Diwali Homework- TOK Essay on any movie of my Choice

Diwali Homework- TOK Essay on any movie of my Choice,
Movie Chosen by me: Chak de India (Hindi Bollywood Film)

One of the reasons for India’s slow development is the people’s way of thinking. Most Indian’s label themselves as patriots and thus think from the heart rather than the mind; i.e. become victims of emotion and shun reason, which results in the concoction of unreasonable judgements. Thus starts the film of Chak de India. Kabir Khan (played by Shahrukh Khan) is the captain of the Indian men’s national field hockey team and the team is playing in the Wold Cup Finals at the common Wealth Games. India is playing against Pakistan and the scores are India nil and Pakistan one. Kabir Khan in the last few minutes of the game gets a penalty shootout, but misses the goal by a few inches. The Indian team is shocked at their loss and the all the Indian hockey fans are filled with wrought. Soon after, the media begins to circulate a photograph of Khan accepting a handshake from the head of the Pakistani team, assuming that Khan, who is a Muslim, might be a traitor ad has allowed Pakistan to win on purpose. The religious prejudice shown towards Khan by the entire society at large, forces him and his mother out of their ancestral home and into exile. Seven years later, Khan wants to coach the Indian woman's field hockey team, a job no one else wants (as, an official indicates, the only long term role for women is to "cook and clean"). He trains the girls of the team. At first there are many differenses and disputes amongst the team members but they overcome their differences throughout the many matches and eventually learn to act as a single unit. This move leads them to victory and the restoration of Khan’s good name. In doing so, they not only destroy the prejudices which once separated them, but prove to their families and country the worth of women. At the end, Kabir Khan returns with his mother to their ancestral home, welcomed by those who had shunned them years before.
The film Chak de India explores the religious intolerance that prevails in India, despite being known as a cosmopolitan country. It also shows the perception of the male chauvinists who cause the differences between men and women, by exploring sexism in modern India through hockey. In the film, as the society is filled with anger and cannot overcome their strong emotion they rationalise. As India loses against the Pakistani hockey team because of Khan their powerful emotion is anger (primary emotion). Anger leads to a biased perception; the society overlooks all his years of serving the team as a captain. They forget that it is because of Khan’s good captainship India is in the finals. They only notice his one loss, which they do not realise can happen to anybody due to the state of nervousness. Such biased perception leads to fallacious reasoning and they make a hasty generalisation that as Kabir Khan is a Muslim, he is a traitor and has lost the match on purpose in order to allow Pakistan to win. This fallacy leads to emotive language and thus the society throws him and his mother out of their home and into exile.
Chak de India portrays the clash between reason and emotion throughout the film. There is a scene in the film where Kabir Khan the couch resigns the girl’s hockey team in anger, as they revolt against all his rules. However, as a sign of good will he treats them for lunch at McDonalds. During lunch, the anger in Khan and the team members subsides but when some local boys make a pass at Mary and Molly two team members, Balbir another team member loses control and attacks them violently. This leads to a fight between the boys and the entire team. One by one all the girls beat the boys brutally till their anger and frustration has been drained out. Emotion clouds their minds to such an extent that the hockey players have no control over their actions/body language and express themselves through an irrational behavior.
Is it ethical to differentiate between a man and a woman? Is it ethical to say that women are inferior to men? Chak de India shows how women are looked down upon in society. There is a scene in which the Indian women’s hockey team is banned from playing in the world cup; the reason given is, ‘because they are women.’ In this case, emotion again gets the upper hand of the women, and results in them proving to the society that women are no less than men, by playing a heated match against the Indian men’s hockey team and despite losing this match, their superb performance on the field forces the officials to change their mind and send the team to The World Championship. In this case it is evident that emotion if used in a positive way, in this case: as team spirit, then it does have good effects. In the film there are certain instances which portray how perception can damage the minds reasoning. Certain officials in the film are trapped in the’ prison of consistency’. They have taken a stand that the girls hockey team is hopeless compared to the boy’s hockey team and thus even though after seeing the spectacular performance of the girls, these officials do not compliment the girls, in fact they still say that the boys won the match and thus they should go to the World Championship. It is difficult to change their mind without losing face.
A mind clouded by emotion or perception has a great impact on reason and language. However, without perception, thinking will not take place and thus reasoning will not come into the picture. Thus perception is important. Similarly emotion is important as without it creative thinking and reasoning will not be possible. Without emotions life will be monotonous. Emotions serve as a part of the bases for language. Gestures and expressions are done to express emotions and thus convey the message. Without emotions, these expressions and gestures are redundant, and vice versa. Thus it will be preferable, to reason out a problem without jumping to conclusions however, emotions should not be shunned as they too play an important role in one’s life.