It’s been 20 years since we met Bhuvan and his team who gave their all to win a cricket match and save their village. It would be redundant to say that Lagaan was a super hit and apart from the brilliant plot and amazing cast, the film’s success has always been credited to Aamir Khan’s acting, Ashutosh Gowariker’s direction and AR Rahman’s music.
One of the reasons other reasons that the movie worked as well as it did, was its main storyline, which was the best marriage of two things loved by countrymen – cricket and drama. Lagaan’s brilliance was in its plot’s simplicity, along with the theme of the common man’s fight for justice and against an unjust ruler.
The movie, which had one of the best performances of Bollywood’s Mr Perfection, was quite an inspirational work. Everyone took away something or the other from the Oscar-nominated movie. Here are some of the major things we learnt from this immortal movie:
Make way for the leaders
The film displays the best ways to lead a team, or for that matter even build one. After Bhuvan takes up the challenge to beat the Britishers in their own game (pun intended), the scene where he encourages his fellow villagers and inspires them to join him in this effort, is a true display of leadership. He identified each member’s unique qualities and used them to the best. The protagonist encouraged his teammates to develop self-confidence and directed them towards a single goal.
Communicate better
Whether it’s a relationship, a business deal, or a social issue, it is critical to mention your points with clarity. This is something that Aamir did in the movie. In the scene when everyone is distressed about the cricket challenge, Bhuvan skillfully hits the hammer on the sweet spot and says, “Zara socho, teen saal kauno lagaan nahi. Jaane ho eeka matlab? Matlab hamaar anaaj sirf humara hoga! (Just think no tax for three years. You know what that means? It means our grain will be ours. Only ours!)”
Will is not everything – Develop the Skill
While others join in with Bhuvan, the movie’s protagonist, they quickly realize they don’t know anything about cricket. This is when we the viewers also realise that just having a will won’t win us the game. One needs to pick up the skill and practice to master it. This movie is a great example of ‘Practice makes a man perfect’. Although even till the end the villagers could not add finesse to their game, they picked up the skill and understood the rules, placing them on an even ground.
Chill every once in a while!
One of the main things to learn from the movie is this. We all get so caught up in our day-to-day life and in following all the rules, we forget the need to relax. Even though it is a Bollywood film and songs are a given, but even when all the villagers are disheartened about the challenge taken up by Bhuvan, he tries to lighten the mood with a song (which frankly, helps!). The villagers also celebrate a festival during these trying times.
Simplify Complexity
In a naïve and funny way, when Bhuvan explains to his relatively clueless new team about the game of cricket, he compares it to the Indian game of ‘Gilli-Danda’. It is intriguing to see him correlates cricket rules with Gilli-danda rules. Now, that is one of the things we all can apply to our lives. There are times when all we see is a problem and no probable solution. Why not draw comparisons and look for solutions more patiently? After all, that may be more productive.
The movie's sheer brilliance can be celebrated by understanding the characters and the story and imbibing the teachings in our lives. We'll try, we hope you do too!