What single film best represents a nation? Here, 12 writers choose the one work they believe most captures their home’s culture and cinema – from a bold cricket musical to a nine-hour documentary, gritty crime dramas to frothy tales of revenge
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 sequences (music by AR Rahman), an aching love triangle, a strong mother figure and a key life lesson: sach aur saahas hai jiske man main ant mein jeet usiki rahe (ultimately, the person who has truth and courage in his heart wins).
