It was one of those Saturday evenings when we dint know much what to do, so we decided to spend time at one of our friends place. We were surfing through the channels & the films which were getting aired on the television. Not to my surprise, there were few movies which are actually bought out by these channels like "Jab We Met" is bought by almost all the channels & there are hardly any weekend when the movie is not aired by any one of these channels. Other movies like "Welcome", "No Entry" all parts of "Golmaal" except the classic old Golmaal ofcourse, " Hero-the lone warrior" , "Deewar- Men at work", "MAST" & "Mai Hu Angrakshak/ Vinashak/ & a long a long list of Mai hu..s" some South Indian Dubbed Movies out of huge collection to name a few, etc etc, are few of them which are as happily aired as if the channels knew that no one will watch these movies so just to keep the channel running with something they run these movies. Sorry I am getting a bit carried away with the television scenario these days. One of the channel was showing Lagaan which was the best choice out of the options available even though I must have seen it n number of times. All of us unanimously agreed to continue with the movie rather than wasting time in surfing through the channels.
As we were watching the movie I thought of reviewing the movie with few new things which might not have been reviewed by so many writers, critics, viewers & I may find some thing more in the movie other than the usual so many good things which has been written & talked about. So the below are some of my observations which might make people watch it again :
1. Best thing about Lagaan is its story line with a realistic theme yet modified keeping the modern cinema in mind.
2. Ashutosh Gowarikar along with the art director/ designers created an authentic replica of pre-independence era Indian remote village & named it as Champaner of 19th century.
3. The villagers who lives in Champaner are mostly farmers, potters, blacksmiths, the Pujaris & the Vaidya or Baidh, I am not sure (doctor). All of these characters gelled perfectly in the story line.
4. Both Aamir & Gracy have really done all they could to look like a simple young yet ambitious young villager man & and a simple village girl who is very happy in her own world with Bhuvan as her Hero respectively.
5. The entire album of the movie is amazing, you can go on and on listening to these songs yet you will find them fresh every time you listen to it. The music has Rehman's class all over it & so do the lyrics of Javed Akhtar.
6. Amitabh Bachchan's narrative skills were never a question, which also makes the audience glued to there seats through out the movie, I think his voice is best utilized in this movie.
7. All the characters were so articulately chosen & portrayed that you get so absorbed into them that you tend to forget there previous appearances. For eg the Khachra (leg spinner) was associated with Ashutosh since Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa days but you do not seem to remember that till you watch the movie over & over again.
8. Apart from the above various aspects of the movie like locations / set ups / languages used / background scores, cinemetography etc etc surely played a big role in making the movie a Big Success.
9. The movie also touches base with untouchability, hindu muslim unity etc etc which are bigger issues in our country.
10. Most importantly the cricket match played between villagers & the English men steals all the lime light of the movie.
Well, well, well, I am sure after reading the above you must be thinking what are the new things which were there which are not discussed earlier, so a few of the below observation which I feel may not have been discussed a lot earlier, though it is the reader who has to decide it for himself.
1. After watching the entire match shown in the movie, I realized, they have utilized all possible aspects of the a cricket match in one single match & you have the below count for your self :
a) New ball & its inability to spin as well as showcasing its ability to spin as soon as it becomes old by a day.
b) The use of the wrist technique to spin a ball, in this case, the players handicap turns into his advantage
c) Batsman getting run out in a rare fashion of bowler touching it while on his follow up & the batsman found out of crease. (ref : Deva getting out when Bhuvan hits a straight drive)
d) Use of offensive language to distract a batsman
e) Use of "beamer" ( a full toss above batsman's waist) to dismiss Lakha (the woodcutter)
f) Double touching the ball - Guran hitting the ball twice in one go
g) Not so fair play instance 1- - when captain Russel kicks a ball to boundary to keep Aamir at the other end.
h) Not so fair play instance 2 - when the English pacer runs the young kid out as he runs before he delivers the ball ( you need to give warnings to the batsman atleast 2 times before running him out in this fashion)
i) Last ball No-ball & crossing over of batsman giving him another chance.
j) Last ball Six !! (please spare Chetan Sharma from your thoughts for a moment :-P)
2. Apart from the above I must admit that Kulbhashan Kharbanda displays amazing acting skills every time he is a part of an audience watching a thriller, he did it previously in Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander, & yet again in Lagaan, the excitement on his face is so real that you will believe literally that there is a real sports happening at the other end. hats off !!
3. The last but unique thing that we observed this time, rather my wife spotted it, was that in the song "raadha kaise na Jale" there were hell lot of strongly built men dancing around playing garaba along with Bhuvan but none of them were fit enough to ply the cricket match rather they went on with guys who were lacking stamina, old, handicapped, fortune tellers, etc etc to name a few :-) . Well if you can not spot it for like 15 or 20 time but if you spot it on 21st time, its really not a point to discuss about or pull some one up for.
Over all, hats off to Ashutosh & the Team Lagaan entertaining us on yet another weekend.
Cheers !!
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