'Success of Lagaan and Gadar shook up Bollywood stagnating with feel-good formulas'

"Besides the normal medicine and doctors, the second Indian Government relief flight that arrived here in Kabul on Wednesday morning included several cartons of Hindi film videos and music cassettes. Among them, pride of place was reserved for Lagaan." - The Hindustan Times, December 13, 2001PATRIOTIC FERVOUR: Though it was low on hype, Gadar's box office collections touched Rs 60 crore, making it the biggest hit of the yearAfghanistan is a long way for a film to travel. But then, since its release on June 15,Lagaanhas proved that if you're telling a good story, geographical and lingual borders prove porous.In Switzerland, thousands of cineastes watched the three-hour and 42-minute film in an open-air theatre and enjoyed it so much that they gave it the Locarno Film Festival Audience Award. Since then, Lagaan has travelled to festivals in Chicago (US), Toronto (Canada), Damascus (Syria), Pusan (South Korea) and Bergen (Norway) and been selected as India's official entry for the Oscars.Happily, the film enraptured local audiences also. Industry sources estimate that Lagaan's box office collections will touch Rs 30 crore, making it one of the biggest hits of the year. Gadar-Ek Prem Katha, Sunny Deol's rabble rousing Indo-Pak romance, did double the business. But Lagaan managed that vital balance between box office and critical acclaim. A superbly crafted story of human triumph, it turned theatres into stadiums and shook up an industry stagnating with the decade-old feel-good family formula. By Bollywood's conventional wisdom, Lagaan should not have made it past Akola. The film had nothing going for it. Director Ashutosh Gowarikar had earlier authored two flops, including one big-budget action thriller with Aamir Khan. Apart from Khan, Lagaan had no saleable faces. And worse, the nonentities weren'tsculpted mannequins wearing Tommy Hilfiger but sweaty faces in dhoti-kurtas. There were no songs in Switzerland, no skin and no saccharine marriages. Only a parched village, Champaner, set somewhere in Uttar Pradesh and a few good men who believe that, "Sach aur sahas hai jiske man mein, jeet usi ki hogi (Honesty and courage will win)." HALL OF FAMEMost forgettable film: YaadeinLeast hyped film to end in a bang: Gadar-Ek Prem KathaFace most likely to inspire wannabes: Tusshar KapoorMost overrated actor: Kareena KapoorMost underrated actor: TabuMost John Travoltaesque comeback: Sunny DeolMost promising auteur: Farhan AkhtarBollywood's current God: Aamir KhanMost hyped film to end in a whimper: AsokaIn fact, Lagaan is so "hatke" (Bollywoodese for different) that four years ago, when Gowarikar narrated the story to Khan, the star rejected it outright. "The idea of a bunch of villagers in 1893 playing cricket to evade lagaan (levy) was not palatable on first hearing," recounts the actor. But Gowarikar persisted. On the second narration, Khan agreed to play the feisty villager Bhuvan. But finding a producer who was willing to invest in a Rs 25-crore rural period film proved more difficult. Khan, the son of producer-director Tahir Hussain, had promised himself that he would never produce a film. With Lagaan, he decided to break the promise. Khan succeeded where many have failed. In the past few years, actors, both big and small, have rushed into production. Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, Sunil Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Kamal Haasan, Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla and Sunny Deol, all armed with big dreams and bigger bucks, have tried to make the landmark film. But the good intentions haven't translated into good cinema. Lagaan broke the jinx proving that a successful actor can also possess the passion, daring and discipline to make a successful film.Of course, the question is what is Lagaan's long-term impact? Bollywood has always believed in "bhed-chaal", a herd mentality that follows a successful r formula without asking questions. So will we see a plethora of rural sagas or even sports-centred films? Perhaps not. Lagaan is too difficult a proposition to emulate. Three thousand people worked for six months in harsh conditions to create the film. It required the patience and perseverance of a saint. For the wannabe mogul, it is far easier to echo the successful jingoism of a Gadar or the three-hankie melodrama of a Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.But will the Bollywood director or writer, spurred by Lagaan's originality and vision, let his imagination run unfettered? Perhaps.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 31, 2001 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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'Success of Lagaan and Gadar shook up Bollywood stagnating with feel-good formulas'

The success of Lagaan and Gadar-Ek Prem Katha shook up an industry stagnating with feel-good family formulas, says Anupama Chopra.

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