Lagaan, which is set in rural India in the late 1800�s, is a historical document of sorts, about the peasant revolt against the British. Though Aamir immediately jumps forward to say that the film isn�t about patriotism or nationalism, it certainly is about the struggle of people to fight for their rights. Set in the then princely state of Avadh (present day UP), the film looks at the life and struggle of the rural farmer to eke out a living on the dry and dusty Indo-Gangetic plains. The entire film was shot in and around the Kutch town of Bhuj, the landscape could easily pass off for the vast plains, before the advent of the modern irrigation systems. (Incidentally for those of us who remember, the disastrous earthquake that occurred in Kutch this year had it�s epicenter in Bhuj, and our Man went back to the village where most of his shooting was done, and has adopted the village and will help in it�s rehabilitation and reconstruction work.) Well so much for the usual exotic locales, like the Swiss Alps, or New York, our man has decided to stick to the motherland. Infact in his bid to make the perfect film, Aamir took on upto forty British actors, to play the role of English men, and officers, the oppressors of the peasant community.

Apart from the well thought out plot, which captures ones imagination almost immediately, the music composed by A.R. Rehman, which is so radically different from the run of the mill stuff being churned out by the dozen, that it takes one quite by surprise, and transports us back in time back to the days of the British Raj. In fact the director, Ashutosh Gowarikar, has been so taken by the music that he said, it helped him in directing so many sequences, by giving him the right feel of the times. He said, �The songs have an earthy feel.� The others involved in the project, like singer Alka Yagnik, felt the same, � The songs have the aroma of the soil, one can almost smell it!� The lyrics have been scripted by Javed Akhtar, who himself comes from the region, and has incorporated little hints of the local dialect to give it the truly rural touch.