20 years of film Lagaan - But memories are still so young !!

The 'Lagaan' Cricket Team Wins !

When the film hit the screens, I was supposed to speak to the cast of the film for a National Daily I was working with.

While talking to Ashutosh Gowarikar, Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Raghubir Yadav, Yashpal Sharma – few on phone, Rajinder Gupta et al, I didn’t have any idea that the film would be the biggest hit of the decade.

Ashutosh had told that the film was about how Indians slowly learnt to wriggle out from the clutches of the British and a cricket match between untrained villagers and trained British officers, for tax rebate, which would be its highlight.

I asked him, “So obviously India will win, unrealistically?” He laughed and answered, “Well, not so unrealistically, though!”

Well, he had given the climax too.

He however had added, “You will know how the matches can be won and lost, with integrity, honesty, dedication and will power. We forget that will power makes all the difference…”

Looking at some film promotion shots, I thought Gracy Sigh was a bold, smiling fairy, but she came across as a very shy, homely-looking girl, a bit plump for the so-called Indian heroine ‘standards’, and an amiable girl next door. She didn’t even know how to give an interview. Her simplicity was absolutely charming.

She admitted, it was very tough for her to do some apparently romantic scenes with the superstar Aamir Khan. Her training in Kathak helped her emote though.

The man who was most exciting to talk to was Raghubir Yadav, who gave us almost the full script and tried hiding the end saying, “Such films are not made in years…”

And he was right!

As we went to watch the film, we did not expect the film to turn the cinema hall into a cricket stadium. As the cricket match between the British and the poor, hungry and escapist villagers for the tax rebate on agricultural produce was agreed upon, we all were stunned! As if we were a part of the village team and the British officials, our rival team, who we wanted to defeat but knew our grounds too!

I as a film critic, forgot to write notes as I got engrossed in the film as an Indian whose everything was on stake! That’s what the film did to us.

I remember very well how the audiences were jumping off their chairs with “aoooowww! No!!!” sounds as Yashpal Sharma, the first fixer of cricket match in Hindi films, as he came to be known after the film, dropped his catches, knowingly. The audiences abused him, threw popcorns and peanuts at him and the manager had to halt the film to ask the audiences to stop throwing anything on the screen!

I remember the character called Aditya Lakhiya named Kachra (meaning dirt) with a limp in his feet, in the film, was goaded to run faster during fielding by the audiences.

I remember the audiences clapping and whistling when village mukhiya played by an ace actor Rajinder Gupta gives his approval for the cricket match against the British, and we all came on the ground with swelled pride and guts to win!

I also remember how all of us didn’t want the British to get even a single wicket or a boundary. As an official would come to ball fiercely, a boy shouted among the audiences, “hit on his feet, he will fall, don’t let him ball…!” We all became mischievous and mean! But that didn’t happen anyway.

The rival team was abused and name calling had begin in the cinema halls.

I also recall, me bursting into laughter seeing a villager Aamir, metamorphosed into a rich gentleman, doing a ball dance in the film. A boy sung a line, “saala main to sahib ban gaya” while the song “Yes, I am in love” was played during the floor dance, in the film!

Indian girls wanted the princess to leave him alone with Gracy Singh, his beloved and go back.

It is clear in my mind that we had all congratulated each other after India had won the match against the British and thereby grabbed the tax waiver during the dry agri-season.

Many of us looked into history books to find out if that incident was true.

The film was nominated for the Oscars! Aamir Khan’s maiden production, though it didn’t win any awards, to which we had gauged that since the British had lost in the film, why would they award a film that had English losing to India?