Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India 2001

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: If you haven't sampled India's indigenous cinema, this is a great place to begin. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: An old-fashioned crowd-pleaser that charms you into forgiving any of its shortcomings. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [I]t is long, but it never sags. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A great big Bollywood musical, complete with song and dance and doomed love triangles and elegantly photographed men playing cricket. And it's terrific fun, in a way that only great big musical fantasies can be. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: A one-stop shopping experience in the cinema of the subcontinent. Read more

Monica Eng, Chicago Tribune: After having seen this Cinemascope extravaganza in a theater, on DVD and video, I still think the big screen experience is worth it. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Times: This is a movie that knows its business -- pleasing a broad, popular audience -- and goes about it with savvy professionalism and genuine flair. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: In some ways, Lagaan is quintessential Bollywood. Except it's much, much better. Read more

Mark Peranson, Chicago Reader: Few recent American musicals are this fluid or engaging. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: An affectionate homage to a popular genre that raises it to the level of an art film with fully drawn characters, a serious underlying theme, and a sophisticated style and point of view. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's been made with an innocent yet fervid conviction that our Hollywood has all but lost. Read more

F.X. Feeney, L.A. Weekly: It works its magic with such exuberance and passion that the film's length becomes a part of its fun. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: If you've never experienced a Bollywood musical before, seeing Lagaan will be like watching Gone With the Wind without ever having seen a Hollywood movie. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: An enormously entertaining movie, like nothing we've ever seen before, and yet completely familiar. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: A rippingly good, old-fashioned movie epic that takes the best of Bollywood cinema ... and elevates it for an international audience. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: An involving, easily digestible hunk of pure entertainment that could be the trigger for Bollywood's long-awaited crossover to non-ethnic markets. Read more

Ed Halter, Village Voice: Elegantly produced and expressively performed, the six musical numbers crystallize key plot moments into minutely detailed wonders of dreamlike ecstasy. Read more