Every since this movie has set cash registers ringing at the box office, every little (and large) corporations and businesses have co-opted this film title for every effort of theirs.
Take for instance, the sloppily organized get-together event called 'Chake De .... 2008' by an organization where my wife works. The invitation card promised games, food, dinner, etc.. But all that it finally gave after four hours was mild irritation of the bowels and angst over the type of people you occasionally come across in Chennai.
We reached the venue, The Guindy Race Course, by scooter. Thankfully, we didn't take the bus that was supposed to take us there from the office. The function started off nearly 40 minutes late after the employees began arriving in droves in buses hired by the organization. We waited for my wife's two acquaintances and then entered the venue. But the first thing that struck me with people there was that - most had come there only for the food and cared little for anyone for anything.
Most didn't seem to even a pretence of etiquette at the food stall as well as while watching the performances that were held to enthrall the audience. What irked us the most were three extremely obese women who shamelessly flaunted their girth.
As people forgot the system of queue and began rushing at the food stall, I watched in wonderment as these three women steamrolled past other men, children, and women at the food stall.
Using the mighty girt to their magnificent benefit, they shoved aside men, women and material aside with gusto. Using every inch of their body as battering rams, they effectively ploughed through mass of hands and bodies and continued to hog plate after plate until their large appetite was satiated. We watched in amazement, plates of pani puri, behl puri and other food items seemed to be consumed in no time.
Once these three Ms Sunshines finished their food hunt, off they went to sit in between the rows of chairs and chattered loud and merrily. We watched in amusement as the award ceremony stretched for nearly two hours with names being called and the top management honchos continued congratulating themselves and winning the award in turns.
Once this tom-foolery concluded, the only piece of interesting item was the mimicry piece by Badva Gopal. Once done there was Housie-Housie which stretched for nearly an hour. Finally, dinner was announced at 10 pm. But by the time we were at the counter, people had begun to crowd around the plates. The general mayhem seemed a repeat of the scene near the food stall.
Both of us had sip of soup which tasted like sour orange syrup and appeared like water from the dish washer. Disgusted and fuming, we left the venue and had a spartan dinner at Sarvana Bhavan in T.Nagar.
Never again we promised, shall we ever waste time on corporate-sponsored family get-together.
