Lagaan: Once upon a Time in India (Widescreen)

To be completely honest, I had no idea that I was in for an almost 4-hour Bollywood musical when I first began Lagaan. The second the movie began, I was in a mild state of culture shock. Lagaan was to be my first "Bollywood" film. Seeing 19th-century poor Indians in their full atire was very shocking to begin with, but when they began their song and dance, I was hypnotized by this unfamiliar territory. I did not know Lagaan was a musical. My husband looked at me in disbelief when the music began. As strange as it was to me at first, the movie began to grow on me as I became involved in the story and the dilemma the poor farmers faced as the ruling British forced a harsh tax on the Indians. Lagaan is the Indian word for land tax. The local British cantonment is controlled by a snobby arrogant Captain Russell, who passes on the news that there will now be double Lagaan. The farmers of course protest, as there has been a severe drought. Captain Russell offers the head of the protest, Bhuvan, a chance to waive the taxes for the next three years if they beat him and 10 other British soldiers at a game of Cricket. However, if they lose, the lagaan will be tripled. Captain Russell's sister, Elizabeth, sneaks behind the captain's back and teaches the Indians the rules of the game. What follows is a lengthy three-day match. Will they win or will they lose? Watch to find out!

LAGAAN was released in the video stores a few days before it was released in the theatres and probably this fluke will encourage more people to take advantage of this beautifully produced epic Indian film. Subtitled "Once Upon a Time in India" this luxuriously photographed movie presents the struggle between Indian vilages and the occupying British Colonialists at he turn of the last century. And while the message of supression by outside forces is dealt with in a strong manner, LAGAAN seems more interested in informing us about the magic of Indian living by means of dialogue in Hindi and English and in spectacularly staged musical and dancing numbers that are so integrated into this film that they never appear like superfluous add-ons. The actors are all excellent, the panorama of India is brilliant, and the messages about the caste system, British "superiority" as displayed in a game of cricket that takes the whole of the last half of the film, and village togetherness play well indeed. Actor/Producer Aamir Khan proves a handsome, vital, fine dancing presence that binds together this 3 and 3/4 hour epic and makes it all move fast! Now to visit the theatre and see it where it belongs - on a very large and panoramic screen! Highly recommended in informative.

I am still in the toe dipping stage when it comes to seeing Bollywood musicals. I would say that my first one was "Bride and Prejudice" except that it was made in England and not India, so the correct answer would be "Dil Se..," which I checked out because I was hooked on the song Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya," which Spike Lee used at the start of "Inside Man." I picked "Lagaan" as my next Bollyhood film because it appeared to be the highest rated one I could find, and had the reputation of being the most expensive and successful Bollywood film ever made when it came out. After having spent an entire afternoon watching it I can certainly understand why it has such a lofty reputation.

The full title of the film is "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India," which I did not know at the time I watched it. That revelation is intriguing because it fosters an implicit comparison between this 2001 film from director Ashutosh Gowariker and the Sergio Leone movies "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in America" (but not the Robert Rodriguez film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"). The setting is a small village in the north of India in 1893, when the country is under the rule of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The land has been suffering from drought for over a year and the villagers and their Raja wants to be exempted from the crippling tax ("lagaan") that they owe the British government. The snobbish Captain Andrew Russell (Paul Blackthorne) makes a counter-offer: the village can play his cricket team. If the villagers win they will not have to pay the lagaan for three years, but if the English team wins they will have to pay three-times the lagaan. Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), a young farmer, takes the bet to the dismay of his friends and the rest of the village, only one of whom has ever played cricket before. But the villagers have an unexpected ally in Russell's sister, Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley), who knows the bet is unfair and decides to help teach Bhuvan and the others the game. Elizabeth is clearly smitten with Bhuvan, much to the consternation of Gauri (Aamir Khan), the young woman who assumes Bhuvan is her intended.

Bhuvan is oblivious to his being the point in common on this particular love triangle, because his attention is first and foremost on the big match. One of the reasons that this movie runs three hours and forty-four minutes is because it devotes the last third of the film to the cricket match. The cricket match takes several days to play, so it makes sense that the last third of the film is all about the match. Now, it could be that the idea of watching a movie where the final conflict is a really long cricket match might dissuade you from seeing the movie more than the fact it is almost four hours long with subtitles because most of the dialogues and songs are in Hindi. But since the villagers are learning the game that allows those of us in the audience who have never seen a cricket match to pick up enough to appreciate what is happening at the end. This is of no small importance because the rules of cricket come into play several times throughout the match, as do the particular characteristics of the various villagers on the cricket team, and I ended up like that part of the film more than the charming practice of breaking into giant production numbers periodically throughout the film (including the best training montage set to music since the original "Rocky"). So there are plenty of reasons for wanting to check out this film, even if you cannot watch it all in one sitting (but there is an Intermission and a opportunity to make dinner in which curry would be the dominant spice).

In terms of special features there is only one "Unseen Scene" included on the DVD, but it runs over 17 minutes. I have been trying to figure out if it was cut because somehow having a movie run four hours and one minute instead of three hours and 44 minutes makes bad economic sense for movie theaters in India, or if it is because in setting up one of the key parts of the big match it might give away too much, or maybe because Captain Russell goes beyond the pale in his treatment of Elizabeth. The deleted scene reinforces the interesting idea that there is a clear line of demarcation between Russell's cricket team and the rest of the English in India. It is Elizabeth who articulates the idea that what her brother is doing is not fair, but Russell's commanding officers believe in fair play as well. Notice their behavior during the match and how they applaud the best of both teams, as if they did not have a vested interest in the outcome. The irony that the English players who pride themselves on being great sportsmen are lousy sports is pretty blatant and ultimately we dismiss them as racist caricatures. That is a minor complaint all things considered (which would include the history of British colonialism on the sub-continent), because "Lagaan" is pretty entertaining. No wonder it has the reputation it enjoys.