First day, first show today, we will be there, say Negi’s golden girls

“Negi sir had told me about the movie and later, I watched the promos on television. I am very excited because I think there will be a lot in the movie that my teammates and I can connect with,” she says.

Says Negi: “During the six months that I was with the Chak De India unit, it was like a flashback. But one of the most memorable incidents happened when Shah Rukh came up to me and asked how I coped with the trauma of the ‘82 Asian Games final and the aftermath.”

Kabir Khan, the character Shah Rukh plays, is modelled on the life of Negi who was India’s goal-keeper during that humiliating 1-7 loss to Pakistan in front of a packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi during the 1982 Asian Games. Negi later returned as coach of the India women’s team that won the Commonwealth gold in Manchester.

But then, the movie is also about a rag-tag bunch of girls from diverse backgrounds that defies the odds.

Forward Mamta Kharab, whose inspirational role in the Manchester final saw India win gold, feels the presence of Shah Rukh will add much-needed glamour to the sport. “The Commonwealth gold changed people’s perspective towards hockey. Till that point, I don’t think people ever actually considered women’s hockey as a sport. We were the unknown faces,” she says.

Kharab’s teammate Suman Bala too can’t wait to see reel people playing real hockey on the silver screen. “I think the reel story will be as much an inspiration as the real one. I remember after the Manchester gold, I was returning home to Ambala in a bus and I heard two girls discussing our victory and how they wanted to take up hockey,” she says.

Bala says the movie will also prove that sporting fairytales aren’t merely the prerogative of Hollywood — it happens in India, too.