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The story behind an epic success
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`The Spirit of Lagaan' is for the heart, what `Hum Honge Kaamiyab' is for the ears. Touching, involving and inspiring. Simply unputdownable.
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LAGAAN.
An idea that nearly died.
A script no one had the guts to touch.
A shoot that was all but abandoned.
A spirit that refused to accept defeat.''
That's quoting from the cover of Satyajit Bhatkal's `Spirit of Lagaan' that hit the stands and climbed up the bestseller list recently.
The triumph of the human spirit continues. And coming up by the author Satyajit, is a documentary on the making of `Lagaan'. That's when more untold stories of what all went behind the making of the epic will unfold out of 150 hours of rushes.
But our story here is about the book that brought Aamir to tears. The book that made Ashutosh relive the experience.
Actually, we really don't have to be an Aamir or Ashutosh to let the book move us. `The Spirit of Lagaan' draws us into it, makes us see the story as a part of the team (as a Lagaanite), stirs hope and belief into us, makes us go through all those emotions we get when we witness a thriller of a cricket match.
It peps us up to keep going. `The Spirit of Lagaan' is for the heart, what `Hum Honge Kaamiyab' is for the ears. Touching, involving and inspiring. Simply unputdownable.
It is one book that critics of the movie must read. To educate themselves, to feel, sense, understand and thus appreciate what movie-making is all about. If you loved Lagaan, you must read this book that's simply un-put-downable.
Since there wasn't any launch ritual in Chennai, the author of the book, Satyajit Bhatkal, answered a few questions through email.
* * *
1. WHY didn't you wait to print the book after the Oscar results were declared? The Oscars might have made a fitting climax.
The book was not prompted by the Oscars. I began writing sometime in late August. The Oscars were not in sight at the time — the Oscar forms were submitted to the Academy sometime in December!
My primary motivation in writing the book was there's a great story to be told and it would be a shame if that were not done. The way I experienced the story, the Oscars were not important. In fact, in some way, the Oscars were taking away from my big point that the life experience the Lagaan unit went through was larger than both the film and its subsequent
commercial and critical success.
In fact in an earlier draft, I had ended the book before the Oscars. I only added the post-release success story, and very briefly too, as a foil to the suffering the unit had earlier suffered.
I do feel that the Oscar story is fascinating for its own sake, but that story is not the account of the Oscar night, but is the story of what Ashu and Aamir did during their one month long stints in LA, first before the nominations in the month of January 2002 and then again before the awards in March 2002. This would be the story of two film makers, giants in their own country, but completely unknown in LA, the very intimidating task before them and how they conquer.
This story would need to be written by one of them for it to be realised in its richness and detail. I certainly hope that they do it.
2. When did you decide to document the movie?
I felt the need to document the movie on my very first stint in Bhuj, which is in September 1999. The reason: although I was new to films, intuitively I could feel that something important was happening. So I persuaded the Production to purchase a professional video camera. After getting back to Mumbai, I started the edit of my mammoth 75 hour rushes (these have now swelled to nearly double that number) but realised that the Lagaan story was still unfolding in post-production and there was no way to complete my film till Lagaan was released.
It is during this period that I organised the Lagaan story on paper and realised that not all of it could be told on film. After all pen and paper may go to places the camera can never see, especially the interiors of the human mind.
So I started work on the book in late August, 2001. As I proceeded, I decided to shelve the `making' film and first complete the book, which took some 7 months all together. Now of course I am busy completing the post-production of the film.
3. HOW did you manage to get the exact dates of incidents? Was it all Aamir's and Ashutosh's account?
So far as that period (before I joined the unit) is concerned I have relied on Ashutosh's and Aamir's account. For the dates, I was lucky! Ashu's mother had maintained a diary. So, the dates are not fake, they ARE genuine.
4. WHAT made you come up with this particular style and structure — Introducing chapters by quotes from the movie dialogues and lyrics, for example.
Starting every chapter with relevant dialogues and lyrics was an idea that emerged from my understanding that the story of how Lagaan was made in many ways, parallels the story of the film itself. So the idea and the selection was mine.
I might add that in a thousand different ways, my editor, Lancy Fernandes has made a huge contribution to the content and structure of the book.
By Sudhish Kamath
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Life
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