Dear Listers, I just saw a recent Indian movie called 'Chuk De India' and recommend it to the List. It is about a rag-tag team of women field hockey players selected to represent India in a world series. Nobody, from the sports administrators to the players themselves, believes that they have any chance to shine. Kabir Khan, played by the actor Shah Rukh Khan, is a one-time captain of the Indian Men's team. He has been driven out of the game because several years ago in a crucial India-Pakistan match he lost a penalty stroke and the match and was suspected of secretly helping Pakistan. Kabir Khan takes up the position of the coach of the Women's team because there is no other taker for it. Under his sometimes harsh but inspired training the Indian team wins the world championship, after defeating strong teams like the Australian and the English. The upper layer of the subtext of the film is that Indian women are capable of doing anything that men can do. At a deeper layer the film says that if Indians rise above their petty personal ambitions and myriad internal divisions, which were the cause of India's historic downfall and its colonial past, India can stand up against any other power in the world as an equal. The film reflects the growing confidence of India as a strong nation on the world stage. Happily, though the film is made for the entertainment of the general masses, it is entirely free of the usual commercially inspired cant and stereotypes of characters and concentrates only on the task in hand! The DVD that I saw had English, French and German subtitles. The title 'Chuk De India' initially made no sense to me. I found from the internet that 'Chuk De' is a colloquial Punjabi expression meaning 'Cheer Up'. Another recent good Indian movie is 'Gandhi My Father'. It tells the little known story of one of Gandhiji's sons, Harilal. Overshadowed by his father, he goes from one failure in life towards another, causes immense anguish to his parents and dies a destitute's death in Bombay a few days after Gandhiji falls to the assassin's bullet. It is an excellent film and treats both Gandhiji and Harilal with sympathy. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, December 10, 2007.