A big screen documentary on Lagaan

By IndiaFM News Bureau, June 07th, 2004 - 1400 hrs IST


One is used to see the making of a film on small screen through television channels or add-on features in a DVD pack. But this is for the first time in the history of Indian cinema that the making of a film will be showcased on the big screen. And the film in question is the epic Oscar-nominated blockbuster Lagaan.

The documentary film, named after a popular song from the film is titled “Chale Chalo: The Lunacy Of Film Making”. The film is directed by Satyajit Bhatkal who earlier wrote a book ‘The Spirit of Lagaan’, made an English documentary on the making of Lagaan (that premiered at the Locarno Film Festival) and finally edited the English version to make the Hindi documentary. This completes his hat trick on working on the making of Lagaan. Bhatkal shot over 300 hours of raw footage while the Lagaan was under-production and edited it over three years to come up with a 2-hour 22-minute documentary. The film will showcase interesting behind-the-scenes look and untold facts on Lagaan.

The three stars of the documentary are director Ashutosh Gowariker, producer-actor Aamir Khan and Aamir’s ex-wife Reena. The film financed by Aamir Khan Productions will hit the screens on July 9. The film won’t be promoted through any television trailers and movie hoardings.

With such an initiative the film appears more of an attempt to showcase the making of an epic rather than targeted as a box-office money-spinner product.

Awesome! Been waiting for this to release ever since I read the book last year. I hope Columbia Tristar releases it on DVD.

Me too!! Yum Yum!

I have seen it in Locarno.
The director was a lawyer that got
the film bug. It's all video of
dubious to ok quality, but the
content is interesting.

Does the documentary cover the artistic decisions behind the film? I found that the book neglected this aspect and concentrated on the monumental production.

'Chale Chalo' - 'Memories Revisited'
By Prema K. ©2004 Bollyvista.com


Credits
Director: Satyajit Bhatkal


Buy the DVD here
It has come three years after the release of 'Lagaan' and is the first ever documentary to have a commercial release. It is truly for Aamir Khan fans and more importantly for all those who enjoyed 'Lagaan'. Having said that this film will surely appeal to the thinking audience rather than the masses. So that way it is a niche film. But one never knows. It might have universal appeal too for the sheer pleasure of a behind-the-scenes peek into the making of a film that created history.

Right from giving the viewers an idea of what made it one of the biggest hits of Bollywood to how it all started from scratch, 'Chale Chalo' says it all. It captures each and every trial and tribulation that the film and its makers had to go through from the inception to it actually reaching the Oscars.

'Lagaan' had everything going against it. A period film set in the time of the British Raj with cricket as the backdrop was surely no producer's idea of a superhit formula. It took an Aamir Khan to recognize the potential of the script and double up as producer and actor.

'Chale Chalo' is like any Hindi film in every sense. It has its moments of happiness as well as tension. The mammoth task of building an entire village in Bhuj, the shooting going behind schedule (unlike other Bollywood films the delay is genuine owing to weather conditions and other mishaps) are all ably captured by director Satyajit Bhatkal.

The best part of the film is the presence of director Ashutosh Gowarikar and Aamir Khan. Aamir fans are sure to be delighted with an insight into the person rather than the actor. While people close to him are aware of his crazy sense of humour, the audience too gets a taste of it here especially in those moments where the camera captures him unawares.

It is also interesting to watch how Aamir managed to get the 10,000 crowd get into a state of euphoria while shooting the climax scene. Simple! All he did was sing his popular number, 'Aati Kya Khandal' to drive the crowd into a frenzy.

There are a lot more of these genuinely funny and emotional moments. And yes, Aamir fans also get to see his wife (now ex-wife) and kids in the film.

This one is surely worth a watch. If not anything else it certainly rekindles the magic of 'Lagaan' making the viewers want to watch it again. So actually speaking, 'Chale Chalo', should be followed by a re-release of the history making film.

Now this is getting a little personal but it is bound to leave the viewers with a question. While his wife stood rock steady with him throughout the making of the film what happened to the couple later? It's sad that while the film succeeded his marriage floundered!

**** (FOUR STARS)

*poor; **average; ***good; ****very good; *****excellent

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Anyone have a contact at Aamir Khan Productions by any chance? I'm interested in screening it at a film festival.

You can start from one of these places:

http://www.aamirkhan.com/ - This one has not been updated in a very long time so I don't know how well it is monitored.

http://www.ashutoshgowariker.com/# - He might be interested in sending you the information as well.

http://www.lagaan.com/# - While there is a distribution/exhibition link on this site for the movie itself, they may be able to point you to the right people.

Caught this movie yesterday at Central Plaza in Mumbai. What a movie. This has to be one of the most interesting documentaries/making movies I have ever seen. There are plenty of hilarious sequences thrown in, especially the debate about whether Aamir needed a moustache or not for the Bhuvan character.

Its a pity there's hardly any publicity and it is such a limited release. I did see the director of the movie in the theater and before I could get to speak with him to congratulate him on the effort he had disappeared. Did meet the editor of the movie and she was rueing the fact that the budget available was just not there for a proper promotion of the product. I hope the distributors realise there is probably a cross section of people that are interested in the making aspect and would pay the money to catch it.

All in all a must see effort !

Chale Chalo

By Gaurav Malani (IndiaFM News Bureau), June 03rd, 2004 - 1500 hrs IST


Till now the making of any film had been only a part of the promotional package of the movie before it's release or an additional feature on the DVD after it's release. Chale Chalo takes a step further in the direction. Just the thought of making a full-length feature film for the big screen on the making of a film like Lagaan is as implausible as the story idea of Lagaan was when it was conceptualized and repeatedly rejected. But then Lagaan turned up against all odds and so does the disciple film on it's making.

