I know that I am too late in writing this review. Well, I saw it only on Saturday last. So a review for me is when it is fresh in my memory.
What is this movie gonna be like? Am i gonna like this film? Will it be anything like Lagaan? Well I did like the film. Not like lagaan, but has its own moments.
~The Story~
The story is about Mohan Bhargava, a NASA project manager, who comes to India, to seek out Kaveriamma, his godmother? As he seeks her, he finds out that she has moved to a village called Charanpur. And so our hero begins his tryst with destiny as he hires a caravan, and moves off. He loses his way, though his path is set right by a traveling medicant . Why was there a song here, sung by these two guys is not fathomable. But it was a good song, so all is forgiven.
The song ends and we have Mohanji at the village. He is led to kaveri amma?s house by a boy, who turns out to be his would be girl?s ( geeta?s ? Gayatri Joshi) brother. This Geeta is a teacher who is all for more literacy in the village. Way to go Gal!
Soon, we somne cliché?s . we have a character called Mela Ram (Dayashankar pandey)
Who dreams of opening Dhaba?s in the US. We have a Postman Nivaran ( Rajesh Vivek),
Both of whom assist Mohan in his ventures for the village.
First off, Mohan starts with getting recruits for Geeta?s school. Next, step unifying the village irrespective of caste creed . Next, he helps the villagers get electricity. Generates it himself ? He does it with a lil help from his friends. All done, he gets a place in every heart.
Then goes back without Kaveri amma, to the US, completes his project. But is soon restless. His heart yearns for him to return to India. While the heart yearns, we are treated to a lovely rendering of ? Yeh jo Des hai Tera ? Swades hai Tera ?. Loved it!
The hero returns home.
Performances wise, this is one role of Shahrukh, that I liked. Here he is Mohan Bhargava. No fancy outfits for him. He looked the part. And eased through the film quite well.
Gayatri Joshi as the modern village belle had a fresh approach, tho she was not comfortable in emotional scenes. But good debut nevertheless.
Kishori Ballal, good performance, but not a powerfull one. The rest of the cast supported the film quite well.
Screenplay was excellent as was cinematography. The music ? the class of Rehman was unmistakable. But songs I really liked were The title song, and yuh hi chala chal.
Cons ? The start was too boring. At one time I felt I was watching a documentary.