Bollywood and Cricket Craze

In India, we eat cricket, we drink cricket and we live Cricket. In short Cricket is deep into everyone's life in this country. So is the craze of cricket in India that it has always been one of the major course of fascination for the film makers in Bollywood. Its a popular proverb in India that there are just two things popular - Cricket and Bollywood. Now its obvious, when these two popular aspects of entertainment go together, they have to rock the market. A number of movies have been directed in Bollywood on this concept and most of them have become a great success and some have even proved to be block busters.

Here are the top three Bollywood movies picked from the long list of Cricket based pictures who have provided the Cricket loving audience of India a nice mixture of both the game and the Bollywood "masala".

1. LAGAAN : The film, starred by Aamir Khan and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, nominated for the prestigious Oscar Awards was set in the Victorian period of the British Raj, and it tells about the resilience, spirit, inspiration and team work of the rustic villagers. With almost one hour of cricket match between Britishers and the villagers, the film was a big hit as it was able to strike the cord in people's mind.

2. IQBAL : Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, it is a story of a deaf and dumb boy from a remote Indian village, played by Shreyas Talpade, who fights all the odds to fulfil his dream, to play for the Indian National Cricket Team. Convincingly narrated and sensitively handled, Iqbal succeeds in touching the core of your heart a number of times in those two hours.

3. PATIALA HOUSE : Released recently starring Akshay Kumar who has played the role of a young cricket loving British Indian whose passion for Cricket falls in conflict with his father's aspirations. Directed by Nikhil Advani, Patiala House is also a story about family ties and duty, a yearning to follow one's dreams, and trying to make sense of the dichotomies that life presents when one's family has migrated to another land.