Storyline

This is the story about the resilience shown by the Indians when they were under the British Rule. They are already taxed to the bone by the British and their cronies, but when Jack Russell announces that he will double the Lagaan (tax) from all villagers, they decide to oppose it. Leading the villagers is a handsome young man named Bhuvan, who challenges them to a game of cricket, a game that is to be played by veteran British cricket players, versus villagers, including Bhuvan himself, who have never played this game before, and do not even know a bat from a piece of wood. As the challenge is accepted, the interest grows and attracts Indians from all over the region, as well as the British from all over the country - as everyone gathers to see the 'fair play' that the British will display against their counter-parts, who are aided by none other than the sister, Elizabeth, of Captain Rusell.

Celebrating the 7th Anniversary of Lagaan

*See bottom of post for links to all posts from Lagaan Week *

It is one of the best films, if not the best film, in the history of Bollywood. As a standalone product, it is perhaps one of the most effective. To me, it is the driving force for restoration of faith in cinema. It is a film I am proudest of, not only as an Aamir Khan loyalist, but as a film enthusiast as well. It, ladies and gentlemen, is LAGAAN (2001). And on June 15, we celebrate seven years since its release! Seven years later, Lagaan maintains relevance across cultures, geographies, histories, politics, and revolutionism. It offers countless lessons of love, hope, faith, struggle, teamwork, collaboration, understanding, innocence, patience, and perseverance. Perhaps most importantly, it serves as a reminder of the importance of saluting belief in goodness.

My Favorite Movie
07/23/2009

I used to eschew picking a favorite movie, and when asked, would usually just offer a top five of the standards people know, or at least should know.

Ever since I first saw Lagaan (Once Upon A Time In India) in 2002, Ive been a huge fan of it. I must have seen it about 12 or 13 times.

I was reminded today of the fact that it actually taught me how to play cricket when I read this excellent article on mental_floss.

The basics of this 3:45 epic that actually has an Intermission shot to die for, is this: poor Indian farmers cant pay the tax (lagaan) to the British cantonement that rules over them (led by the Snidley Whiplash-esque Paul Blackthorne), and as the hero Bhuvan gets their gander up, a challenge is made: beat us at a game of cricket (which they know nothing about) and you can live tax free for 3 years. Lose the match, and have to pay triple tax.

I am eternally prepared to call this my favorite movie for many reasons. Theres only six songs, and theyre all good to great, as well as the choreography. The hero, played by Amir Khan, is superbly charismatic and studly, and you really believe the chemistry between him and every other player. But the cricket scenes, which occupy about 1.5 hours of screen time, are educational and fun to watch.

Overall Rating Lagaan,once upon a time in india which was released in 2001 is one amongst the best movie in our film industry and for this it was nominated to oscar awards. It was the time when britishers ruled India.At that time they suffered severe drought.Once Aamir came across britishers playing cricket and he challenged the british officer that if he wins they'ld leave that region but if he looses he would pay tax thrice the existing one. it was the greatness of the officers sister that she taught the villagers whom Aamir chose to play cricket.At the same time one amongst his friends ploted against him.Then slowly she(Elizabeth) fell in love with him.Finally the test match between britishers and villagers began.After a tough match Aamir and his team gained victory. when Elizabeth knew about Aamir's love she didnt reveal about hers.As per the challenge britishers left that region and finally it rained after a long time.Ita really an excellent movie and worthwatching. hope you liked it and enjoyed it.........thank you...!!!

