back, you still do encounter lots of conflicts, right? Yeah. Enemy and your like little enemies on your way back and that is Balbir's anger etc etc which we should talk about. Yeah. And then you have the return with the Alexis that Shahrukh goes back to his old Mahalla after they have won the Indian Bandar World Hockey World Championship. Yeah, yeah. So like quickly take you through the beats of what I had from the team's point of view. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. So that could be also an interesting exercise for the viewers. Yeah. Okay, so we have the, ⁓ the regular life of the people is when ⁓ we see the introduction of these characters, you know, see, we see, well, we'd call with a mom and we set up anger issues. All of those different ways, but like the girls come together. And the call to action is when the team meets the coach and starts realizing how difficult his methods are going to be. And in the sense that He's a taskmaster. He wants to wake them up early in the morning and go on these 10 kilometer hikes. They have these difficulties between the two, each of them. And they realize that they just can't do this. And that's when the refusal comes when the team decides that they don't want to practice with the coach anymore. Yeah. Now what ends up happening is that the next thing in the movie, which happens is that he decides to take them on a lunch. to McDonald's, the famous McDonald's scene. And then there again, they get catcalled. And these women, they sort of unite to form a team. And they sort of tell the coach that, listen, I think we can maybe do this in a very, I love this scene because it's done so subtly. And it's done very nicely. So I felt the mentor meeting the mentor and crossing the threshold sort of happened. at the same time. Now, the men in this film, the society, I construing in my mind as the mentor figure, because they also sort of propel you like even in the final moment of the film, where we we spoke about the resurrection moment where they do they pass the ball or not. And Priti Sabarwal says this ki, main tujhe kuch nahi dekhana chati. But I want what a girl can do. So this works again. Well, later on when when they're playing against with the against the male hockey team. And those are the guys who said, you know what, go ahead. Yeah, nice, nice. Very nice. So I thought that the mentor could be unwittingly the forces that don't want them to be a team. They make them the team. Yeah. So And then the crossing the threshold happens when Coach Kabir Khan tells them that tomorrow morning, 5am or whatever he says and he wears ⁓ fun Ray-Ban glasses and we have the classic Yash Raj walk. Walk. Yes, yes, we do. I noticed it this time. Again, the style is that in Band Bazaar Barat, the crossing the threshold, they had the walk. And it's a similar pattern which the production house has set, you know. So I thought that was interesting. Okay, now coming to the test allies and enemies. Even after this internal insecurities continue that and plus we start diving into how difficult these lives have become of these players. So for me, one of the important tests of this phase was the scene of Preeti Sabarwal with her fiance. ⁓ It comes at this time, and he sort of belittles her for like, ⁓ you're not playing hockey, this is Gully Randha. And it again, sort of sets you up against what the world is feeling about these people. you know, yeah. So and again, I'm looking at it as an important test because this is what drives her throughout the And then is when they have the match with the boys. ⁓ And they decide to go to get and the boy is like sort of succumb not succumb like very graciously say they respect them. Yeah, very graciously say like, why don't you go ahead? The approach to the Ennemos cave becomes the moment they when they get the approval to go for the World Championship. And then they set on to that like, and they realize it's a completely approaching the cave of the World Championship. Yeah. So they realize that it's a completely new world. have that big song sequence of Badal Pe Paon Hai. They see that what is this world like these are facilities. They have such wealth built bodies like you know. So that was that approach. And I thought our deal for me was when they have the first match against Australia and they lose. the going forward becomes the ordeal that each match becomes deciding that will they stay in the championship or not. Yeah, yeah, see that. So the reward becomes that they reach the finals. ⁓ And so far they've had to overcome all of their flaws. So we saw that Balbir Kaur gets over anger issues. We see Bindi and I are coming around the team and realizing that, again, the team, then for myself. But it's still not the climax of the movie yet because the biggest flaw which the team had, they've still not overcome that. So then that's what leads us to the drawback that at the night before the finals, Coach Khabib calls them and tells them we're going to lose tomorrow because the two of the most important players in the team are not passing the ball to each other and people can see that. And then which is the moment of resurrection for the team for these two girls. finally, Komal Chautala sort of becomes the bigger hero and passes on the ball to Priti in the resurrection moment. And like I said, that was the first time you see Coach Kabeer smiling properly. then the return is when they have the victory and we see all of the lives of these people how like, again, you have the Priti Sabarwal moment where she tells no to her fiance. So that was the hero's journey for me for this one. Very well done. