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"Besides the normal medicine and doctors, the second Indian Government
relief flight that arrived here in Kabul on Wednesday morning included
several cartons of Hindi film videos and music cassettes. Among them,
pride of place was reserved for Lagaan."
--The Hindustan Times, December 13, 2001
Afghanistan
is a long way for a film to travel. But then, since its release on June
15, Lagaan has proved that if you're telling a good story, geographical
and lingual borders prove porous. In Switzerland, thousands of cineastes
watched the three-hour and 42-minute film in an open-air theatre and enjoyed
it so much that they gave it the Locarno Film Festival Audience Award.
Since then, Lagaan has travelled to festivals in Chicago (US), Toronto
(Canada), Damascus (Syria), Pusan (South Korea) and Bergen (Norway) and
been selected as India's official entry for the Oscars.
 Happily,
the film enraptured local audiences also. Industry sources estimate that
Lagaan's box office collections will touch Rs 30 crore, making it one
of the biggest hits of the year. Gadar-Ek Prem Katha, Sunny Deol's rabble
rousing Indo-Pak romance, did double the business. But Lagaan managed
that vital balance between box office and critical acclaim. A superbly
crafted story of human triumph, it turned theatres into stadiums and shook
up an industry stagnating with the decade-old feel-good family formula.
By Bollywood's conventional wisdom, Lagaan should not have made it past
Akola. The film had nothing going for it. Director Ashutosh Gowarikar
had earlier authored two flops, including one big-budget action thriller
with Aamir Khan. Apart from Khan, Lagaan had no saleable faces. And worse,
the nonentities weren't sculpted mannequins wearing Tommy Hilfiger but
sweaty faces in dhoti-kurtas. There were no songs in Switzerland, no skin
and no saccharine marriages. Only a parched village, Champaner, set somewhere
in Uttar Pradesh and a few good men who believe that, "Sach aur sahas
hai jiske man mein, jeet usi ki hogi (Honesty and courage will win)."
In fact, Lagaan is so "hatke" (Bollywoodese for different)
that four years ago, when Gowarikar narrated the story to Khan, the star
rejected it outright. "The idea of a bunch of villagers in 1893 playing
cricket to evade lagaan (levy) was not palatable on first hearing,"
recounts the actor. But Gowarikar persisted. On the second narration,
Khan agreed to play the feisty villager Bhuvan. But finding a producer
who was willing to invest in a Rs 25-crore rural period film proved more
difficult. Khan, the son of producer-director Tahir Hussain, had promised
himself that he would never produce a film. With Lagaan, he decided to
break the promise.
| PATRIOTIC FERVOUR: Though it was low on hype,
Gadar's box office collections touched Rs 60 crore, making it the
biggest hit of the year |
| Several actors tried to make the landmark film but
failed. Lagaan broke the jinx. |
Khan succeeded where many have failed. In the past few years, actors,
both big and small, have rushed into production. Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay
Devgan, Sunil Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Kamal Haasan, Jackie Shroff,
Juhi Chawla and Sunny Deol, all armed with big dreams and bigger bucks,
have tried to make the landmark film. But the good intentions haven't
translated into good cinema. Lagaan broke the jinx proving that a successful
actor can also possess the passion, daring and discipline to make a successful
film.
Of course, the question is what is Lagaan's long-term impact? Bollywood
has always believed in "bhed-chaal", a herd mentality that follows
a successful formula without asking questions. So will we see a plethora
of rural sagas or even sports-centred films? Perhaps not. Lagaan is too
difficult a proposition to emulate. Three thousand people worked for six
months in harsh conditions to create the film. It required the patience
and perseverance of a saint. For the wannabe mogul, it is far easier to
echo the successful jingoism of a Gadar or the three-hankie melodrama
of a Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
But will the Bollywood director or writer, spurred by Lagaan's originality
and vision, let his imagination run unfettered? Perhaps.
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john travolta-esque comeback:
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