Chale Chalo - the Lunacy of Filmmaking is essentially for lunatics, fanatics and crazy lovers of Hindi cinema. Warning: For those who disapprove of the documentary format of the film, this film is surely not your cup of tea. For all others, you just need a deep passion for films and an open mind.

The film starts with a prologue by Ashutosh Gowariker, the director of Lagaan, where he talks about the conventional norms and rules of Hindi filmmaking and how a filmmaker is not supposed to think outside that domain. Ashutosh himself confesses of having made two films before Lagaan with a similar outlook - Pehla Nasha and Baazi (interestingly he doesn't take credit or even mentions his intermediate film Izzat Ki Roti).

Chale Chalo starts in 1998 when Ashutosh had a rough story idea, which he narrated to Aamir Khan and Aamir instantly disapproved of his unconventional yarn requesting him to drop the idea right away. This hurt Ashutosh but he took the challenge of staying with his idea and wrote down the detailed script. When he re-approached Aamir after six months and asked him to listen to his script-narration, Aamir was totally reluctant. However Ashutosh persuaded him to give it a listen and at the end of the detailed narration, Aamir was a changed man. His preconceived 'NO' turned into an enthusiastic 'YES' and he even decided to produce the film when Ashutosh couldn't find a financer to his avant-garde idea.

So far so good, this story of Chale Chalo till now was much known through the media circuits. The unknown part starts herein and the movie throws out a huge load of Lagaan making trivia. One of the first members to join the production team of Lagaan was Nitin Chandrakant Desai, the art director, with whom Ashutosh set out for a location hunt throughout India to find his town of Champaner in the latter half of 1998. After futile attempts in Rajasthan, Nasik, UP, et al. they zeroed in on the Bhuj village in Kutch by May 1999. Two first-timers who joined in the production team of Lagaan subsequently on Aamir's request were Reena Dutta - Aamir's ex-wife and Satyajit Bhatkal - Aamir's childhood friend and the ensuing director of Chale Chalo who gave up his law practice to join the Lagaan team.

The documentary focuses on some interesting aspects of the making of Lagaan like how a building in Kutch was transformed into a hotel to accommodate the 300+ crewmembers. The nervousness and apprehension shown in both Aamir and Ashutosh's mind on the first day of shoot is very much palpable. One of the best parts of the documentary was the behind-the-scene look at the climax scene picturization (shot well in advance), which included a record 10,000 extras that turn in on the final day of the match in the film. To handle such a massive crowd is no easy task and to appease these free junior artists, Aamir even crooned the Aati Kya Khandala number for them. The scenes showcasing Aamir's birthday celebration on sets, cast and crew playing Holi, a real match played between the Indian and British team where the latter win and a British crew couple marrying by traditional Indian rituals truly focus the spirit of the Lagaan team.

The better part of the documentary is that it is chronologically edited and does not muddle up like the standard 'making of films' formats that feature on a DVD. Also the pace is fast and the flow does not evoke boredom. Background score used from the original movie soundtrack adds to the effect. Thankfully the documentary also stays away from being outright preachy. Monologues of Ashutosh, Aamir and Reena Dutta cover a major part of the film though each has been recorded individually (seemingly after Aamir and Reena's breakup).

On the flipside, one wishes that a strong voiceover (like that of Amitabh Bachchan in the original film) could have invigorated the proceedings more. Director Bhatkal's narration falls feeble at times. Moreover his repeated recollection of his wife Swati towards the end tends to get monotonous. Also the timing of a film is a little late.

Nevertheless Bhatkal makes a sincere attempt at celebrating the spirit of Lagaan without any money-making intentions (as the film has been hardly publicized). At the end, Chale Chalo may go in as an important lesson in filmmaking schools. A must see for all aspiring filmmakers! Also recommended for hardcore Aamir Khan fans who didn't get much of him for almost 3 years now.

Rating: ***




Some firsts on Lagaan

Lagaan was the first Indian film to be recorded in the sync sound technology.
Lagaan was one of the first films to use real British actors to play the part of Britishers (unlike the use of Tom Alter or Bob Christo as firangs) to add to the authenticity of their look and dialect.
Screen tests for films were not a usual practice in India. But every member in the cast of Lagaan had to go through auditions to get their roles including the foreign starcast.
Lagaan resurrected the trend of hardbound detailed scripts and a start-to-finish one stretch-shooting schedule.




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poor journalism by IndiaFM guys (well what do you expect?).....LAGAAN was NOT the first movie to be shot in sync sound....dont know which is the first(i would have certainly researched and found out had I
been a journalist) but almost all of Shyam Benegal's movies have been shot in sync sound. I know for a fact that KAHAAN KAHAAN SE GUZAR GAYA (film by MS Sathyu starring Anil Kapoor was shot in sync sound).
Also 1942 - A LOVE STORY had a Britisher play the role of the villanous Brit officer. So not really true to again state LAGAAN was the first....

IndiaFM is a rubbish site. I wouldn't take anything they have to say seriously.

I'd bet India's first talkie Alam Ara was in sync sound. ADR is a later technology. Sync sound is not so much a technology - it is a method of working. In recent times Zubeidaa, 1947 - Earth, Hey Ram and Mission Kashmir were major Indian films to use sync sound. RGV used sync sound for parts of some of his later films.

Mission Kashmir was sync sound?

It was part ADR, part sync sound...the way most Hollywood action films are. The transition between the sync sound and ADR scenes is seamless and the best I've heard in an Indian film. (The sound technician wasn't Indian - what do you expect) No big deal was made over it being sync sound, so few ppl realise it.

i hate sync sound in indian movies like in khnh if you put on the dvd or watch it in the theater so many of thge dialogs are unclear and have the crackling noise in some of them same as in parts of masti. i wish the trend stops unless if they can make it like lagaan.