Customer Reviews

Lagaan-Once Upon a Time in India

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Even without seeing this amazing film, you can appreciate the music. Many Bollywood soundtracks are unoriginal or make a botched attempt to mix Western esthetics (offensive synthesizers etc) with traditional Indian elements, but this soundtrack both defies convention and is loaded with songs that are at the same time modern and 100% Indian. Fabulous percussion parts show how traditional Indian rhythms can totally groove, and the slow songs bring you to tears even when you can't understand the words (though watching the movie will help those of us who don't speak Hindi). I loved the music so much after seeing the film without subtitles in India that I bought this soundtrack there; now that I've just seen the film w/ subtitles I can say that for most of the songs, the lyrics are great, too. One song is kind of marred by a horrid, cheesy English-language interlude, but otherwise it's all powerful, wonderful music. Good stuff. Check it out and you won't be disappointed.

After I watched Lagaan for the first time, I had to find the music. The music is simply wonderful, from the wonderful vocals to the tabla drum which I love. It makes me want to dance listening to it. It is is a nice fusion of traditional Hindi score and western rythms, which I think speaks volumes about the movie's underlying theme of imperialism and colonization. Even though I don't understand Hindi, I also love the lyrics, as they sound beautiful off of the singers' tongues and watching the movie helps one to understand the songs as well. I would recommend it to anyone who likes world music, or just good music in general :)

As the soundtrack to what may be regarded in years to come as the "Gone With The Wind" of 21st century world cinema, the soundtrack to Lagaan does not disappoint. In fact, for a cinematic genre that is so unequivocally linked to its musical score, Lagaan lives up to all expectations, serving up a potpourri of songs and melodies, beautifully composed, and flawlessly sung by some of the vocalist heroes and heroines of Bollywood: Sukhwinder Singh, Udit Narayan, Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar, and Anuradha Shriram, to name a few. The opening number "Ghanan Ghanan" is a rousing number combining male and female vocals and a percussive beat, a foretelling of things to come. "Mitwa" follows by increasing the tempo up a notch, and is perhaps the most contemporary number in the album. Then comes the first jewel of the soundtrack, "Radha Kaise Na Jale," the song that accompanies the famous dance of the Gopis (which any Indian youngster will remember performing at their elementary school arts expo), a BEAUTIFUL song with an irresistible rhythmic beat. The second jewel, indeed the love anthem, is "O Rey Chhori," where Indian classical music meets and merges with Western symphonies (the few seconds when the Western female vocal, brilliantly done by Alka Yagnik, fades into the Indian percussion, is pure ecstasy!). The album ends with two symphonic numbers and the third jewel, "O Pallanhaare," a very spiritual and moving rendition of a prayer. Yes, this soundtrack is a MUST for fans of Bollywood music and worldbeat alike: a reaffirment of why we love the movies and music that is so uplifting, it crosses cultural boundaries.

Most Indian films are musicals. Music is an essential part of the Indian psyche. Film directors have adopted two polar strategies as far as Film music is concerned. Either weave the scores into the narration and screenplay or isolate them from the story altogether.I personally prefer the former. In the musical score for "Lagaan" A.R. Rehman works in total harmony with the narration of Ashutosh Gowrikar. The first piece "Ghannan Ghannan" symbolises the celebration of the arrival of the monsoon. It invokes the spirit of joy in you. "Mitva" is a call for action and is reflected in the use of the percussions in the score. " Radha Kaise Na Jale" is playful and conveys the mood of the possessive female and the playful male and is enchanting. "O re Gori" is soft and romatic and exudes passion and "O Palanhari" is appropriately serene. Udit Narayan, Shaan, Alka Yagnik, Vasundhara Das and Lata are excellent in their renderings but Asha in "Radha Kaise Na jale" continues to bedazzle.The group song with A.R.Rahman as the lead singer is average. A.R. Rahman is fresh and brilliant and refreshingly original in his music direction but I think he should stop singing.

'Lagaan' is an absolutely brilliant and inspiring Hindi film about determination, faith, unity and triumph. All these positive attributes are perfectly embodied within this incredible soundtrack.

From the chant-like 'Ghanan Ghanan', to the traditional dance number 'Radha Kaise Na Jale' and the defiant determination of 'Chale Chalo' this music will touch your emotions in so many different ways. And if 'Mitwa' doesn't bring you to your feet and get you dancing nothing will!

I think this is a brilliant Soundtract of the FIlm Lagaan which has a magical realism to it with its extraordinarily skethched characters , original plot and a Asterix like quality of the narration. Like Asterix was based on a real backdrop but the story was fictitious , the same goes with lagaan which has a backdrop of the British Raj but the story is fictitious. THe music and the lyrics written for the Bygone era yet has a freshness of today and Rahamsn has got the beat of the youth and brilliantly he marries the Indian CLassical with Wetern Classical and ofcourse the music of today.
Radha Kaise Na Jale is a wonderful song , then there are some woderful inspirational songs like Chale Chalo and O Mitwa.
Then there is the Ode to Monsoons "Kale Meha "Oh the Black CLouds" THe best I thought.

If you like this then go buy Dil SE which I think is the best of all his albums. Even ROja and Bombay are brilliant. A must for every Rahman Fan

The soundtrack for Lagaan is an excellent combination of melody and arrangement. Hopefully, this work will propel the listener into discovering all of the soundtracks from this fruitful composer, arranger, keyboardist, and vocalist. He started in 1992 with Tamil films and was so popular that it wasn't long before he entered Hindi and Telegu films as a top star. There is fine work across the gamet of his influence, although I personally prefer his Tamil soundtracks, due to the percussive quality of the language. Rahman is a rare genius who actually composes many songs a day when he is inspired.

I love this recording. It has the music fused with very good lyrics which would make most people have the tune in their minds. If one has watched this movie as well, nominated for Oscars amongst the top five movies in the international film category as I write this, I am sure you would fall in love with these songs. It is a masterful and beautiful CD. Listen to it, its truly a nice one, nice and real!

I loved the movie Lagaan!!!! It started out as a project for literature, and the movie was great! The thing that drew me most to the movie was the great music! Its perfect, differnet vocal, modern and traditional music... I went crazy trying to find the CD, now that I found it, I cant stop listneing to it! Mush have....

I just finished watching the movie (which by the way, is the most amazing piece of film i have watched in a long time, not to mention the fact that this is a Musical in another language, and since i'm a theatre buff, i nearly keeled over). The movie itself is absolutely enthralling, a feast for your eyes and your soul. It is unbelievably inspiring and motivating. However, what really placed this film on the tops of my chart was the music, which completely wrapped you up in the lyrics and the sound. If you like good music, buy this CD!