Coach coach hota hai

Sayesha Smitten showbiz kitten is back.

And this time, she's not climbin' no trees and snoopin' around Bollywood directors' living rooms to bring you the latest and insider Bollywood news.

This time, she is, truly, smitten.

I can't help it - I think Shah Rukh knocks a decade off my age. He turns me into a smitten, worshipping, silly teenager. And watching KBC episodes on youtube over the last few weekends has rekindled my hopeless teenage love for King Khan. Every time I try to dismiss him as a hamming overactor after watching a Ram Jaane, Anjaan or KANK, he does a thappad-like comeback such as Swades or Chak De India, and turns my knees to jelly again. Kudos to Shub and Viv for tolerating my clapping and my (soundless and hence rather unsuccessful) hooting throughout the movie. Speaking of behaviour that turns out embarrassing for friends, Viv came for the movie directly from his cricket practice and I was so excited I held up his cricket bat in the theatre a la He-man and went "Chak de!" after the movie ended. And oh - before I forget, a message to that friend of Viv's who came home for dinner last night and "accidentally revealed" to me that "Shah Rukh dies in the movie", almost breaking my heart - Mera namak khaakar itna bada dhokha? Sadak par mil jaiyo kabhi - ek hockey doongi rakh ke! :/

Switching to a less destructive mode, I pen down (and translate) the most inspiring (and applicable across every walk of life) lines from the movie, which I'm not surprised made their way into the list of MP3s from the movie. (And no, I haven't copy-pasted this from some website; I actually listened to the MP3 like a gazillion times and typed out every word.)

Sattar minute. Sattar minute hain tumhaare paas. Shaayad tumhari zindagi ke sabse khaas sattar minute. Aaj tum achha khelo ya bura, yeh sattar minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahenge. Aur kaise khelna hai, aaj main tumhe nahin bataoonga. Bas itna kahoonga ki jao aur yeh sattar minute jee bharkar khel lo. Kyunki iske baad aane wali zindagi mein chahe kuch sahi ho ya na ho, chahe kuch rahe ya na rahe, tum haaro ya jeeto, lekin yeh sattar minute tumse koi nahin chheen sakta. Koi nahin. Toh maine socha ki is match mein kaisa khelna hai aaj main tumhe nahin bataaoonga balki tum mujhe bataoge. Khelkar. Kyunki main jaanta hoon, ki agar yeh sattar minute is team ka har player apni zindagi ki sabse badhiya hockey khel gaya toh yeh sattar minute khuda bhi tumse waapas nahin maang sakta. Toh jao. Jao aur apne aap se, is zindagi se, apne khuda se, aur har us insaan se jisne tumhe... tumpar bharosa nahin kiya, apne sattar minute chheen lo.

"Seventy minutes. You have seventy minutes. Perhaps the most special seventy minutes of your life. Whether you play well today or not, you will remember these seventy minutes for the rest of your life. And today, I will not tell you how to play. All I will say is - go and play these seventy minutes to your heart's content. Because whether what happens to your life after this is right or not, whether you have anything or not, whether you lose or win, no one can snatch away these seventy minutes from you. No one. So I decided that I won't tell you how to play; you will tell me. Through your game. Because I know that if in these seventy minutes, every player of this team plays the best hockey of her life, then even God can't ask you for these seventy minutes back. Go on. Go and snatch your seventy minutes. From yourself. From this life. From your God. And from every single person who did not believe in you."

It may be quite obvious, but for the record, here it is once again.

I love you, Shah Rukh. Chak de!