All of us know what A for means. But to me it means Ashutosh Gowarikar, the genius behind one of the toughest made movies of this century, Lagaan. I know my article is a little late on epic movie but I happened to watch "The making of Lagaan". A 2 hour documentary on the in-numerous struggles Ashutosh went across to complete his movie. He explains in the video as to how he broke the four basic rules of hindi movies that 1. Period movies could NOT be made commercially successful. 2. Movies cannot be made on sports 3. Heroes cannot be simple villagers and last and the most important point that mainstream hindi movies cannot be made in any other dialect apart from hindi. Ashutosh broke all these paradigms and created an awesome piece of history that would even be talked about, 50 years from now. I salute a person who had such a superb vision and had the capability to execute it.
His partner in this adventurous venture was the one and only aamir khan, who also went on to produce the movie(for he thought that nobody else would dare produce such a crazy movie). The documentary video goes on to show the struggles of movie making right fron the casting, to the movie making part of it. Each day in the shooting process was adventurous and very much demanding. In the middle of the movie shooting schedule, Ashutosh has a slip disc and is advised a month's rest but he goes on to direct the movie lying on a bed. Truly sensational stuff!! The movie after all its struggles, is successfully released in theater where it becomes one the biggest hits in indian movie history. Its tremendous success leads to it being nominated for Oscars, in the category for best foreign movie. Unfortunately though, it lost the Oscar award by a whisker.
Ashutosh has not turned back since then, and has directed another scintillating movie.. Jodha Akbar, a movie of sheer class and pure history. Its a story of a mughal prince and a rajput princess, whom destiny brings together and it has become one of the best love stories, Bollywood has ever seen. This story is a reminder to our divided nation of how hindus and muslims have had a deep boding of love and friendship 400 years ago.
Such awe-inspiring stories give me HOPE that one day, I too will do something, something that will be remembered for good. I hope destiny takes me to my dreams as it has with Ashutosh Gowrikar. My salutations to you sir. May you go on to direct many more epics like these in future.
Monday, March 16, 2009
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