Lagaan week 2010: The underdog's underdogs

I like supporting the underdog: for me, its always been "Fauji" before all of SRK's other work, Shashi before Amitabh, Amitabh's 1st 5 years of work before all others- you understand. So loving Lagaan (2001) was a foregone conclusion, even if one didn't take in account its inherent brilliance.

The story: Its the late 1800s-early 1900s, and Bhuvan (Aamir), leads a rag-tag group of his fellow villagers against the Brits in a cricket match, the prize being 3 years worth of land rent. Needless to say, the underdogs win, the Brits lose, and all's well that ends well. The movie became an instant classic, and triggered the sport-movie phenomenon in Bollywood.

And yet, its the Aamir the underdog's underdogs, his supporting cast, that I enjoy the most in every re-watch of this film. I wanted to take a moment and talk about my favorite supporting characters from Lagaan. I limited myself to 5, because really, there weren't any bad actors in the movie (except the Brits, who came off as well as any Westerns could in a Bolly movie (one day I may be proved wrong, I concede).

1. Raj Zutshi (character: Ismail)

The token prominent Muslim character, Ismail is Handsome with an H! The character is a fiercely loyal friend to Bhuvan, and a pretty good cricket player (with lots of coaching), despite being injured. Ismail rocks, and Raj rocks harder. As you may know already, he was married to Aamir's sister (since divorced), and is step dad to Imran. He has, like Ismail : Bhuvan, been with Aamir since the beginning: they both started cinema with Holi (1984), and he helped Aamir run away with Juhi In QSQT (1988). He has a considerable body of work, these are my favorites: Holi (1984), Goonj (1989), Shiva (1989), Maachis (1996), Rules (2003) and Daddy (1989). Goonj and Holi are probably where he met Ashutosh G. (who was an actor back then, with a full head of curly hair). I love the man- is that apparent enough?

2. Pradeep Singh Rawat (character: Deva Singh Sodhi)

The Sardar who comes from Punjab to help Bhuvan! As hard as that is to imagine, it probably helped Ashutosh Gowrikar (the Director) to realize his Utopian village vision. You've seen this guy in tons of movies, haven't you? He's the titled Ghajini (2008 AND 2005), of course, and he is also in another popular Aamir movie, Sarfarosh(1999). He is probably a more popular Southern actor nowadays than Bollywood, and also has lots of TV credits to his name. Additional Aamir connection: they're very good buddies.

3. Yashpal Sharma (character: Laakha)

He is my favorite character in the movie! He does everything wrong possible: loves Gauri (Gracy) who is Bhuvan's girlfriend, plays villain, and even tries to sabotage the village team. However, in the end he redeems himself when he makes his apology, and completely captures my heart with his tears. I lurve the boy. Arguably, he is the one actor who profited the most from the movie: from unforgettable appearances, he suddenly began appearing everywhere, mostly in thug or police roles. My favorites for him: Gungajal (2003), Chameli (2003), D (2005), Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), and Well Done Abba (2009).

4. Raghuveer Yadav (character: Bhura)

Probably the most under-appreciated, yet critically acclaimed actors of all time. He more or less sleepwalks through Bhura's character- not in a bad way, but one gets the sense that this is too easy a role for him. For someone who began his career with Massey Sahib (1985) and followed it up with Salaam Bombay (1988), became a popular rage with Mungeri laal on TV (1990), and has been in numerous brilliant movies since (just IMDB him and look at his work), there cant be much that this man finds a challenge. Lets just bow to his brilliance and leave it at that. Everything he has ever done, he has done well. 'Nuff said.

5. Kulbhushan Kharbanda (character: Raja Puran Singh)

In his autobiography, Gandhi holds Indian kings during the British Raj (rule) akin to liveried butlers. Dressed to the nines in jewels, they were puppets in the hands of their British lords who made them dance to their tune. And Kulbhushan plays that character brilliantly- despite his sympathies being with the village team, he has to sit with the Brits, and his discomfort is palpable. A short-spanned character; but there are no characters that Kulbhushan cant do well, regardless of their screen time. He has immortalized the shark-loving Shakaal in Shaan (1980), and done brief but brilliant work in Arth (1982) and Mandi (1983). He has the amazing knack of simply remoulding himself into whatever he is playing: whether it is a Raja in Jodha Akbar (2003), a corrupt minister in Manorama (2007) or a tea-seller in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992). He may do more movies; even better movies- but will always be to me primarily the reason to watch Shaan over and over again.

These 5 were a hard choice- I cant help but regret not having included Suhasini Mulay, AK Hangal, Rajesh Vivek, Rajendra Gupta, Akhilendra Mishra and all the others who made this movie what it is. If anything, the bringing together of this brilliant cast has to be commended. I leave you with the Lagaan "team," in a light, marketing moment: