Stockholm Film Festival

Lagaan (=tax) pulls off a coup by making a Bollywood fantasy realistic. The period film is a paean to tenacity and the triumph of the underdog.

In a drought-stricken village, an arrogant British officer threatens the locals that he will double the taxes, unless they can beat his team at cricket, the Englishman's game. People of diverse religious faiths (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian) are united in the cricket team, with the ''untouchable'', on the lowest rung of the Indian caste system, saving the team's honour with his special spin-bowling.

The tale is told with a winning combination of the comic book and epic. Thus, there are touches of spaghetti Western, Kurosawa and even Kipling, and the hero shows the cheeky courage of Asterix and his Gauls taking on the Roman empire. It has been among the biggest successes of the year.

Meenakshi Shedde

Medverkande

Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raghuveer Yadav, Rajendra Gupta, Rajesh Vivek, Sri Vallabh Vyas, Javed Khan, Raj Zutshi, Akhilendra Mishra, Pradeep Rawat

Producent

Aamir Khan

Manus

Ashutosh Gowarikar, Kumar Dave, Sanjay Dayma

Foto

Anil Mehta

Musik

Padmashree A.R. Rahman

Talat språk

Hindi

 

Andra filmer från sektionen Spotlight

Se alla festivalfilmer från 2001