Movie Review of Lagaan

Movie Review:

Dear Friends,

   I present my review about the film " Lagaan ". On the 15th August in my English Department organized screening play  " Lagaan " present by Dr.Dilip Barad the head of department. The writer Gowariker and Abbas Tyrewala,  producer Aamir Khan, directer of this movie Ashutosh Gowariker.

'Lagaan' which literally mean Tax (in the form of grains) is a story of ordinary people set in a small village 'Champaner' in Central India during the British rule in 1893. The tale narrates the determination of the villagers to fight against injustice and opposition.      The story goes like this...There is no rain in the village since a year. The villagers who depend on rain for farming are unable to pay the lagaan to the ruler Captain Russel. In the form of the Raja's people, who announce dugna lagaan (double tax). All because the Raja being the strong-principled vegetarian he is, refused to eat meat with a British captain.     The villagers are stumped. Only one among them, Bhuvan, is foolhardily idealistic enough to accept a dare from the captain: Win a cricket match against the fearsome British team and be exempt from lagaan for three years. Or stand to pay tiguna lagaan (three times the tax).It becomes a life or death situation for the villagers. In his escape to victory, Bhuvan garners a few homegrown talents, the poultry owner, a deaf mute, an untouchable, a Sikh, a Muslim, even the village rebel. The heavens do their bit and send Bhuvan an emissary in the form of Elizabeth, Captain Russell's sister. She offers to teach the villagers the game of cricket.

Minuses? Honestly, the script. But then, what is one to say about a film which exhausts its plot in the first two hours and 40 minutes, and devotes an hour to a cricket match? But what a match. Here's a film where you have its every thrilling feature exaggerated in melodramatic detail -- run-outs, no balls, sledging, chucking, overthrows, catches (that win matches) spin bowling... and, of course, fours and sixes galore. The cricket sequences have also been taken very well and the only drawback you can point out is its length which is a full 3 hours 40 minutes.