The man is the erotic center of the film, as is often the case in Bollywood movies, and he is fought over by two aggressive women - Gauri (Gracy Singh), the village girl who has loved him since they were children, and the stately Elizabeth, who, for a proper Victorian lady, has surprisingly little trouble with the idea of falling in love with an Indian peasant. Khan, who plays Bhuvan, is one of India's two or three biggest stars, and he has the kind of pouty, smoldering good looks that are pinned to the walls of teenage girls' bedrooms the world over. But Bhuvan believes that it is close enough to a game called gilli-danda'' they all played as children, and with the clandestine assistance of the captain's sister, Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley), who's appalled by her brother's cruelty, Bhuvan begins putting together a team. That money, called lagaan, is ostensibly a land tax, but effectively a tribute - paid by the local farmers to their local chief, who in turn pays off the English.Ĭaptain Russell feels confident because the villagers have absolutely no idea of how cricket is played. Ashutosh Gowariker, who wrote and directed the film, portrays the British Army as conscienceless oppressors, who cynically play the local rajahs against one another while collecting protection money from them all.
''Lagaan'' is set during British rule in India, but the film has none of the nostalgia for the lost empire that typically informs both English and American films on the subject. This is a movie that knows its business - pleasing a broad, popular audience - and goes about it with savvy professionalism and genuine flair. Nearly four hours long - about standard length for a Hindi film - and filled with extravagant production numbers, impossibly attractive performers and a generous selection of classic melodramatic devices, ''Lagaan'' may look naïve it is anything but. Its New York venue is the Film Forum in the South Village, where the regular audience of refined filmgoers might be expected to view ''Lagaan'' with condescension. It became a genuine popular success in London last year, crossing over to a general audience, and now it is reopening in New York, after having played the Indian neighborhoods last summer, and opening in Los Angeles. The musical ''Lagaan,'' however, has leapt over the usual boundaries. Based in Bombay, the Hindi film industry - affectionately known as Bollywood - is one of the largest in the world, but its products are rarely seen beyond India and the Indian communities abroad.