On the special occasion of Independence day ,film screening of movie "Lagaan" was organized by film screening committee members of our our English department of MK Bhavnagar University. As a students of Literature we have to watch the movie with the help of various literary approaches and theories not only as a sake of entertainment.“Lagaan – once upon a time in India” movie was released in 2001.
It is a sports-drama film, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, produced by Aamir Khan and Mansoor Khan, written by Gowariker and Abbas Tyrewala. The film is set in the Victorian period of India's Colonial British Raj. Here I am interpreting film as per my understanding.
Patriotism
The main theme of the movie is patriotism. In the movie the protagonist Bhuvan has a such qualities. Bhuvan shows the great courage in his rebellion against British provience. He wants the welfer of the village people and thats why he also encourages or motives them to rebell against British provience. The main reason behind their rebellon is that they have a strong inclination of their own land.The farmers have to pay yearly lagaan to the the king and than king have to pay to the British captain.When they were suffering from draught and was not able to pay their lagaan, at that time captaion Russell has doubled the text and also challged the people of village to beat them in cricket match and three years of tax will be removed or erased.People of village are very hard at their work because they want to defeat the Britishers in match.This shows their passion for their land.
Rural India
The setting of the movie largely remains in the village and it also presents the actual situation of India at the time of British governor. They have to face a lot of social problems and as well as economic problems because the agricultural activities are only their chief resource of their livelihood. And also the Britishers imposed the high taxes on the farmers.The culture and religious atmosphere also shows the real rural India. The dialect which are used by people that also represents the countryside.They have to face a lot of problems than even they live happily.
Subaltern theory
Subaltern means marginalization in caste, gender, race, etc by dominace of power. Here the character of king is also observed as marginalized character he is under the british rules and he can not do anything against him. His voice is oppressed by the british Captain.
The character of Kachra is marginalized character who belongs to lower class. And when Bhuvan elects Kachra as in the team of cricket at that time his other teammates deny to take him as team member because he is untouchable.The other marginalized character is Gauri. She wants to play cricket but his father denies her and says to do only household work.
The effect of post colonialism is still present among Indians.In the film there is only a thing which presents post colonialism is the game of cricket. There is colonial game Cricket which was played by the Indians to win the challenge given by the Britishers. They accept to play cricket because they want freedom from tax but now in free India why this game is more famous than any other game. It clearly shows that how still British people ruling our mind. This is the reason why cricket is more played and watched than our national game. There is strong impact of the Britishers over the mind of Indians that still in present they are not able to come out from this game.
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