Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India

Superb entertainment from India, and proof that the often derided Bollywood film industry is entirely capable of beating Hollywood at its own game. The year is 1893, and the farmers of the tiny, central Indian village of Champener are chafing under a stiff, British-imposed "lagaan" (land tax). Each year, the raja of every province in British India must collect a portion of each farmer's harvest in exchange for the British cantonment's ongoing protection against attacks by neighboring rulers. This year, however, a terrible drought produced a paltry harvest, so the raja (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) petitions the cantonment to waive the tax. But instead of mercy, dastardly Ca...