Lagaan - Once upon a time in India

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Movie
German title Lagaan - Once upon a time in India
Original title Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Country of production India
original language Hindi , English
Publishing year 2001
length 224 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
script Kumar Dave ,
Sanjay Dayma ,
Ashutosh Gowariker
production Aamir Khan
music AR Rahman
camera Anil Mehta
cut Ballu Saluja
occupation

Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India (original title: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India , Hindi : लगान lagān , literally: taxes or lease ) is a multiple award-winning Indian film . It was released on June 1, 2001 and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film .

action

Lagaan is set in late 19th century India. Captain Russell ( Paul Blackthorne ), the vicious regional commanding officer of the British headquarters, oppresses the people in the region with high taxes ( lagaan ) while they are also suffering from an unusual drought . When they ask their rajah, who is making a deal with the British, for help, Russell offers the farmers of the village of Champaner a bet: he'll waive the province's taxes for a full three years if a village team can beat their men in cricket - one Sport that is previously completely unknown to the residents. However, if they lose, they will be charged triple tax. Led by Bhuvan ( Aamir Khan ) and with the help of the officer's kind-hearted sister, Elizabeth ( Rachel Shelley ), residents begin training for the game that will determine their fate.

Bhuvan only succeeds with difficulty in convincing the villagers of their chance; Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus get together in the village across all religions and castes, a blacksmith who is vaidya (doctor), a chicken farmer, and even a casteless man (because of his ingenious ball throwing technique, which he discovered by chance); After initial skepticism, the Brahmins and the mullah work together in harmony, and the village chief can finally convince even the angry Indian provincial superiors that there is a real chance of victory.

The team works very hard, and during this time Elizabeth falls in love with Bhuvan, but he cannot reciprocate her feelings because on the one hand he does not understand her, because she only confesses her love to him in English and he has actually long been in love with Gauri who is pretty jealous of Elizabeth. Lakha, who actually wanted to win Gauri over, now wants out of spite, since it is obvious that Gauri also loves Bhuvan that Bhuvan and the villagers lose this game. Even in his school days he wasn't very popular because he always played with unfair means. Lakha became a member of the team, but he secretly informs Captain Russell of the team's progress. The captain tries to prevent his sister from continuing to help the villagers, but she resists as she really loves Bhuvan and wants fair play.

Lakha purposely plays badly in the big game, which takes up almost the entire second half of the film, is hard to beat in terms of drama and is a great advertisement for the game of cricket, and so the already slim chances of winning the Indians decrease even further. On the evening of the first day of the match, however, Elisabeth observes how Lakha sneaks into her brother's British camp, and she informs Bhuvan and the villagers. The team is outraged and demands Lakha's head, but Bhuvan pardons him on the condition that he now has to do his best to prove his loyalty.

At the end of the exciting match, the village team wins in literally the last second. Not only the place, but the whole province are exempt from lagaan for three years. Everyone is happy, and Gauri and Bhuvan become a couple. The villain, Officer Russell, is transferred to Central Africa and Elizabeth returns to Great Britain disappointed.

reception

Lagaan is the most successful and according to some rankings even the best Indian film ever. It evoked enthusiastic reactions, not only on the cricket-playing subcontinent (“the greatest feelgood Hindi film ever”, “paean to the human spirit”), but also among international audiences. He received u. a. the Prix ​​du Public at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2002 and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film. In terms of direction, music, costumes and sound, he is considered to be groundbreaking.

Further projects by director and producer

In his next film Swades ( Heimat , 2004), Gowariker devoted himself to these more topical issues, now with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role. However, Swades - Heimat only met with a positive response abroad and could not build on the overwhelming success of Lagaan in India . Amir Khan then shot Dil Chahta Hai (2001), a completely different film that takes place in the city and focuses on urban youth with their friendships and love affairs.

Trivia

  • Lagaan broke some of the iron laws of Bollywood: “You shouldn't do a period movie (movie in a specific time or area); you shouldn't make a film set in the country; you should never let a movie end with a sporting competition; never dress your protagonists in dhoti and never give them a bindi (forehead ornament, also called tilak ). "
  • The film was shot in one go, whereas in India seven to eight shooting dates are usual and the actors often work on several films at the same time.
  • AR Rahman's music was almost complete at the time of shooting, while otherwise music and shooting have nothing to do with each other and only emerge gradually.
  • The main foreigner roles were filled with real foreigners who also spoke their Hindi roles themselves, either phonetically by heart (Rachel Shelley / Elizabeth: “may toomsay pyar kurnay lugee ho” instead of “main tumse pyar karne lagi ho”) or in a half Year trained (Paul Blackthorne / Capt. Russell).
  • All recordings were made on site, not in the studio.
  • Lagaan was Bollywood's most expensive film to date.
  • It was only after several attempts that Amir Khan was ready to give the script by the until then only moderately successful screenwriter Gowariker a chance, when his family also agreed to the revised script.
  • Amir Khan took on not only the role of the main actor in Lagaan , but also that of the producer.
  • In DVD sales, the film Lagaan beat the previous "eternal" record holder Sholay (1975) for the first time .
  • Lagaan was the first film to be distributed nationwide in China.
  • The main character, Aamir Khan , is a descendant of "Maulana" Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), a Persian Tajik from Herat, who led India's struggle for freedom with Gandhi and Patel, advocated the country's secularization and, as a Muslim, became India's first minister of culture has been.
  • AR Rahman, the composer of the film music, flew in from Madras to finish the composition on location Bhuj, and since he was known to work mostly at night, the British lead actress, Rachel Shelley, could hardly rest in the next room.

literature

  • Satyajit Bhatkal: The Spirit of Lagaan. The extraordinary story of the creators of a classic. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan 2002.
  • Ian Buruma: The Maharaja's Game . Munich: Hanser 1993 (English EA: Playing the Game, 1991). - A fact-based novel about the life of the most famous cricketer in England and India at the time, Jam Sahib (Maharaja) Ranjit ("Ranji") Singhji of Navanagar * 1872, r. 1906-1933).
  • Astrid Erll: Premediation - Remediation. Representations of the Indian uprising in imperial and post-colonial media cultures (from 1857 to the present. WVT Wissenschaftlich Verlag Trier, Trier 2007, ISBN 978-3-88476-862-4 .
  • Matthias Uhl. Keval J. Kumar: Indian Film. An introduction. Bielefeld: transcript 2004. pp. 52, 55 f., 153, 155.
  • Martha C. Nussbaum, Lagaan: The Sport of National Identity, in: dies., Political Emotions. Why love is important for justice. Berlin 2014. pp. 452–458.

Awards and nominations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.molodezhnaja.ch/india-best.htm , costs and box office results on ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails.asp?id=Lagaan
  2. ↑ http://www.outlookindia.com , May 12, 2003; Bhuvan's Lagaan cricket bat was auctioned in Pakistan for PKR 5 million to benefit a cancer hospital in Lahore; tribuneindia.com dated December 13, 2004
  3. ↑ This price is not mentioned in the festival program; see. http://www.pardo.ch/jahia/Jahia/home/Festival/History/lang/en/pid/1041
  4. ↑ The only two Indian films that have ever been nominated for an Oscar before were "Mother India" (1957/58) and "Salaam Bombay!" (1989); Oscar nominations
  5. ↑ Amir Khan in guardian.co.uk/film/2002/oct/27/features
  6. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/may/11/bollywood.culture