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Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan has fortunately or unfortunately brought itself to a comparison with Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De India. The two films share almost same plots, with two coaches coaching a team of underdogs and turning them into players of the National Team.
However, the debate that has taken over these days is – Is Amit Sharma’s film better than Chak De India? Well, when I discussed the film with a legit sports enthusiast who is an encyclopedia when it comes to cricket numbers, then he had an answer to this rising debate, luckily.
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And the answer, ladies and gentlemen, is a Yes. Maidaan definitely scores higher when it comes to making a sports film, in this case, a sports biopic on a man who is the motive behind making Maidaan.
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However, some might feel that it is unfair to pit both films against each other, but the irony here is that the blueprint for both Maidaan and Chak De India is so similar that one does not deliberately equate the two films, but it just happens, and one cannot help it.
When Shah Rukh Khan in Chak De India delivers one of the best monologues of Hindi Cinema with 70 Minute, it definitely gets compared to Ajay Devgn boosting his boys before their final match, the confidence he instills in his boys when he says, “Aaj Maidaan mein utarna 11 lekin dikhna ek,” was far more powerful!
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So we decided to decode this debate about Maidaan and Chak De India being ‘Same But Still Different’ films. Here are the reasons why Maidaan stands a little taller than Chak De India.
The major difference between both films is the fiction vs reality story. Syed Abdul Rahim’s struggles are real, while Chak De’s Kabir Khan is just a dramatized version of everything that serves as a proper masala for a commercial flick. Maidaan thus has pathos and empathy in the correct amount for Chak De’s Kabir Khan.
Since both films differ in the real vs. fiction part, the motives of both films change. Maidaan celebrates the unsung hero of the nation, while Chak De India makes Kabir Khan a hero. Kabir Khan’s story is the path to personal redemption; meanwhile, Syed Abdul Rahim struggles endlessly to put India on the World Map, craving the recognition of the Indian National Football Team! So while, Chak De India’s Kabir Khan claims ‘Mujhe states ke naam na sunaayi dete hain na dikhayi,’ Syed Abdul Rahim makes an effort to live by that line every single day of his life.
Chak De India is a dramatized version of a cooked-up story that might or might not be believable. Moreover, since it is a personal journey of a man, coaching and churning out the best team women’s hockey team for the country, the matches are more glamorized and choreographed as per the needs of the films.
This comes as the major difference for Maidaan, which gives India one of the most detailed sports films with brilliantly choreographed matches that take it to a much higher pedestal than Chak De India.
So yes, Chak De India might be one of the most loved sports films for Hindi Cinema, but Maidaan leaps a little higher with the quality of content it serves. We hope this ends the debates and the discussions ever since the trailer of Maidaan dropped!
For more such stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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