Lagaan

The movie entitled “Lagaan” is a depiction of ancient Indian society. Indian is full of dignity in this story. The director and the writer wanted to convey in their film the meaning and essence of Indian culture. Despite of all the odds, circumstances, and failures that they experienced within their environment and in the hands of the colonizers, they strive hard to be the best at anything.

Playing cricket is one of the most significant occurrences that they wanted to share as a way of showing their culture and tradition. Bhuvan as the main character in the story became the leader of everyone in their community. They accepted the challenge of the British captain and convicted to gain their dignity and pride.

The story showed the narrative of Indian life during the colonial period. It represents the social, psychological, political, and economic life of Indians where culture surrounds all of it. The director wanted to share his thoughts on the issues that Indians always experience all throughout their lives. However, Indian culture and society has no fear of everything whether things go wrong or right within them. This is what the director and the writer wanted to impose in their story. They wanted their audience to understand the meaning of India not as a country in defeat and weaknesses but also with pride and strength to face anything.

At the end of the story, the director leaves its audience the imagination of overcoming the circumstances in the community. There is a question in the end of the movie – will Bhuvan and his team win from the captain? There is one big conflict at the end of it – one of Bhuvan’s team was paid to lose the game. It shows that the resolution of the story lies within the audience. It depends on what they wanted at the end whether to win the Indians or losing their dignity and pride towards the colonizers.

Reference

Ashutosh Gowariker. Lagaan. 2002.