In India Cricket is a religion and its indeed a surprise that filmmakers have not successfully exploited this segment of Indian culture and now what better person than took Aamir Khan to tap this passion on the celluloid!. The movie is set in Champaner, a small village in Central India in 1893 where the Raja's people, who announce dugna lagaan (double tax). There has been no rain in this small village since a year. The poor farmers aren’t even in a state to pay their actual “Lagaan”

The villagers are totally stumped. Only one among them, Bhuvan, accepts a dare from the captain: Win a cricket match against the fearsome British team and be exempt from lagaan for three years. Or stand to pay tiguna lagaan (three times the tax).                  

Bhuvan takes up the impossible task of defeating the British in a game of cricket, which Captain Russell puts forward to him when the villagers say they cannot pay the tax that year. 

The story is on how Aamir Khan goes about gathering his 11 men Cricket army  and no prizes for guessing who the Man of the match is! And for those not happy with  India's tour of Zimbabwe, there is Lagaan for you at the theatres having almost 11/2hrs of Village cricket.

All in all, an absolutely different film and all credits to Aamir Khan for taking up such an offbeat theme and now its left to the audience for their verdict.

PS:In Hyderabad Lagaan is running in packed houses with black tickets selling over Rs150 even on weekdays!

-MK