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. I didn't even think of it from their perspective. I'm like, no, this is Shah Rukh's story. don't care. Yeah. You're a big Shah Rukh fan. For those who don't know, like, Aranda is a big Shah Rukh fan. Yeah. If you all want to be a Shah Rukh fan, too, you all should just read Shayana's book, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh, where she analyzes the. ⁓ the socioeconomic condition of women in India through the lens of Shah Rukh Khan. I mean, it's such a unique storytelling device. What's interesting about that book is that it's actually about economics. It is, yeah. Yeah. But it's told in such an interesting way, Yeah, using Shah Rukh as a storytelling device to further everything. It's insane. It's insane. Yeah. What's insane is that after I started working, having working in the industry, I realized So many more men also love Shah Rukh Khan. And that's what she uses also as a yardstick in this book, right? Where she says that most men, like who she interviews and who are like samples over here, is that they are Salman fans. the women like Shah Rukh because he's so much softer, like his eyes carry love, et cetera. So if a man is actually a Shah Rukh fan, that's a big green flag. Really? OK. Thanks. Thanks. Cool. So given everything you just said about the women's hero's heroine's journey, I wanted to actually jump into a very important point which you made, which is the symbolism of this film. Right? Where you spoke about how the men were the mentor for the women, which is correct, absolutely in a way. And what I want to talk about, though, is the mirroring of Shah Rukh's conflict with the women's conflict. Because Shah Rukh's conflict was what? That he is Muslim, and he was seen as a traitor. So now, if I were writing this film, my first thought would be, how can he ensure that an Indian a Hindu team wins or something like that, you know, like, because that's the problem, he's trying to resolve that, right? But you can't do that. There's no such thing as like a Hindu versus Muslim League or whatever. So they couldn't. So what they did was they identified the problem, which was at the root, which was that we're a fundamentalist nationalist country where patriarchy, Hindu politics, all of this are symptoms of the same fundamentalism problem. So what they've taken is instead of being very on the nose and also illogical using like another Hindu-Muslim conflict to drive the rest of the film, they're like what is representative of a religious conflict? the patriarchy is a representative of the same problem. So they went down that route to essentially make the same statement of going against the idea of fundamentalism. That's why they've used men as the common thread Over here, where earlier they may have used like a nationalist or you know, like a religious nationalist in that role. The women are having the same struggle as an as the underdog that Shah Rukh is having as a Muslim man in a Hindu majority, albeit secular country, right? Yeah, it's like when minorities come together, like it's that exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that was very well. And what I also like thing is a very conscious choice of that. Now that we're talking about this, I don't think they chose to have say like a Muslim character in the the team, or they didn't have any like, you know, because they didn't want to complicate this. It's anyway complicated, right? It would have become too intersectional. Yeah, had been too intersectional. And then again, it would this the narrative would not move forward, you know, like then what would the plot points be like he ⁓ like he's favoring her not favoring her sit like that you know and i think this was a conscious choice yeah but now that you say that you know when you said he's favoring her he's not favoring her ⁓ there is an accusation made right that ⁓ you ⁓ you made vidya captain because she gave you something that like i can also give you but the thing is you don't really see any chemistry between Shah Rukh and Vidya There is that one scene. Yeah, but now that you're doing this, what if they had made her Muslim? That may have actually worked to give him even false motivation. It's a misdirection. Misdirection for to work better for Bindiyaar's character also. Yeah, this may have worked over there. They could have but again, I think it's good only they haven't done it because I don't think they wanted to spark that debate like it could like really show off the audience in a very different way, you know, yeah, it could also pull you out from the tension of the game. Like, because this is one good thing about the movie is that they have never dealt with anything apart but the stakes of the game. So like even their personal lives are attached to the game. It's a very interesting conscious choice for this film, Sat De India. It's rooted to the world of the film. