Why ‘Lagaan’ survives at 25

Watching 'Lagaan' again 25 years later, this time in a cinema hall with his 17-year-old son, Ashvin, the author found the film even more audacious than he remembered.

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I watched Lagaan again, not on a laptop, but in a cinema hall, with my 17-year-old son Ashvin sitting beside me.

The film, set against a backdrop of drought and colonial rule, transcends a simple cricket match. It tells the story of a village forced to learn an alien game to defeat their oppressors. The author highlights how director Ashutosh Gowariker treated every detail with seriousness, from the parched landscapes of Bhuj and Kutch to the sweat and dust of the villagers. The cinematography by Anil Mehta, art direction by Nitin Chandrakant Desai, and costumes by Bhanu Athaiya all contributed to creating a lived-in world, not just a film set.

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That suggestion also carried a political memory for me. Suhasini is not only an actor from many much-loved films or serials but a public intellectual who has stood by minority rights, feminist positions and unpopular democratic causes when many others found silence more convenient.

Aamir Khan's portrayal of Bhuvan is praised as stubborn, vulnerable, and deeply democratic, rather than a superhero. Gracy Singh's Gauri is noted for her active participation, and the colonial characters, Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) and Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne), are depicted with nuanced moral complexity. The author emphasizes that the villagers – Bhura, Ismail, Deva, Guran, Bagha, Arjan, Lakha, and Kachra – are not mere supporting cast but the very essence of a subaltern resistance.

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When I first watched Lagaan 25 years ago, I was just out of college. The film was already larger than cinema to the history student in me: a village, drought, tax, cricket match, colonial wager, and a people who had to learn an alien game in order to defeat an empire at its own sport.

The film's language is also a political achievement, blending earthy speech with regional inflections rather than relying on Sanskritised Hindi. The author, influenced by his friend Suhasini Mulay's activism, sees 'Lagaan' as a powerful statement about solidarity and standing with minorities and democratic causes when power demands conformity.

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Watching it now as a father, the film felt even more audacious. Ashutosh Gowariker did not make a small film pretending to be large. He made a large film that worked because every detail was treated seriously, the landscape, bodies, sweat, dust, silences, costumes, the rhythm of village speech, carefully cast faces, and the refusal to paint poverty into postcard beauty.