Baar baar haan, bolo yaar haan/Apni jeet ho, unki haar haan.

Cricket, patriotism and movies. Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan ticks all three checkboxes. Lavish historical sports drama, epic crossover, a visual delight — critics couldn’t get enough of the film that released in June 2001 to worldwide acclaim. The ticket-buying public agreed: Lagaan batted handsomely at the box office, second only to KJo’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (the extra e in kabhie probably gave the glam weepathon an extra dose of luck).

So, we’re transported to 1893 where an arrogant, cricket-loving racist Briton — Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne, superbly unpleasant) — crosses paths with an upright young peasant of drought-stricken Champaner, Bhuvan (Aamir Khan, suitably brown and earnest). One thing leads to another and before you know it, Russell has laid a wager — he and his team will play a cricket match with Champaner XI. If the villagers win, they’re exempt from tax for three years, if they lose, they’ll pay the British thrice the amount. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Bhuvan assembles a motley team (check out the fine character actors, including Raghubir Yadav, Raj Zutshi, Yashpal Sharma and Aditya Lakhia).

Russell’s comely sister Elizabeth (a spirited Rachel Shelley), shaken and stirred by her brother’s unfairness and Bhuvan’s chiselled torso, gives cricket tips to the barefoot gilli-danda men. (We’re a long way off from multi-millionaire Indian cricketers!)

A David-Goliath match — overlong but packed with cliff-hanger moments — ensues, with a happy ending. No tax, Indians jubilant, Russell and his whiskered friends humiliated, the British umpire’s astounding fair play balancing Russell’s evil gora. Bhuvan embraces Gauri (an unaffected Gracy Singh). Heartbroken Eliza, we’re told in the Bachchan baritone, stays unmarried in Bhuvan’s memory, and Russell is banished to Africa.

A.R. Rahman’s music is extraordinary, as is Anil Mehta’s cinematography, though Ballu Saluja’s editing could’ve been tighter. But what gives Lagaan its heft is Gowariker’s idea of India, where Bhuvan, Ismail and Kachra (with self-explanatory names) play together to win as a team. Yes, Bhuvan scores the winning six, but he wouldn’t have reached that far without Ismail and Kachra. In times like these, that almost brings a catch in one’s throat.