Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001 )

It is often said that there are two religions in India: cinema and cricket. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India blends the two with such panache that, upon its release, movie theatres became stadiums, with audiences cheering and dancing in their seats when the underdogs (a ragtag team of Indian villagers) defeat their masters (a far superior British team led by a tyrannical racist captain who wants to inflict a ruinous land tax on them).

It’s 1893, and a game of cricket transforms into an outsized battle between good and evil, coloniser and oppressed. Director and co-writer Ashutosh Gowariker and leading man and producer Aamir Khan created a film that revels in specifically Indian storytelling. There are joyous, colourful song and dance sequenc

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