Chak De! India: A Guide to Good Leadership

“The task of a leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”
- Henry Kissinger

Shimit Ammin’s directed Chak De! India written by Jaideep Sahni and starring Shah Rukh Khan is more than just another dramatic Bollywood film. It is also a very useful lesson on management and management techniques that push a team to their ultimate victory.

A movie about a former captain redeeming himself by taking a women's hockey team to victory.

Kabir Khan, played by SRK, is a former captain of the men’s hockey team. However, a loss against Pakistan in the World Cup put him to utter public humiliation and sent him away from the hockey scene for several years. His return, however, comes in the form of a coach. He takes on the task of leading and training the women’s hockey team, a task that no one was keen for.

The movie then follows his entire journey of being a leader to these girls, as divided as they were, and how he manages to find unity in that chaotic diversity.

Kabir Khan, the coach, is a stern man who is determined to make his team work hard and work together.

The task set before Khan was no small feat. All the girls in the team were from different states, spoken different languages, belonged to different social classes and had different strengths. This led to quite a significant power-shift in the team dynamics. The more experiences dominated the lesser ones. The girls who gave from a more urban setting undermined the ones who didn’t. Some seemingly more liberal in their lifestyle were not too shy to demean the more shy and reserved ones. In fact, initially when they had to introduce themselves, each girl introduced herself by her state identity. They were all asked to leave the line and stand to the side, still unclear what their coach wanted.  

Only one, Vidya Sharma, who would go on to become the captain, identified herself as belonging to Team India.  This incident turned into a lesson in team spirit. Khan makes sure to make Sharma reiterate to the team, the point being that the team plays as one, as India. In a team, there is no ‘I’ after all.

Strategy is a very important skill that a leader should have.

Given the mammoth task at hand, it was important for Kabir Khan to be as fair and impartial as he could be. He bore no tolerance for slackers, conceited and smug players. He never hesitated to make tough decisions. If the most experienced player had to be benched due to bad behaviour, so be it. To Khan, no one’s ego and self-assumed power could come in between the game.

His leadership was also a lesson in instilling courage and discipline in his team. Taking them for early morning runs, difficult practice sessions and subjecting them to hard verbal beatings that showed no mercy were all a part of his larger to plan to tie the team together.

Perseverance and hard work instilled discipline in to the team members. 

However, a highlight of the movie has to be the iconic McDonald’s fight scene where, for the first time, the team actually behaved like one. When a couple of misbehaved men teased some of the girls in the restaurant, they all came as one and beat the men up, reminding us that nothing unites a team of misfits together than a common goal.

The most striking lesson in leadership that one could take from Khan was the way he managed to bring two of his best players, Komal and Preeti, to play with each other rather than against each other. They had an ongoing rivalry about being the highest goal-scorer but Khan knew that despite their strengths, this internal tussle, which their opponents were well aware of, would cost them the game. One would not pass the ball to the other and vice versa.

He recognized this weakness and inspired them to play with each other, teaching everyone that individual interests and rivalries cannot contribute to the larger goal of the team. It only acts as an impediment. To win, the team’s common interest always takes precedence over that of the individual. One has to negotiate and decide which is more important. If their personal goals are more important to them then quite simply put, they are not a part of the team.

Nothing brings a team together like failure to achieve a goal.

A series of incidents, losses, benching, strategizing and wins manages to turn this team of diverse women into one united front. Khan’s tough but intuitive leadership, ability to navigate tough waters and knowledge of everyone’s individual strengths and weaknesses, leads these women to victory and they end up bringing the World Cup home, having achieved a larger goal of cementing faith in women’s hockey.

The moment of victory which came after immense ups and downs.

Chak De! India is a lesson in good management and communication skills and how these can make it or break it for any team. Through a very shrewd and motivated leader, the filmmakers manage to instil in viewers an idea that a good leader is always one who is above power-play and politics. He or she is the only one who can take a team from darkness to light.