LAGAAN… ONE OF THE FINEST COMMERCIALLY ART MOVIE!

By Tapan Pattani

Bhuj is a small town in Kahchch District of Gujarat. Its my hometown. I have never stayed there but in summer and diwali vacations, I use to go there with my parents and stay at dadi and nana nani house as all our relatives are in Bhuj only. I had completed my 12th Commerce in 2001 and as usual I was at Bhuj for summer vacations. I had heard that Aamir Khan had come to Bhuj with huge cast for making a movie on cricket and I was totally shocked and was laughing what a great waste this superstar is doing! How can he ever think of making a film with villagers on cricket? Aamir khan and his whole caste was staying at SAHJANAND TOWERS which was not too far from where I stayed and being a great cinemaholic and Aamir die hard fan, I just wanted to meet him! Many local artists and people from Bhuj were a part of film so I talked with them and knew the time when the cast would go or come at Sahjanand towers and one evening at around 8 clock I , my sister, my cousins, my mom and may maasi went to sahjanand towers and waited for aamir to see him! At around 9 clock , whole cast came downstairs and I saw the great Aamir Khan personally for first time! I still remember that sight of seeing all cast , aamirs first wife reena dutta . They all met us shook hands and went in their tata sumo cars for shoot. I had only one thing at that time to see Lagaan movie, only because of ARRAHMAN! My craze and liking for Rahman is beyond my life! HE is like a God to me.

Finally, the day arrived! 15th June 2001. Lagaan was released. I saw it at Aradhna Cinema at Vadodara on 18th June 2001 and was totally blown away by it! From story to music to technical aspects to performances, everything blew me up! Just sharing my thoughts on it.

Aap india main cricket ko dharm bana sakte ho cricket chalta hai tab curfew lag jaata hai, par aap cricket par film nahi bana sakte! Hindi cinema has not explored sports film much specially on a large commercial scale. Even Aamir had done a film called AVVAL NUMBER which was flop. So to produce and invest money and that too large money in not so urban and happening subject was a big risk. But that risk payed off and how! Lets analyze it.

Story : Lagaan tells a story of a village boy who takes challenge to fight with Britishers not through war, but through cricket match! Will he and villagers succeed in their mission to free their village from paying taxes? That forms the crux of the story.

Direction: From an actor of DD serials to directing 2 flop films ( Pehela nasha and Baazi ). Ashutosh Gowariker had seen a low phase of his life. But he BOUNCED back with Lagaan and proved he is one of the finest storytellers of our time! Director is CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP and to control such a huge cast and crew including British actors is not an easy task. Lagaan is totally Ashutosh’s baby and he created one of the finest films of Hindi Cinema ! His Control on the craft is totally evident! Through lagaan he proved once more that CONTENT IS THE KING!

Music: When you have ISAI PAYUL and MOZART OF MADRAS in your team with such a challenging subject, We expect nothing but the best! And yes, ARRAHMAN gave ONE OF HIS BEST in lagaan as far as hindi films of him are concerned. Every song is gelled in to gold with flavor of LOK SANGEET and proper use of orchestra and RAHMAN STAMP is evident on it. ARRAHMAN received many awards including the coveted National Award for LAGAAN

Lyrics: From giving angry young man to hindi cinema to writing finest deshbhakti songs, JAVED AKHTAR has given us all! LAGAAN proved yet again that he is one of the best Poet we have today! He also received National Award and many awards.

Playback Singers: Udit Narayan and alka yagnik gave one of their best and all other singers also gave their best! Udit Narayan also received National Award for MITWA song

Cinematography: Sanjay Leela Bhansali s debut film KHAMOSHI introduced to us ANIL MEHTA, one of the finest cinematographer we have today! Anil Mehta also gave his best and received National award for it. Note the Ghanan ghanan song: From starting of music to first antra, the whole sequence is shot in single shot without breaking the scene! That’s the mastery of ANIL MEHTA!

Art Direction: Nitin Desai made a huge village at Kunraiya for lagaan.

Performances : Lagaan gave bunch of talents to hindi cinema! Every actor played his part with utmost perfection! Akhilendra mishra , yashpal Sharma, dayashankar pandey, rajesh vivek, raj zutshi, aditya lakhia raghuveer yadavji , all gave their best! Many actors out of this became a household name and they got their real due after this film!

Lagaan also introduced a superb talent who worked in tv called Gracy Singh. She gave her best to film. Sadly , her career did not took off much after that. And What we can say about the perfectionst AAMIR KHAN! Aamir is one of the finest actors of hindi cinema and proved yet again that his choice of films are unique.

Some unique things about lagaan:

Lagaan reintroduced the long forgotten SYNC SOUND system in hindi cinema. Lagaan also somewhat reintroduced the Assistant Director culture and their importance during making of film. Lagaan is also probably last film where Bhuj people can find complete structures lke Aaina Mahal and prag mahal which were partially destroyed after massive earthquake.

Overall: Hindi cinema will always remember LAGAAN ! But if anyone is real hero of film, it is Ashsutosh Gowarikar! His vision, dedication , thinking out of the box, is unique . No doubt it was AAmir khan also who could only have backed the project and gave director complete freedom ! The films like Lagaan are made once in a lifetime!

PS: Lagaan for me is my most DIL ke kareeb film! I can write about it many many more articles and will try to explore more on this .