Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India review

Number 102 on the top 1000 films of all time is this Indian epic, sports drama film.

Set in Victorian Indian, the British Raf is in full force.  The village of Champaner is suffering from a terrible drought and to only make things worse, Champanur's commanding office, the arrogant and obnoxious Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne) imposes double Lagaan (taxes) upon the people.  When they come to protest his decision, they become captivated by the game of cricket that he and his men are playing.  After Captain Russell chastises them for interfering, the young rebel Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) insults the cricket game.  In retaliation, Captain Russell challenges the villages to a game of cricket.  If they win, he will cancel Lagaan for the next three years, but if they lose, they will have to pay triple Lagaan.  Bhuvan accepts and puts together a rag-tag team of cricketers to beat Captain Russell at his own game.

Although on the surface, this film is purely about a game of cricket, the far wider political implications are obvious.  The film was set about 30 years before the Indian independence movement in the 1920s, and it is clear that Bhuvan and the others are fighting for more than the cancellation of Lagaan; they're fighting against the unwelcome occupation of the British forces.  Even the puppet ruler, the Rajiji, comes to support Bhuvan's team.  Bhuvan also receives help from Captain Russell's sister Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) who sympathises with the Indians and aids them in their mission.  What was even more impressive was how quickly Elizabeth was able to learn Hindi, especially as she was initially relying on an interpreter.  Anyway, by setting up the film like this, the Indians are positioned as the under-dogs, and I found myself rooting for them quickly.

Lagaan had a large cast with many different characters making up Bhuvan's team, from a fortune-teller, to a doctor, to a woodchopper, to a cripple, all with their own skills to offer.  Whilst initially, they all argued and fought with each other, seeing them unite in the face of their common enemy was great to watch.

I loved the inclusion of the cripple Kachra, which I think was one of the best parts of the film.  Kacha served to expose the hypocrisy in Indian culture, as despite how they are discriminated against by the British, they themselves discriminate against Kachra, due to how he is an untouchable.  Although his deformed hand allows him to unpredictably spin the ball, the others are disgusted by the thought of him, due to his lower caste.  It is only after Bhuvan chastises them for their hypocrisy do they relent.  This occurs within one scene and I do wish they had made a bigger deal out of this.  Although having said that the fate of the team rests in Kachra's hands in the final act.

The last section of the film is dedicated to the actual cricket match and, despite how I'm not a cricket fan at all, I found this highly entertaining.  I had no doubt that the Indians would win; they were the underdogs after all and there was no way they were going to lose to the British.  Yet the match was still unbelievably close.  It was tense, which was how it's supposed to be.  The British batted first and soon rumble all of the Indian team's tactics.  And then when the Indian team bat, their batters drop like flies, leaving only Bhuvan and Kachra.  Whenever one of the Indian batters was eliminated, the pain and failure on their faces was evident.  They were so passionate about winning that I become quite excited seeing whether they would actually do it, which of course they did.  But the interesting thing was that I became as wrapped up in their battle, as the two teams did.

All this being said, the film wasn't the best Indian movie that I've seen.  That honour would go to Rang De Basanti, with 3 Idiots as a close second.  Funnily enough, Aamir Khan stars in both of these films too.  Whilst the diversity of the Indian characters was great, I do feel that the British characters were all the same and drawn very stereotypically.  Captain Russell is your daily villain with little to him, but his arrogance and impudence.  Whilst this may have been typical of the time, his character could have been far more interesting.  Having said that, it was gratifying to see his arrogance become his downfall.  When his superiors hear of the wager he has made, they tell him that he will pay triple Lagaan and be sent to Central Africa if he loses.  Right at the end of the match, Captain Russell mistakenly catches a ball that has gone beyond the boundary, thus giving the six runs that the Indians needed to win the match.

My second criticism would be all of the singing.  I've seen Indian films before and I know that the songs are part and parcel of the whole show, but I really didn't lie them here.  They were tedious and stopped the film cold.  In some cases, they felt increasingly out of place, such as when Elizabeth sings about her realisation of love for Bhuvan.

This notwithstanding, I did enjoy Lagaan.  Despite being close to four hours, it flowed well and was paced nicely, other than the singing.  Aamir Khan was great as usual and the anti-colonial message makes this necessary viewing.