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I really like that. Cool. Yeah. So that's what I had on symbolism. And next, we can go into scenes. Yeah, let's do that. So scenes. I think the first thing I would like to talk about is the girls introduction. Where they're all introduced not just for the characters that Balbir ko gussa aata hai or Komal speaks in a certain way or whatever, but they're introduced very built in a way that's very authentic to the states that they're from. ⁓ Right? Like Komal is introduced as like someone from Haryana, ⁓ Balbir as a Punjabi, like even Mary Rialto, Mary and Molly. They are introduced as Manipuris where they're like, we don't want to be guests in our own country. So and that's a great introduction because that background of theirs where they introduced from goes on to form the first main conflict, which is where we say that their differences are because India is a highly divisive country and that forms the basis of our first, I mean, our test allies and enemies conflicts. Yeah. So I think the introduction really set the tone. They kept it grounded in the world. So the technique here they've used is they have introduced the characters from the point of view of the conflict that is going to follow them. They've set up the conflict that's going to come up. The next scene I wanted to talk about is kind of technical, but also not fully technical. ⁓ So when these girls have a lot of differences, Shah Rukh benches them, right? He says you can't And then what drives them next to go back to playing is not sorting out these differences or anything. It is the love for the game. It is they are hockey players and they have to go back to playing because that's what gets them into flow state. That's what they love. Yeah. And I thought what they've done here is The technique would be being very authentic to the world you're from and understanding what sport means. Or understanding the world in which your characters exist. I mean, it's the same thing when it comes to writers, right? Why can people exploit writers the way they do? Because when we actually get to the page away from all the noise and the politics and the drama, we are having the time of our lives. We are enjoying writing, right? ⁓ Yeah. And so that sentiment they've taken, which is very much from reality where any creative person, any sports person, because creation sports, all of that is like meditators, when they can't stay away from that. Yeah. So bringing the reality of the experience into this makes it very much authentic. I'm so glad it spoke about this, because I read some articles online about how they called coach Kabir's methods a little bit toxic. you know, in the sense that, he's so hard on these girls, and this and that. But I think this is just internet jargon. Because in reality, what you said is true to the world. The like coaches are really hard, like, yeah, and they are the taskmasters, they will see nothing beyond the game. And that's absolutely true to the world, like no matter what, what, like what discourse we have about it on the internet it is true and I remember this was also that sort of criticism it came with the movie Dangal that how harsh was the Amir Khan character as a coach that you know like he was not leaning at all he didn't give any leeway but that's absolutely true like they don't like like sport people go through the one of the most challenging times when they're in training so yeah Yeah, very nicely rooted to the world. it brings back to what you said, almost like work is worship sort of thing. this case, know, for sure, which is why we persist right with so much passion. Yeah, correct. Because yeah, work is literally prayer. It's worship. Yeah. And one more thing, I think this is the last thing I really want to talk about is I mean, the hockey match against the men, right? where they lose and the men ⁓ still respect them. So what I like about here is like about the senior is that they've maintained a good balance between emotion and logic. The idea is that look everyone is rooting for the women and you want the women to Right, that is the emotion at any cost you want to see them take down men. You've just seen them take down a bunch of men. But those who are ordinary like Gali Ka Gundah men like 2 rupee ka wool cat call you, right? Yeah. But these are like fit Indian, they're they're equivalent, they're counterparts. They're men who are as trained as these women. Yeah. And so logically, the women stand no chance. They know that. and so they've leaned