Lagaan

The great Indian formula is back. Just when the Hindi film industry was gaspingdesperately for a breath of fresh cinematic air, an insider, someone part of the crazydilution of form and content that overtook Bollywood in the '90s, appears to havebailed the lot out. Lagaan is the kind of movie that sets trends—spread overmore than three and a half hours, it's able to hold viewer attention by the sheerpace of its narrative. Slow, languid, even seemingly tepid in parts, the story isfine-tuned like a piece of Dhrupad music. The transitions are sharp and slick—yetthey do not jolt or shock. It revives the classical predictability of Indian aesthetics;it also resurrects the old, solid hero, the perfect, albeit cocky nayak of Indian folkstories.

Ironically, the fictitious hero is actually presented as someone lost to history. Thefilm treads the thin borderline between fantasy and reality—the love of a goodcontest, especially between underdogs and the privileged, is part of Indianaudience's folk culture. By introducing the cricket element in the great stand-offbetween peasants and the British, Ashutosh Gowarikar's team successfully merges thebelievable with the unbelievable, the present with the past. The game becomes an excusefor one long display of Hindi belt gumption and élan. In this sense too, Lagaan breaksthe ddlj, hahk-type of mould. It is not a love story—despite the presence of GracySingh and Rachel Shelley as part of an understated love triangle, the familiar mush isabsent. Craggy, uncouth peasants, as well as the heat and dust of their environment,dominate the screen. There are no city-slickers or exotic songs shot in Europe. Eventhough some A.R. Rehman songs are add-ons, his overall music, especially the backgroundscore, is incredibly simple and effective. Performances too are in sync with thestory's feel, though one would have liked a more rounded treatment for Shelley'scharacter.

There are also no major family emotions—the community, in fact, replaces it. Aftera long time—memory stretches back to the Dilip Kumar of Aan—you havethe hero leading, and making, a community. Here Aamir's character, who stands up tothe British, brings together disparate strands of caste, religion, class and individual attitudes. While enacting a personal-social drama in a village, he anticipates the way the freedom movement evolved.