Bollywood - Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

    Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, when released in 2001, was the biggest thing to come out of Bollywood in terms of budget. Eleven years on, it still remains a superb addition to an already impressive film collection by director Ashutosh Gowariker.

    Lagaan is the tale of a resilient Indian nation fighting the tax (Lagaan) brought in by the British rule. After the British announce that the Lagaan will be doubled, an opposition is formed, and with it, a quintessentially British challenge is thought up by the Indian opposition: a game of Cricket. A game of Cricket to decide upon the Lagaan being doubled. In this heartwarming tale of the power of the united, the Indian villages are lead by a young man named Bhuvan, who leads the amateur Indian cricket team against the veteran, and creators of the game, British side.
 

    Trying to review a 3 hour and 40 minute epic film in under 300 words is a challenging task, but I will say this about Lagaan: it is engrossing, and cutting it any shorter would have been at the sacrifice of its attention to detail, the dramatic influence such as waiting for the rain to come so that the cost Lagaan can be me and beauty of the simplistic rural Indian lifestyle that came at the turn of the 20th century. Lagaan is a Bollywood blockbuster that will have you in tears, of joy and sadness, but will leave you with that warm, funny feeling that you get when you know you have seen something quite special.