Lagaan

All you Bollywood enthusiasts, step right up! Oh, there probably aren't many of you because so few Bollywood films get shown in this country. Bollywood is one of India's film industries, producing musicals or more precisely highly- melodramatic films with musical numbers in them. Your first taste of Bollywood may leave you scratching your head (i.e., why are these so popular?), so I recommend you start with this film. While the film is not perfect, it is the closest thing to a perfect musical epic (perhaps that's unique; I can't think of another example). The film is set during Victorian times when the British still controlled India. The British imposed a tax upon Indian citizens known as lagaan, i.e., a portion of what was produced off the land went to the British "protectors." The film tells the tale of one village's farmers who protest a double lagaan decree, and in so doing are manipulated into playing a game of cricket with the soldiers of their protectorate to determine whether they pay the lagaan or not (depending on whether they win or not). I suppose this may seem like a frivolous way to portray how India stood up to British rule, in a (very!) different way from films like Gandhi. However, the film contains those same elements of perseverance, courage and hope plus a suspenseful, rousing game of cricket to boot. (Yes, that does seem oxymoronic. You'll just have to trust me on this.) There isn't any way NOT to learn the basics of cricket, since much of the second half of this nearly 4 hour film is the game itself. You may also get to the first musical number in the film and want to throw up your hands or at least sneer at the choreography. Beware. Those tunes are extremely catchy. You may find yourself wandering around the house for the next week humming the tunes and wishing you knew enough Hindi to sing along.

year: 2001
length: 224 min.
rating: 4.0
review written: May 7, 2003
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169102/combined