As part of a spring semester series of events and activities arranged in conjunction with professor Nita Kumar's courses on modern South Asia, a screening of the 2001 Oscar-nominated foreign feature film, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 7 in Roberts North, room 103, on the CMC campus.
Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and featuring Aamir Khan and Gracy Singh, along with the commentary, The Romance of South Asian Villages, Lagaan is an historical film on the intriguing subject of an Indian village team playing a cricket match with British officers for survival in colonial India.
The screening is the latest in a series of events and discussions on South Asia history organized by Kumar, the Brown Family Professor of South Asian History. Last week, a South Asia Tea hosted at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum featured a discussion of two South Asian festivals in March: Holi, the spring festival of the Hindus, and Barawafat, the birthday of the Prophet.
The Athenaeum was also host to a visit from best-selling author William Dalrymple on April 1, whose 2002 book The White Mughals, is considered one of the most memorable books of its genre. Dalrymple's discussion, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857, was named for his newest book, released in 2007.