I never really understood Bollywood until I watched Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India in 2001. I weirdly watched it in a hotel room in Reno, Nevada. After visiting the university in town (to check my e-mail), and pulling a few loose slots (I lost $3.25), I returned to the hotel room, threw myself on the bed, and with the remote turned on the TV. A Bollywood movie appeared. It had just begun. I was so surprised that I watched it long enough to discover the genius of A.R. Rahman.
The film is about Indian villagers who have to learn in a very short amount of time the complicated sport of their British masters, cricket, in order to win a bet that will cancel their taxes (lagaan) for three years. If they lose, they have to pay three times what they owe to the empire. The film runs for almost four hours. The cricket match itself is the length of a conventional American film (90 minutes). I watched all of it, not because of the acting (which was not bad), or the story (also not bad), but for the music (which A.R. Rahman composed).
The beauty of the score was totally new to me. It was rich and seductive and elegant and downright funky.
