MovieChat Forums > Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) Discussion > Lagaan a shameless rip off

Lagaan a shameless rip off

posted 14 years ago by Rollo_Tomasi_haha
6 replies | jump to latest

Lagaan's village English-localboy-localgirl love triangle is copied from Nododi Thendral and even the similarities such as beginning of the movie narration abot the introduction to period settings, the British Raj's torture of local Indians especially their hunting of Indian animals (deer in Lagaan vs Goat in Nadodi Thendral), british girl befriending the desi yuvak and falling in love gradually for him while he loves only the desi village girl (a duck-herds girl in case of Nadodi Thendral), the gori singing (almost similar costumes in both movies as well), the angry British officer in both cases.... and what not.

I personally think Nadodi Thendral had much better cinematography being shot in night photography in many scenes with a blue interface (a very soothing experience for the viewers while Lagaan had bright desert like photography which was very bright and dry - hard hitting on the eyes).

The songs also were much better in Nadodi Thendral with Illayaraja sir using a myriad of musical instruments such as Trombone, flute, oboe, Classical guitar, Accordion, cello, Violin, Pan flute, Piano, Harmonium, Santoor, sarod, Sitar, Sarangi, jazz drums, mandolin and many more instruments - fantastic usage of mini-orchestra. Sandhana Maarbile song and Maniye Manikuyile is such a treat to the ears. Lagaan had a song inspired from a 1970's Tamil film "Kungumam".

Everything cleverly taken and the result is a super hit and Oscar nominated film which was a result of a multiple source inspiration. Clearly Nadodi Thendral is the lesser known but more classical and genuine masterpiece.

Ofcourse the cricket angle is ripped off from the 80's Doordarshan TV show Nuukad.

[–] Ihab_M 14 years ago

Sigh...

Next you will claim Avatar has been lifted from some Kamal's movie and its soundtrack has been copied from some Illayaraja's score..

I am a decent man in an Indecent time

[–] iggawitattitude 14 years ago

get lost. go back to tamil nadu with your film. learn to respect masterpieces.

[–] arvindh-mani 10 years ago

Talking about showing respect while using sentences like

go back to tamil nadu with your film

, and this in all of 14 words! How did you do it?

"Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of *beep* and came out clean on the other side."

[–] ankitu_ch 14 years ago

I haven't seen Nadodi Thendral, but the plot of Lagaan is heavily inspired from a TV series Nukkad. In Nukkad some poor people lived together in a neighbourhood and it showed the love and affection between them. But they are asked to empty the land by the richer people. So a bet is placed between the richer people and the Nukkad people where they play a cricket match and the Nukkad people will have to leave the land if they lose the match. The basic plot of Lagaan too is very similar. Nukkad was directed by Kundan Shah (Director of excellent films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa) and has actors like Pavan Malhotra.

Lets put a smile on that face of yours.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Tomatish 10 years ago

I found Nadodi Thendral on Youtube. It's quite obvious that the love triangle is ripped off, but in my honest opinion, Lagaan is a much better movie. The editing of Nadodi Thendral made me cringe.