Rebuttal Marathon UpdateLagaan: Once Upon A Time In India Lagaan, one of only three Indian films to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar, applies the famed Bollywood style to a story of fighting against colonial oppression. In this case, the oppression is in the form of heavy taxes (Lagaan) that a village is behind on. Desperate to be free of the this burden, they negotiate with the British overseer a double-or-nothing wager over a game of cricket. If the Indians (who do not know the game) win, they are freed from their burden for two years but if they lose, they owe triple taxes. And so the film goes a bit like a sports film, watching the village learn how to play and ultimately the decisive cricket match. Not only is the film dramatically effective, it is a very good introduction to cricket, for those who are not familiar. You learn alongside the village. Lagaan would likely have a secure place in any Top 5 Sports Films list of mine. I like that the tax based anti-British colonialism has shades of America's own revolutionary struggle in it; only India got a nationally beloved sport out of it and we got teabaggers.
Let's play the Feud.
Top 3 Answers are on the board. Here is the question...
Name a reason why Bollywood movies don't play well in the United States.
1. Too Much Singing and Dancing
2. They're just too damn long.
3. Melodrama
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Lagaan is one of the Top 10 Bollywood films ever made. It's certainly the best one I've ever seen. I studied them when back in 2001 I worked as an Assistant Director on the film Kaante. The Assistant to the Director (completely different job) gave me this insight. "95% of all Bollywood films suck. But they're very popular because they give people what they want to see." So how does this apply to Laagan?
Laagan is definitely a crowd pleaser, the first half is entertaining in much the same way as Ocean's 11. The village is made up of a lot of fun people and it's enjoyable watching them come together to defeat those stiff upper lip chappies who think they're so much better just because they wear buttoned shirts and speak the Queen's. The villain is in the mold of Snidley Whiplash, just a couple of steps more subtle than The Duke from Moulin Rouge. You really want to see him get his.
And the town had won me completely over Julie Andrews style. A long overdue rain is coming and the village sings out in joy for about 5 minutes, only to notice that the clouds are passing over. ("We started celebrating too early.") Loved it. Actually, I loved all the music, and if I was to cut the film down from its 224min running time, I wouldn't be cutting the songs. I was disappointed there wasn't a song about how to play cricket. Every time the townsfolk would practice, this wonderfully bouncy score would come in and I was primed for a happy cricket song. But it's just a tease.
BTW, that wasn't a typo. Laagan is 3 hours and 44 minutes. And one of my big complaints is that it's really too damn long. I find that Bollywood films tend to over explain everything. They really want to make sure you can follow the plot. So when the Colonel tells the Captain he'll be paying the taxes if Britain loses, the Captain says it back. Then the Captain tells his friend. There's a lot of this stuff slowing down the momentum. Like the shot above. That isn't just a publicity photo. The group naturally line up like that. Then the camera cuts in and pans across the group one at a time. I'm thinking "We Get It!". To its credit, you might not notice this since the film does move along at a fairly nice clip. But when I know a film is pushing 4 hours, I start wondering why, and I start thinking about what can be cut.
Where I really felt the length was in the cricket match, which takes up most of the final 90min. (It's a movie unto itself.) Because the cricket is given a lot of time, like Bondo said, it makes for a very good intro to the game. But Laagan also shows how uncinematic cricket can be. I mean it's a fairly dull game to shoot, and because of the way it's scored there's very little tension until the final 15 minutes. On top of that, I didn't get any unexpected moments or truly nifty payoffs. It's a fairly square depiction. There's a character who throws a wicked curve ball, but on the 1st day of the game he can't make it happen. Then a couple of days later, with no explanation, he has his curve back. I started missing Shaolin Soccer, whose big game takes the exact opposite approach. And while Stephen Chow style wouldn't work here, I appreciate his creativity.
As for the melodrama, I had a couple of problems with that. The woman pictured above is Rachel Shelley. (Any fans of "The L Word"?) I liked her screen presence and at first really liked her character. She encourages Aamir Khan, who leads the Indian cricket team, and raises jealousy in a local girl who's hoping to marry Khan. It's very cute and there's a great number about the jealousy that I thought solved the issue. Then the film moves the colonial woman into a love triangle. The Indian couple sing this lovely song, and then it cuts to Shelly saying how's she's also in love. It really soured me on her, and the whole thing is filmed like we're supposed to be swept up in her romance as well.
This is not right.
There's also a subplot about a traitor among the villagers. His reasoning always seemed a bit unclear and when he's found out and faces down Khan, it's over the top. Like something you would've seen Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke do back in the 80's.
When Laagan reached its Intermission, it was destined for the Top 100, and I it's still a must for anybody looking to experience some Bollywood. I could cut out about 45-75min and not lose any sleep, and what I cut would still be more interesting than any 30min of The New World.
Added to My Top 100:
68. In America (oldkid)
84. Good Night, and Good Luck
100. The Merchant of Venice (smirnoff)
Recommend:
Children Underground
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Deep Water
Devils on the Doorstep
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
High Fidelity
Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India
Man Push Cart
The Woodsman
Somewhat Like/respect:
25th Hour
Food Inc.
Goodbye Lenin!
The Return
Sweet Sixteen
Together
Vera Drake
XXY
Did Not Care For:
Children of Men
Dans Paris
Das Experiment
Duck Season
Kontroll
Morvern Callar
Taxidermia
To Be and To Have