Popular cinema is considered as a reflection of the social set up.

The
characters, role play and the storyline is designed and weaved around the
perspectives that exist in the society, the paradigms which have developed
based on the discourses that exist and the predicament which comes into play
as a result of conflicts in the system. This article aims to explore how
contextual differences bring about changes in the otherwise similar plot in
movies. To understand this, two movies namely Chak de! India and Miracle
have been taken, both of which are based on the discourse of sports. Sports
represent a miniature form of society which has rules similar to social norms
and positions similar to role divisions in society. Chak de India is based on the
story of how a former captain of Indian Hockey team, who was treated as a
‘traitor’, prepares a team of 16 girls for the World cup and makes them win or
leads them to victory. Similarly, Nelson Mandela, the legendary South African
activist and politician who died Thursday at 95, stands as one of the 20th
century's most notable figures for his efforts to end apartheid. And while he
used a combination of methods to dismantle South Africa's system of
institutionalized racism, sports ranked high on the list. Mandela realized the
transformative and unifying power of sports, and used that power to make
changes that protests and diplomacy could not.

Mandela was a driven athlete, an amateur boxer who ran two hours every
morning as a young man. He kept himself in excellent shape during his 27
years in prison. But it was a sport to which he had little attachment which
would change his life and cement his legacy.

The key moment in Mandela's sporting life, as John Carlin of Sports Illustrated
noted, was the 1995 Rugby World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mandela had been sworn in as president of South Africa only the year before,
the nation's first black president, and there were plenty of heavily armed
whites who were none too pleased with the tides that had changed their entire
existence. The possibility of rioting, or worse, loomed large over the match
between South Africa and New Zealand. As Mandela would say later, it was
the most nervous he'd ever been in his life, even more so than the morning in
1962 where a captured Mandela would be sentenced to either life in prison or
death by hanging.
Mandela had threaded a needle in the dark. In 1992, South Africa had been
awarded the Rugby World Cup, and Mandela allowed the competition to
proceed, even though rugby was a decidedly white-leaning sport. The South
African national team, the Springboks, had only one nonwhite player, and
blacks hated the team for many reasons, seeing their green jerseys as
symbols of apartheid repression.

But Mandela convinced the nation to pull together as one and root for the
Springboks, in part because of one astonishingly brave gesture: before a
crowd of 65,000 that was almost completely white, Mandela strode onto the
field wearing a Springboks jersey. The crowd, silent at first, began chanting
"Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!"

South Africa would go on to win the game, and South Africans both black and
white celebrated the victory. Mandela had not just passed a test, he'd
rewritten it ... and in so doing, created a new, more hopeful future for his
nation.

“Sport has the power to change the world,” Mandela said. “It has the power to
inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks
to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once
there was only despair. It is more powerful than the government in breaking
down racial barriers.”

Chak De! India goes beyond the discourse of sports and tries to present many
different facets of Indian society through this sports drama. It explores the
religious divide, how India Pakistan partition has created a deep-rooted divide
and animosity between people of two communities who shared cordial
relations with neighbours before that. It also brings forth the regional
prejudices and the prevalent perceptions about the people who hail from less
developed parts of the country. This movie also brought paradigm shifts that
are taking place in the role of women in the society where now girls have
become self-dependent, educated and are participating equally with men in all
walks of life. This has led to the family versus career fight which is a
predicament to the age-old belief that girls only take care of the home. Casting
is also done to appeal to the general public, as unlike established stars as
players, girls from different regions, speaking different languages,
representing different cultures were chosen to represent the diversity which
exists in India. Also, they were shown as timid in the beginning but later they
break all the shackles of stereotypical perceptions about girls. Chak de! India
depicts the modern-day India where lies a blend of ‘modernity’ and orthodox
beliefs. On one aside animosity between India and Pakistan still exists which
got aggravated after the Kargil war, on the other hand, it depicts how the
gender bias is taking another turn and women are coming forward in all the
fields. But there was also a depiction of power-play where the main hero of
the movie is still a ‘man’, the coach in this case who didn’t play the match
directly unlike those 16 girls. In Chak de!, when Indian team lost to the
Pakistan team and in good sportsman spirit Kabir Khan (the coach) shook
hands with the Pakistani player, this gesture became a highlight and everyone
considered him a traitor, a reason behind the loss of the game despite his
brilliant performance in the past. So to prove that everyone was wrong, when
he became the coach he tried to imbibe that feeling of belonging to Indian in
all the players which are also visible from the dialogue-“Mujhe states ke naam
na sunai deti hai na dikhai dete hai … sirf ek mulk ka naam sunai deta hai I-N-
D-I-A.”Also the fact that India was once colonized by the British has still not
been forgotten by Indians and performing better than them gives a sense of
satisfaction to the National pride. This can be seen in the movie when in the
World Cup the coach said, “Pehli baar kisi gore ko India ka tiranga lehraate
hue dekh raha hoon” The two movies also differ in the discourse of gender.
Chak de! India unlike