Lagaan (2001)

लगान

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 moustache-twirling 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.  Don’t 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.

Comments

[Daddy's Girl]

While Lagaan isn't one of my favourites, it is a beautifully-made film, and I love that your review pinpoints the thing I love most about it - the depth of the characterization. I love the way the characters in the cricket team are fleshed out - I love the fact that they were not overlooked as 'minor'.

[maxqnz]

Another excellent review, as usual. I love this film for the reasons you've outlined above, but also because I love cricket. Having grown up with the game and with India's traditional excellence in what is almost the subcontinent's unfying religion, I loved watching a film that showed Indians having to learn about the game which now seems inborn to them. Lest anybody think that I am overstating this, of the eight major cricket nations in the world, only one, Australia, has no desis in its team, while most have several.

The other great thing about Lagaan is the soundtrack. I _adore_ this soundtrack, and despite my overwhelming preference for older films and their songs, O Paalanhaare is one of my top 5 favourite Hindi tracks. So it was great to read another favourable review from a non-cricket fan. Especially since you noticed the same little flaws that irked me slightly - especially the implausibly easy acceptance of the Dalit. Russell's cnastiness was cartoonish, but I thought that was likely deliberate, in much the same way Shylock's OTT villainy was likely written the audience in mind.

[bollyviewer]

Lagaan is one of my favorite movies and I love how you've pinpointed what makes it so great inspite of its corny storyline. It is patriotic without indulging in patriotic rhetoric, it is a period drama that doesnt go overboard with glitter and glamor (like Jodha Akbar, for example), it delivers the requisite quota of social messages - religious and caste unity - and still keeps you glued to the seat till the last scene. Radha kaise na jale is one of my all time favorites, too. The music, the lyrics, the choreography - all come together to make a song that could belong to the golden '50s and '60s. I thought Russel's nastiness, though a bit over the top, was in tune with the general melodrama and larger-than-life characters. Elizabeth's falling in love with Bhuvan did jar, though. The story didnt need it and there was no justification for the character to do so. It was almost as if Bhuvan needed to be annointed hero by every character in the movie who would either hate or love him!

[Errol D. Alexander]

I just discovered Lagaan as a film a few months ago. Arguing about sport and culture over a few drinks when a native British friend, exclaimed " You really don't understand the beauty, the toughness, and the challenge of our game, cricket. You after living in United Kingdom all those years. Get a DVD of that movie Lagaan and learn a thing or two about the sport."

And so I did. It not only gave me some insights on the technical points of the game, but on the uneasy relations of The British vs. the India population. In other parts of the world, natives complain how missionaries supported by armies arrived on their shores with bibles in their hands, culture in their brain and left with the ownership of land in their back pocket,a list of laws for their right to rule in their breast pocket and wealth in their side pockets. Some say that in India, it was different as the British did what other countries did not do, they allowed India to keep their religions.

The movie is about courage, racism, myths-breaking and oppressed people fighting back without guns, but with sheer determination. Lagaan is the Hindi word for taxes. How the tax paying requirement of the natives in a particular village and the playing of cricket become the plot is one reason to see the movie. The villian British officer, being played by Paul Blackthorne, with so much relish that it is worth seeing and hating him upfront. While, the female English Rose-good Samaritian part, played by the beautiful actress Rachel Shelley, dazzled us with her cool beauty and bleeding heart, it did not feel or look right. I can see why a few tender scenes about her one-sided love toward one of a lesser social position were cut. These scenes neither explained or added to the story. A couple examples were weak such as her reasons to turn against family, customs, laws and her country to help these poor village natives win. Plus the fact she was going to leave them not knowing if they won the game or not, until her brother forced her to stay. These things ring false, but retelling of a supposed true story from the 1890's is movie magic at its best. Even though, the characters were overdone in a literary sense and overcooked in an acting sense, the story was perfect to the palate, colorfully presented for the eye and satisfied one's sense of fair play. In short, it is the human spirit raising against adversity. Perhaps too many Hindi songs for me as a western movie fan, but even with a predictable plot with a foregone happy ending, it is movie-seeing at its best. The Cricket game became a metaphor in many ways about the relationship between India and the British and indicated how the natives in the future would seek to beat the British at their own devices, whether it is cricket-playing, acting-speaking, law-making, dressing, and thinking like them: one tried to be British. The exceptions maybe how their female dressed, the music sounded and food tasted, but everything else was better to be a British-look alike in the minds of the natives. All in all a smashing movie. Yes, I learned the differences between bowling, pitching and batting..how they score and why it takes so darn long to play a game. Also how exciting it can be as a sport to watch. Cheers EDA