HOCKEY HOPES: Rama Shaw (left) practises her stickwork at a Behala ground. Picture by Amit Datta

Rama Shaw has a screen tryst with her hero Shah Rukh Khan this weekend. The 19-year-old daughter of a vegetable vendor in Behala is all geared up to catch Chak De India in Ajanta cinema — not just because it’s SRK’s latest film, but also because it’s about women’s hockey. For, the student of economics has been playing the game since she was in Class V.

Dolly Das is waiting to catch Shah Rukh and his ‘Team India’ on Friday. The 28-year-old gave up cricket 10 years ago to pursue a career in hockey. The centre-forward has been a regular in India colours and also skippered Bengal.

Rama, Dolly and many other women hockey players in town are eagerly awaiting the release of Chak De India, praying for star intervention to resurrect the sport that has fallen on hard times in this part of the world.

“For years not a single new player has made it to the national team from here. With Chak De, there will surely be some recognition for the sport,” says Dolly of Chinsurah, where her family is engaged in repairing broken utensils.

Chak De India finds Shah Rukh playing Kabir Khan, a disgraced hockey star who comes back from the dead to coach the national women’s team. The Yash Raj film is caught in a distribution dispute in Calcutta, with Fame (Hiland Park) being the only multiplex assured of screening it. Till late on Wednesday, INOX (Forum and City Centre) and 89 Cinemas were lobbying hard to get into the game.

But the screen scrap has left untouched the girls practising their stickwork near the East Bengal grounds. Instead, the fact that Shah Rukh’s team comprises players from various walks of life who battle various odds has become a talking point during cool-off. “I have to travel to Calcutta from Rishra every day for my practice sessions but cannot allow anything to come between me and my game,” declares Arpita, 18, who gives tuitions to fund her sporting dreams.

Rama of Behala is more belligerent: “Hockey is a national sport and yet in buses and trains, people ask me what sticks I am carrying and whether I use them to play the drums. Would somebody ever say such a thing about a cricket bat?”

Chak De, hope Rama and the rest, should change that.