Lagaan (2001)

Superstar Aamir Khan threw his production muscle, as well as his smiling face and his muscular midriff, into the most expensive epic in Bollywood history, and the result is a masterful, wonderful film. This film has it all love, jealousy, betrayal, a moustachetwirling villain, brilliant song and dance, and a climactic cricket match. In Champaner, a Gujarati village in turn of the century India, there has been no rain for many seasons and the villagers are lamenting. The cantankerous British Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne), who runs the local cantonment, is threatening to extract double land taxes - "lagaan" is the Hindi word for the tax - and the villagers can't imagine where the tax will come from with no rain and no harvest. Enter Bhuvan (Aamir). After he crosses the captain, the captain offers Bhuvan a challenge: if he and his villagers can beat the soliders at cricket, they will be absolved of the lagaan for three years. If they lose, though, they will have to pay triple lagaan. To the horror of his fellow villagers, Bhuvan accepts the challenge, and is left with the formidable task of winning the confidence of enough of them to field a side. Their practices are aided by the captain's sympathetic sister Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) who teaches them the basics of cricket - and falls for Bhuvan, to the irritation of the village beauty, Gauri (Gracy Singh), who seems to have had her heart set on Bhuvan since girlhood. As predictable as the outcome is, the film is nevertheless gripping to the very end. As Bhuvan slowly wins over the rag-tag assortment of villagers that will eventually make up the Champaner side, we get to know them in all their quirky diversity - Gauri's father, the severe Brahmin physician Ishwar (Shri Vallabh Vyas); the spirited mute drummer Bagha (Amin Hajee); the slightly insane soothsayer Guran (Rajesh Vivek); the chicken-keeper Bhura (Raghuveer Yadav) and others each bring a crafted and distinct personality to the table - and to the team. The match itself, too, is perfectly paced and thrilling, and comprehensible even to a cricket-ignorant American like myself. Philip Lutgendorf keenly observes that In Lagaan "the indigenization of cricket becomes a metaphor for the entire Indian Independence struggle." Naturally historical accuracy and dramatic subtlety bow in the service of that metaphor. So Champaner's side is a little too perfectly mixed - Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Brahmin, farmer, worker - and Bhuvan's integration of a young untouchable into the team, over the objections of the more

traditionally-oriented members, is rather heavy-handed, as is the cartoonish nastiness of Captain Russell. But none of this detracts from the utter delight of the film, driven by its rousing narrative arc, its bright yet earthy color palate, the charisma and showmanship of its principals, and its outstanding music by A.R Rahman. ("Radha kaise na jale," in which Gauri challenges Bhuvan through an allegorical telling of the mythological relationship between Radha and Krishna, is one of my all-time favorite songs). Lagaan is a remarkable film in any context - no qualification or limiting the comparison to Hindi films. Dont be alarmed by the length (almost four hours) Lagaan will suck you in from the very first number and not let you go until the last ball is thrown on the cricket pitch.

BEGINNING OF A NEW WAVE OF COMMERCIAL CINEMA!

By: pranay22 | May 24, 2007 06:23 PM pranay22 - MouthShut.com member. Read more 97 reviews.

I collected the guts today to write on my favourite film Lagaan. Trust me, its not easy at all to write on something for which you have to say a lot of things, because then it becomes increasingly difficult

I remember this film being in news before its release,because of people looking forward to it as it was going to be Aamir the ace Khans first film as a producer. But when I got to know that the plot was related to pre-Independent India, I wasnt terribly excited about this one. Patriotic films tend to bore me like always, and most of them have dissapointed me. Whether they are well made or no, they somehow dont interest me enough to spend my 3 hours of valuable time on them. The promos of this film were not even appealing to me. The music sounded such a bore and the overall look of the film wasnt interesting enough. Worse, I got to know 15 days before its release it will be based on a cricket match. For that period, I had dropped all my plans to watch this one. But I watched the film in theatre, with no feedback of viewers or reviews to back up my thoughts, and I was left completely stunned. I had never went through an experience before quite like this one, and movie watching was never the same again. Everything, and I mean everything from the basic technical aspects, whether the cinematography, performances, music and even the choreography to the story, screenplay, and direction was done so perfectly and with finesse that you dont even find faults even if you start searching for them and nitpicking. This is no exaggerration. I had done exactly that while I was watching the movie for the second time. For the starters, the story revolves around a village in Champaner district of the late 19th century (1893 to be precise) where the farmers worked hard and still struggle to make ends meet. To make matters worse, they are under pressure from the British Government to give tax or Lagaan every year. This time, they are under much greater pressure to pay tax for the previous year as well, as farmers had failed to provide tax even then because of no rain. And since rains elude this drought hitten district this year as well, they find it practically impossible to pay tax. Its then that they decide to talk to the arrogant and snobbish Captain Russell to demand for no tax. The Captain agrees to cancel the tax, but on one very strange condition. That the villagers will have to defeat the British in a game of cricket, but if they dont, they will have to pay triple the amount of tax. The brave Bhuvan accepts the challenge, with the fellow farmers ridiculing him and refusing to stand by him. Will Bhuvan succeed in convincing the villagers and beating the British at their own game? Thus begins a tale of optimism, faith, hope, grit and determination and above all unity which sends acros the message that nothing is impossible to achieve. Its not only about a cricket match but also talks about the coming together of people of different castes and religions who fight a battle without bloodshed. Its a fight for saving their honour, a fight for survival, a fight for a much better life. Right from the first frame, the film hooks you on like Feviquik and doesnt even let you want to take any breaks. The masterfully crafted elegant frames right from the opening credits till the very end were enough reasons to give it a classic feel. With Amitabhs baritone voice carrying the narrative forward, you cant help but be impressed with the effective storytelling Ashutosh adopts. The screenplay is