into that you lean into the truth of the world. And I know we often say that you can sacrifice logic for emotion, logic for emotion, but they've maintained a good balance here. where they said no, that the women will have to lose because logically there is really no way they can win. But what they can win, if not the match, is the respect, which is where emotion comes in. So emotion can also be brought in through logic. So if you're ever keen to kind of like, bring avoid logic for the sake of emotion. ask what result can that logic lead to which will actually bring that emotion in instead of completely sacrificing that logic. This is what I really liked about that scene because even if they had ensured the women won, I don't think I would have had a problem with the scene because of the emotional high it gave me. It could have been a very hard match and they still won. That would have been fine. But the fact that they lost, I really appreciated that. Okay. I have actually lot of small, small scenes and sequences I want to talk about. first is I want to talk about the match which just comes after the one which you said, like after the man, like the match against the women's against the men's hockey team. The first match we show them is against the Australian team, which at the championship. So now they could have, if not, it made me question why did they lose this match? Right. Like they could have won the year and the high which the audience was, it would have continued now. But the storyteller very cleverly did not want to give you that high. It wanted to bring down the graph. Right? A little bit. And what we saw is that when the pressure rose, now that they're in the world championship, every fault of their team, which they thought that they have overcome, that comes back. Balbir's anger comes back, she gets guarded. ⁓ The English bit with Sui-Mui comes back. We still have the Preeti-Komal conflict. And again, like, Bindya selfishness comes again. So we realize that there's still more preparing that needs to be done in this team. ⁓ And I thought that was done very nicely with this one sequence that will sort of propel your team to now train harder for the quote unquote ordeal to come. You know, because if they did win, it means the would have been over. they have nothing. We have no more interest in whether they will win or not because you already won as a team. Right. So we need rising action. We need rising action. And this one thing I looked at when I'm writing a story, like it's a it's a mental graph you're sort of making. like yeah like up and down up and down up and down the more you're able to do this i think yeah like it gets more engaging definitely i mean we need conflict right without conflict there's no scene there's no film nothing so if they would have won then the film like we said would have got no so we needed yeah conflict yeah and this match becomes sort of a turning point because after this we only see them winning and we see them overcome each of their flaws separately like one full match was dedicated for Balbi to overcome her anger. One full match was dedicated to Bindiya's arc to have like a peak moment where she comes around in the team and decides to play for the team you know. Yeah. But that was one sequence I thought was done very well. Now this second scene I want to talk about is when Bindiya and Aarik is asked to come back to break the man-to-man mocking for the against the Korean team. Now, it's a very small thing, but indulge me for a minute. Ideally, in an ideal situation, this conversation would have happened the night before the day before the match. Not set it up, but in a reality situation, like we have that moment where we have that moment where coach is telling Vidya the night before that these could do man-to-man mocking. What did it stop him to go immediately to Bindiya and tell her that we need to do it right now? Now, this is where I love this concept called movie logic. He asks her whether already deep into the drama. There is no pondering time to be wasted that will she play, not play. It's immediate. He goes to her, and she immediately gets into the game. And what this allows us is that the flair of commercial storytelling, while already it's like an intercut of sorts, right? Like you that we see the team playing and we see her like wearing protective gear as socks, you know, then back to the team, she's doing stretches in her shoes, you know, so this sort of commercial storytelling is only possible when you have movie logic in place. Exactly, that's what we said, emotion over logic, right? Usually that works. Yeah, it absolutely does. Yeah. And also, if you want to justify this to a producer, here's how I would justify it. If he speaks to her the night before, she can come back with an excuse. But if they're already deep in shade, he says, you have to go do it now. Yeah, doesn't give her time to think she's like, what excuse do I even have? I have to go rescue my team or we will fail. Yeah, doesn't give me time to