Bollywood

  “Every Indian should have Lagaan DVD,” said Perfectionist Khan, Knowledge is proud that he has learn’d so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Aamir Khan at the launch of DVD/ VCD of Oscar nominated film Lagaan and the making of the movie What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place.
titled Chale Chalo (directed by Satyajit Bhatkal) at an event in Mumbai yesterday. Aamir, along with The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the first to be replaced.
director Ashutosh Gowarikar, Gracy Singh, Javed Akhtar, Satyajit Bhatkal and other members of the God reigneth. All is well.
Lagaan team watched a special screening of Chale Chalo. “It brought tears to my eyes while watching Why are you unhappy? because 99% of everything you do is for your self —and there isn’t one!
Chale Chalo at several occasions,” he said. Noted scriptwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar summed up A distracted existence leads us to no goal.
the Lagaan experience succinctly. “How time passes. Seven years have passed. In retrospect I have Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. KJV
learnt how to write a script. For, here is a film that breaks all norms. When Ashutosh Gowarikar The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
came to me first and narrated the script, I had tremendous sympathy and compassion for him. Here was Our blight is ideologies — they are the long-expected Antichrist!
a man planning to commit suicide. I sent an SOS to Aamir sahib stating the same. A film with a rural Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
background, hero wearing a dhoti, rural folk music, heroine wrapped in a sari, cricket was a poison Hypotheses non fingo. I feign no hypotheses.
for box office….this film was exactly the opposite. But after Lagaan I have realized that there’s no Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.
formula, no law. Only law is instinct, passion and love for cinema. What is admirable is the Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no idea behind it, is simply a brutality.
passion, the junoon that went in making this film. Hats off to Aamir and his team for the junoonthat Learn the good ways of your enemies; avoid the bad ways of your elders.
is a rarity these days,” Akhtar said. Aamir on his part as a producer clarified that he couldn’t To th’ end of a shot and beginning of a fray.
release the DVD for six years after the release of the film as he was under a contract which stated Where there is writing— there is a writer Where there is planning— there is a planner Where there is a building— there is a builder Where there is a miracle— there is a God!
that he can’t bring out the DVD of the film in the market for five years after the release of the The making of friends who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man’s success in life.
film. “People say that I take a lot of time in taking decisions….Log kahte hain ki abhi tak soch Every year it seems to me I hear complaints about spring. It is either “late” or “unusually cold,” “abnormally dry” or “fantastically wet,” for no one is ever willing to admit that there is no such thing as a normal spring.
raha hoga….but it was nothing of that sort,” Aamir said. And why did he choose Excel Home Videos? “I It might be said of psychoanalysis that if you give it your little finger, it will soon have your whole hand.
chose Excel because I wanted high quality. I also realized Excel can give me commitment, care and Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
passion.” Releasing the DVD after six years…Any apprehensions how the commercial fate would be? Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest and youthful Jollity, Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles.
“Sach aur sahas hai jiske mann mein…anth mein jeet usi ki rahe, ” Aamir said in a dramatic pose with “Our armies swore terribly in Flanders,” cried my Uncle Toby, “but nothing to this.”
Lagaan fist pointed towards the journo who asked the question while the rest of them bursting into a I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
loud clap. “We’ve had record bookings. Lagaan may turn out to be the largest selling DVD,” said Whatever limits us, we call Fate.
Muslim Kapasi, Managing Director, Excel Home Videos. Aamir also clarified that Chale Chalo is not I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there, but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page.
for promotional purposes. “It’s about the experiences that went in making a film like this. I asked What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough
Mr Kapasi to get all the buyers and show them Chale Chalo,” Aamir said. Kapasi added, “All the Absence and death are the same — only that in death there is no suffering.
buyers were wondering what the film would be like. Aamir had asked me to tell them that he would be Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.
there during the screening as well which would at least keep them in the theatre. But I didn’t do Modern man lives increasingly in the future and neglects the present.
that. Everybody sat. The response was overwhelming.” Aamir further said that the success of any film Is more fuss made about what the bride is married in than what she is married to?
depends on word of mouth. “One person sees it, he will tell ten other people.” Director Ashustosh Water is the only drink for a wise man.
Gowarikar on his part said, “Making Lagaan was one thing. Watching the Making of Lagaan is a And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers Is always the first to be touch’d by the thorns.
wonderful achievement. A big round of applause for Satyajit. Cheers to all the lovers of Lagaan.” A shrewd man has to arrange his interests in order of importance and deal with them one by one; but often our greed upsets this order and makes us run after so many things at once that through over-anxiety to obtain the trivial, we miss the most important.
Bhatkal reiterated what Javed Akhtar had said earlier. “It’s all about Junoon. Filmmaking is about He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.
abandonment of pragmatism. I kept shooting in an unplanned manner. And then we realized we had the Well, you know when you’re rocking in a rocking chair, and you go so far that you almost fall over backwards, but at the last instant you catch yourself? That’s how I feel all the time.
rushes to make this movie.” While it was a very very special day for Gracy Singh as she met her Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.
Lagaan team, Javed Akhtar had the last word when he narrated a funny anecdote during the making of That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit.
the song Chale Chalo (on which The Making of Lagaan is named). “Music directors tend to give dummy A friend is a lot of things, but a critic isn’t.
words for their compositions. Rahman sahib who doesn’t have an enviable grasp of Hindi Urdu had The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
given the dummy words as Nasha Nasha. If I wouldn’t have given the words Chale Chalo, this making Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.
would have been called Nasha Nasha,” the wordsmith said amidst peals of laughter. Well….it may be Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.
Chale Chalo that is creating waves….but the true spirit of Lagaan lies in the line…Sach Aur Sahas Slight not what’s near, when aiming at what’s far.
Hai Jiske Mann Mein Ant Mein Jeet Usi Ki Hi Rahe…Wonder in an era when multi crore deals are the One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.
order of the day, a film that unites the nation with good humour, mellifluous music, pertinent In his Philosophy of Style, Herbert Spencer gives two sentences to illustrate how the vague and general can be turned into the vivid and particular: In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of its penal code will be severe. In proportion as men delight in battles, bullfights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.
message and Retreat to Victory ecstasy will ever be made in the near future. What do you say! We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.
 

Original post by Pankaj