writtenwith panache and perfection and with Aamir supporting Ashu in that department, you cant expect anything less from the duo. Scenes keep unfolding and its not long before you realize the first half is over and its already reaching its conclusion. And when the climax is over, you keep wondering whether this film was actually longer than Mohabbatein or is it the other way round. The climax as many people would agree , is the major highlight and is absolutely stunning. Despite you knowing what the ultimate and predictable result would be, you watch every bowl being bowled and every bat being swung with butterflies in your stomach and nails in your mouth. There were portions aplenty in this portion where I felt the urge of clapping aloud and thats exactly what I did. Mind you, it takes a lot of courage to do so, but it happens only in a film as amazing as this one where you just dont care and go ahead what your heart tells you to do. And I realized that others were doing the same. Ashutosh, despite the unique storyline he had, never tried to be oversmart in his approach and opted to narrate the story in a simple format. No flashbacks attached, there no Aamir standing in the middle of the cricket field in the first scene of the film and recalling how it all began. Just pure effective storytelling. There are lots of lessons to be learned by other so called No. 1 directors from this very talented craftsman. The word entertainment in todays context is more about surprising viewers every now and then with not only a different storyline but at the same time not compromising on the entertainment factor. Apart from the cricket match, there are definitely a lot of sequences which are plain awesome, but there were two scenes which can easily be ranked amongst the best scenes of Bollywood. One of these sequences was the one when Captain Russell asks the Raja to eat meat to get his job done was amazingly directed and makes you want to hate the Captain will all your heart. Its not the Raja who was being humiliated. It was you as an Indian who felt the humiliation. Another one was the very long sequence when Bhuvan accepts the challenge of the cricket match. This is where it all began and the way Ashutosh shows the Captain increasing the offers to lure Bhuvan was superb to say the least. A most extraordinary scene. Every character,from Bhuvan to Russell to each one of the remaining 10 team members, was very well written and its obvious that the producer-director spent a lot of time on the characterization part. Every performance is applauseworthy but the one which takes the cake was Aamir Khans. This man doesnt fail to surprise with any film of his and just when you feel he couldnt get any better, he beats himself to come up with an awesome performance in this one. Watch out for him in the final 5 minutes of the match. He gets into the character as if his life depended on the cricket match. He is, to put it short, outstanding to watch out for. The film despite releasing alongwith the Blockbuster hit Gadar, held its own and went on to become a big hit. Later that year, it awept the filmfare awards and became only the third film in Indian cinema to be nominated for Oscars. It was a big success at a time when there was no multiplex culture in india. Now you can imagine what a success it would have been if it were to be released today. All the Rang Des and Lage Rahos would be Paani kum chaais in front of this. I thank Aamir and Ashutosh for the contribution they made to Indian cinema with this redifining, breathtaking film.I