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LAGAAN October 9, 2002: 7:30PM Nominated for a 2001 Foreign Language Oscar, LAGAAN: ONCE UPON A TIME IN INDIA boasts slickly produced, impeccably choreographed musical numbers, is swarming with a cast of thousands, and is India's biggest movie budget to date. Ashutosh Gowariker's nationalist blockbuster brought the uncomplicated joys of commercial showbiz to the American art cinemas, while still possessing the fabulous songs and crazy comedy of the classic Bollywood tradition. The film is set during the British colonial rule in Champaner, a small farming village in central India whose population is poor but happy. Their only complaint concerns the "lagaan," a protection tax levied by the British that, despite hard times, the local authorities have decided to double. The villagers go to the British fort in protest, but are stopped because a cricket match is taking place. One of the villagers, Bhuvan, makes fun of the game in a manner that forces the British to wager: they will cancel the tax for five years if the Indians can beat a British squad in a cricket match. But if they lose, they must pay triple lagaan. Bhuvan assembles a squad of lovable misfits and they prepare for the fateful match. Indian superstar Aamir Khan (EARTH) is enormously magnetic as the angry young man fighting imperialism in his own way, and despite it's length, the film moves swiftly to a final confrontation that is tense,funny and moving. (India, 2001, 3hr. 45min.) directed by Ashutosh Gowariker; starring Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Shuasini Mulay, in English, Bhojpuri, Hindi w/subtitles