 {mosimage} <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial"><font size="5">S</font>hah Rukh Khan is reaping the rewards of playing it differently.  </font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">At a time, when the nation seems gripped by cricket,  the actor has chosen to play coach of an Indian women's hockey team in<span style="font-style: italic;"> Chak De India.</span><em></em></font></font></p><p><font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: bold;">It belongs to a soft-spoken man from Indore,</span> who was  sentenced to 16 years of misery and national censure only because he chose not  to speak. </font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">Pakistan beat India 7-1 in the final of the 1982  Asian Games. The blame for the collective loss came on one man --<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Mir Ranjan  Negi.</span> </font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">For a nation looking to make sense, the shocking  result, after India started as favourites, the most damning thought took root.  Someone raised his hand, pointed a finger at Negi and labelled him a  traitor.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">'He was offered one lakh for every goal he let in,'  said the Hindi edition of the now defunct newspaper <em>Blitz</em>, concluding  that the Indian goalkeeper sold himself for seven lakh rupees. </font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">There was no defence from Negi. His teammates, though  Negi assures, stood by him, did not defend him either. The Indian hockey  Federation, embarrassed by the whole situation, dropped the goalkeeper like a  hot potato. The allegations were thus justified.</font></font></p> <p><font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">&quot;Wherever I went people used to say,  </font><font size="2">'Oh! you are the one who took money',&quot; recalls  Negi.</font></font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">He never again wore the India colours. His house was  attacked. Mid-way through his wedding ceremony in Indore, power was cut-off and  the rest of the function took place in darkness.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">&quot;I cannot tell you what I went through at that time.  I was scared to go out of my house. I grew a beard so that people would not  recognise me. My relatives would take me around and introduce me as a national  goalkeeper, they did it all innocently not knowing how much it hurt  me.&quot;</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">But the soft-spoken man lived with that hurt for 16  years, never once abandoning the game that was the cause of his  downfall.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">Then, one day, came a reprise came in the form of an  offer to coach the Indian goalkeepers for the 1998 Asian Games. As fate would  have it, India won the men's gold after beating South Korea via the penalty  shoot-out. Ashish Ballal, who was not in the goalkeepers' camp and who had been  brought in on Negi's insistence, emerged hero.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">Negi then went on to help the women's hockey team win  the gold medal in 2003 Afro-Asian Games.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">But, still, none of all this success vindicated him  more than the movie <em>Chak De! India</em> has. </font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">After facing the fury of the nation, none could have  moved the country more than a film, India's biggest mass medium, on Negi's  despair and eventual triumph.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">&quot;But I don't think the movie covers even 10 per cent  of what I went through,&quot; says Negi, who not only coached the hockey players to  help them play their part to perfection, but helped the filmmakers with  visualising and making the story-boards.</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial">Even so, &quot;It is Shah Rukh Khan's film,&quot; he  insists. &quot;I don't want to be a hero.&quot;</font></font></p> <p><font><font size="2" face="Arial"><strong>Text: Deepti Patwardhan | Photograph: Reuben  NV | Excerpts from : http://www.rediff.com<br /></strong></font></font></p><!-- wml_version_ends --><!--printer_version--> 