Film Analysis and Reflection: Lagaan - Essay Example

Film analysis and reflection: Lagaan Lagaan is an Indian film made for the Indian audiences as a popular entertainment. In the year 1893, the Britishsoldiers impose a wager upon the Indian villagers according to which, the villagers are required to play a cricket match with the Brits and defeat them. If the Indian villagers manage to do this, they would escape a crushing tax imposed by the British on them for a period of three years but in case they lose, they would have to pay three times as much tax as they have been paying before.

Most of the movie, up to 75 minutes are consumed by the cricket match itself. While it is a tough and interesting match, another very interesting element of the story is the love triangle between three main characters of the movie, Gauri, Bhuvan, and Elizabeth. The movie has a number of joyous songs. The movie was a hit in India. The film portrays different themes. One of the themes is Indians’ slavery to the British government in India. I felt empathy for the Indian villagers who had no choice but to win the cricket match so that they would not have to pay the triple tax imposed by the outsiders on them in their own motherland.

The film depicts the complexity of relationship that the indigenous people of India shared with the British soldiers in India. Although the movie centers around a cricket match, yet it reveals a great deal of information about the history of India and the influence of the British on the Indian people physically, emotionally, and psychologically. The relationship between the British soldiers and the Indian villagers is complicated and cannot be considered as outright suppression of the Indians.

One can sense a very fragile and subtle sense of association between the British and the Indian villagers. While the British soldiers compel the villagers to win the match, it is in a way, a way to empower the villagers in the sense that they would learn cricket and also have an opportunity to win over the Brits. The British soldiers are making a dual approach to motivate the Indian villagers to win the match because not only would they be able to escape the tripling of fine, but also the imposition of any fine at all.

The romantic relationship between Bhuvan and Elizabeth also indicates that in spite of all the differences of culture, race, ethnicity, social status, and class, the British and the Indians could feel like relating to each other. The film’s songs also depicted that the British found the local culture and especially songs of the Indian people very fascinating and entertaining. By depicting these elements in the film, this film educates the audiences on many aspects of relationship between the British and the Indians in India, that are very rarely, if ever, depicted in the accounts of history since most of the history is based on covering the different events and developments that happened in India during the British rule.