come up with an excuse. So if I have to defend it to a producer, this is how I would do it. Now that you say it, think Coach Kabir did think like this. because he knows this woman is a problematic person. Yeah. She will find another way to fuck this up and like, I do that. Exactly. Yeah. And he has been shown to think in a different way, right? Like when he even says earlier that it's when all the girls are against him and Krishna ji is telling him that all you. It's like if they all unite against me as the common enemy, it's fine. It's a small price to pay. Yeah. Yeah. So he does have this little different way of thinking. Yeah. You know, this reminds me of, you know, I was telling you about the Samakar family podcast. Yeah. So we're going do a shout out to that because In that podcast, she talks about how she has a very nice mother-in-law. ⁓ But her mother-in-law is the constant butt of her jokes because it works in a culturally. ⁓ But she said early on, her mother-in-law in her marriage told me that every couple to survive needs a villain. Happily make me a villain to be together with your husband. ⁓ I thought that was like it reminded me of that moment when you just told me. Yeah, Interesting. Another thing I want to talk about is that ⁓ the moment of quiet when Kabir Khan questions Preeti and Komal, what are you going to do tomorrow? Priti has this very nice moment where she says, my problem is not with you. I want to show a man what a woman can do. it's such a powerful line for that moment that you think the other person would understand. they have ended the scene with Komal saying, ⁓ maybe they can get out of there. Yeah. And so you sort of don't diffuse the tension because you had such a like a quiet scene and such a high high energy movie and it inherently leads you to the next emotion of the film or what is going to happen now. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought I was done and I think it's a good key to have when you're writing your scenes that does the end of the scene sort of create more intrigue. Intriguing, absolutely. So that's a good device I keep in mind most of the time that is the scene leading to the next scene, you know? Exactly. ⁓ It has to lead. Now, again, I want to talk a little bit about the last match. Again, they could have designed the match in such a way that the Indian team scores in the very end. You know, which they've done in previous matches, like to create the build and tricky, what is going to happen or not. But they choose not to, they immediately get off on the foot that Fiti scores, Komal scores, and they still haven't passed, you know, the ball. So by this time, you realize the fight of the team is not exterior. It's interior, it's internal. So it doesn't matter whether the team wins or not, you're still rooting for the moment where either of them will pass the ball, you know? Yeah. I thought that was done very consciously in a very strong way that you had the CR stick and you went along with it. I want to do one more shout out to this one moment where they're in the Argentina match and you have one very small shot of the Australian coach making notes. that's, thought that was a very bold choice because some, my struggle with screenwriting is almost like how much setup you need to do for something. Like how many times the setup is okay and how many times you don't need it. So again, you will never have a clear answer to this question. ⁓ I wish there was. I struggled so much with it. ⁓ But, and because we're talking about this, I'm going to talk about a very important set up, which I don't know if it's needed in the film, was the moment Vidya has to save the final goal. like, coach has this thing that, ki, ⁓ iska peyat to right mein hai, she's inching towards the left or should she's going to go straight. More set up in the movie. it's. And again, it makes me question. I wanted to ask you, do you think it was needed or not? You know? I- It's a good question. think the reason it was done was because at that moment all the pressure was on Vidya. And what he even says very obviously in the voiceover at one point is that the pressure of being the one who doesn't save the day is so high that when you lose it crushes you. You can't live with yourself. It was his way of assuaging his guilt by doing this. I don't remember the opening scene very well anymore, but if they had set this up there when he was taking the penalty strike, when he had been the goalkeeper, for example, if not the striker, and he had not been able to judge left Jaika, right Jaika, like, know, like left to the left and had come straight. then this would have landed very well. That's amazing. Essentially, emotionally it lands. Emotion mimics his emotion, right? Because I don't want her to carry the same boat. So that is what's driving him. But so the emotion lands, the plot device doesn't land because it hasn't been set up. But the same way, man-to-man marking hadn't been set up earlier either. It just goes in and breaks it. I'm just like, how does she know how to break it? both senior player here, that's Yeah. Yeah. But that's very interesting. I hadn't thought of that, that that is the moment which he is waiting for the entire set. Exactly. Very cool. Cool. And now that you've said this, I wanted to go into genre tropes next, because you were talking about the Preeti Komala thing. So this is a sports film and just like a rom-com, even a sports film has its genre tropes, right? Right. And the first is players who don't get along. That is essential in any team sport, right? But what I want to break down is why are these tropes genre tropes? ⁓ Okay, now. players who don't get along the reason it is a genre trope is because you're not invested in the game. You're invested in the players. It's the same reason which if there's a random whatever match going on on TV, unless like let's say there's a tennis match going on and unless you're a big tennis fan who really or a big tennis like, and who's a technical tennis enthusiast like you play a lot all of that, you can't separate the two I think if you play a lot you're also going to be someone who knows everything about players etc. But if I see a random tennis match on TV and I don't watch tennis I have no interest in watching it. Right. So why are you interested in this film or in any sports film? It's not because they're promising you baseball or anything they're promising you conflict between the characters and you want to know how will the conflict between the characters affect the game? not how will the game go forward. We are not interested in inanimate sort of concepts like a game. We are interested in the players. It's Drive to Survive does so well, right? They focus on the players, on the drivers. That's what I want to see. Like even when I went for F1 right now, everything I felt, whoever I was supporting was because I had strong feelings for the driver. I didn't really care about anything else. So I think this is why that genre trope works. ⁓ Yeah, and our second genre trope is a training sequence, right? Always have to have it now. Why does that training sequence work? Because it shows your characters as a someone putting in a lot of effort and B when they succeed they're almost superhuman So in your eyes in the eyes of the audience you have built admiration for your characters That's why you need a really tough training sequence to put them on the level of Olympians. know, like the way Olympians are seen as God because of the way they train. That's why you're invested in their story because they're a little above us mere models. And that's why these I think both these like players having conflict internally and training sequences are two very important genre tropes. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, like sometimes like, yeah, like a training sequence is such an obvious thing in a sports film, right? Yeah. So but if you don't put it, won't work. It's also a gift, right? Like we were talking about the concept of gift and Kahani. Yeah, leave your audience with some more information than they've come in with. I am someone who's ever played tennis or played hockey. I don't know what goes into that training. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I can go talk about it. I'm a more informed person. So it from that lens. Yeah. Coming to gift. I did think that moment of the ball saving. I thought that was a nice gift because people don't talk about it. Yeah, they act like now they know hockey. And next, we can talk about character. I just wanted to talk about Shah Rukh's character. I just want to point out what techniques they've used to make us really like him as a character. So the first is self-respect. Even though he's been demeaned, he always stands up for himself. He's always, even in front of the hockey association when he's making his case and all, he never acts like, ⁓ I'm so small, like, I'm so embarrassed, nothing. He always stands tall. Then when he leaves for his mother's safety, he cares about them like he leaves the Mahalla because a character who stands so tall I'm just like he wouldn't leave a Mahalla on his own he would have too much sense respect I ⁓ I think he left that Mahalla because of his mother then when even when he's leaving the Mahalla there's a lady who says and she stops him so that is others having the benefit of doubt for him because others do it the audience also has benefit of doubt for him. The last is he just doesn't give up. is relentless in whatever he wants and obviously his character has no flaws but these are techniques you can use like self respect or caring for other people or other people loving them or not giving up as traits to make a character more likeable. Yeah, that's nice. I also want to talk about there's so many of these like girls ⁓ and we could have like gotten lost that who is what which is what especially on while reading one page it can get very tricky right because you have no faces attached already and one interesting thing is that how real the names of these girls felt like you know They were not your Hindi film names like Pooja, Priya. They weren't any of these, right? They were very, it felt like they were picked out from somewhere from real life, you know? And there is one almost an unsaid rule, which I don't think a lot of people talk about, is while naming characters, I think we inherently go for some sort of an alliteration. Like... ⁓ a lot of these characters like in even iconic films like you will have see like there'll be some alliteration to these names so even when I look at these names of Preeti Sabarwal, Komal Chautala, Balbir Kaur, Mary Ralte, Suhimur Kerketta you know they all have like a certain ring to it and I think like that really helps in associating these characters to these names you know like in some way. Yeah. They're not generic. They're not generic. They're real, you know. But again, like, real names, real life names are not necessarily they have alliteration in them, you know. But it's a screen technique which a lot of people unknowingly use, you know. They used it for Kabir Khan. Yeah, that's what Kabir Khan and I can give you countless examples I've written like ⁓ in Kabir Kusha Kabir Gham, Rahul Rai Chand, Rohan Rai Chand, you know, even in the So Lena Dunham show girls like Hannah Horvat, Shoshana Shapiro, like it's all done to us consciously. So I think it's an unsaid rule, but now we're saying it. Saying it, yeah. I think more than unsaid, it's subconscious. You said it's conscious. But I think it's subconscious because I'm not thinking, right? I want to name them like with an iteration, but. I wonder why they chose to do that with Kabir Khan and not these. But don't they want to elevate him as a more mythical character and make these women more real down to earth? I guess, I don't know. I have no idea. Anything else on character? No. No, no. Okay, I want to bring up my favorite check off gun set up and pay off. Okay, so Checkout's gun is when you set up a gun and then you use the gun later. So this was a very small moment, but it got a laugh out of me, where the two girls, think, who don't speak English, Sui Mui and another one, come for registration during their introduction scene. ⁓ And they're trying to communicate with the man taking the registration. And he's like, you guys Ram Neela? Very confused. And then later when the women are doing really well in the world championship and they talk to him on the phone, he's like, maine round nila wane ko bataya diya, ke agliye saal ground nahi malega. Humari hockey team waa train karegi. So was like, that's a very hard. These are small moments of humor in dialogue, which add a lot to the film. Yeah. Cool, sir. Chekhov's gun. I agree. I agree. OK, two more quick things. There is this thing, he keeps playing with his silver medal, you know? they're asking, what are you doing? And Coach Kavi says, I'm gold. If I have the opportunity then price will right. Now, nothing clearly broke my heart, that line. Because it's It's also very true to the world of the film. I have read a lot of these ⁓ old-timey Olympian gold medalists in our country because we have such weak infrastructure for the sports community. They've had to sell their medals for money. You can foreshadow that this is what Coach Kabir is going towards. That if they don't go through it, this is what he'll lead to. ⁓ I thought I was done very nicely. That was and you know, it would have been even better if they'd it up as the stakes. ⁓ I was just thinking that, that why didn't they do it at stake? Yeah. But that would have made motivated him by money and not the game. That's That's true. So that then another dialogue which really struck out to me, which I remember very clearly like got a lot of hooting in the theater also back in the day. And I first seen it was that when it's a moment between Vidya and him at the World Championship, she comes and says, what are you looking at? And he says, look at that. First time I'm a man India's Tiranj. You know? Like, very punchy commercial film dialogue. But again, set in a very, the world of the film, which is like, Obviously, games like these make you feel extremely patriotic. know, the spirit of the audience, your viewers run very high. Like the number of times people get so charged up while watching a game. And so to have the sort of commentary I thought was done very nicely in a very brave way. Yeah. Cool. Do we have anything else? I think that was me on Shakti India. That was me too. Okay, everyone, we hope you enjoyed this breakdown of one of our most beloved films. And hopefully we are some of your most beloved YouTubers now. Making our way up there. thank you so much for watching. You know the drill, like, share, subscribe. If you have any episodes, any TV shows, anything you'd like broken down, leave it down in the comments. We will get to it. Do not worry about it. And see you on the next episode of Breakdown Vesties. Bye. Bye. Hi again bestie, for our next episode we are breaking down the crime thriller film Johnny Gadda. See you next Thursday.