The expectations were high when I went to see this movie.I wanted to see this especially as I myself am studing for the G.R.E. exam & am aspiring to go to the states.the stage was set.After all there was an impressive director whose earlier film was superb, the ever-dependable S.R.K. and of course the all the hype generated from the excellent promos and the melodius music.
Does the film deliver on all the expectations it generated?Unfortunately it borders much on the verge of mediocre with patches of genious thrown in between.
The film mainly tells us the story of Mohan Bharadwaj (Shahrukh Khan) who is an Indian techie based at N.A.S.A. in the States.He is the project manager of quite an important project there and is pretty successful in life.But he feels quite depressed that he has forgotten about his childhood nanny Kaveriamma (Kishori Ballal) living in India, and the feeling reaches its peak on the day of the death anniversary of his parents.
So, he sets out on a journey to India to hunt for his childhood nanny and bring her back to the states to live with him.Soon he lands up at Charanpur, a sleepy village in Uttar Pradesh.He finds his nanny living with his childhood friend Geeta (Gayathri Joshi) who is a beautiful, fiercely independent school teacher.
The rest of the film deals with Mohan’s gradual understanding of the village people, their problems (no electricity, education, wanton poverty and the caste system), his attempts to win over his love and persuade her and Kaveriamma to come to him to the states, and the ultimate battle between the yearning to lead a comfortable life abroad and his love for the homeland that gave him so much.
The film hasshades of Lagaan, though it would seem pretty obvious since both the films have a rural setting.
Let me get this straight.I will give Ashutosh 100/100 for the daring to come up with this completely different film and not trudging along beaten paths.But I am afraid I can only give him 60/100 for the execution.
First the pros.
(a) A fresh and innovative script, which seems to be in short supply in todays films.The director treats the audience as understanding adults and not as goggling idiots.The concept is simply brilliant and the potential enormous.The film actually tries to convey a message and the message that he tries to convey through the film is noble.
I mean after the ruaway success of Laagan , the director could simply have made a safe masala film and raked in the moolah.But he experiments and this will to try different things is simply worth saluting.I will certainly be queing for his next film whenever it releases.As I have said Kudos for the effort!
(b) The briliant S.R.K who once again essays a flawless and lucid performance.The simplicity with which he potrays the role is commendable.Its the case of wine getting better with age.
(c) An absolutely breathtaking and marvellous score composed by the genious-incomparable A.R.Rahman. Especialy Yuhi chala chal and yeh jo des hai tera are mindblowing.
(d) Superb cinematography .The village life is perfectly captured on the screen and the filming of the songs is good.
(e) A quite adept performance from the support cast.The heroine is cute and puts up some brilliant show, albeit in patches.She has the potential and certainly the talent to go up the ladder, only if she is more consistent.The mini charachters of the cook and the postman are well executed.
The cons:
(a) The main flaw is the length.At 3 1/2 hours the movie is painfully long and one begins to lose interest after around 2 hours.I mean in Lagaan , there was atleast an exciting cricket match in the end.This movie trudges along at snail pace and the songs especially play no part in forwarding the script.This flawed editing has virually handicapped what would have been a great film.
(b)The message though conveyed is good, it could have been conveyed much better though more instances rather than boring debates between Mohan and the villagers.It hampers the script flow and sort of drags the movie in to standstill mode.
(c) According to me, some humour is needed even while handling a serious subject.It helps us sympathise with the characters, to bond with them.Unforunately, humour is almost totally absent from this movie.Save a few mild jokes, which do nothing to lighten the mood , the movie seems much like a documentary.
But weighing all the pros and cons , I would certainly recommend you Swades.It is a honest film , a thought provoking film.It conveys a simple yet eloquent message. Some may not like it for this very fact.It is by no means an exceptional film.
It has it’s flaws, but I would atleast recommend it to the N.R.I public and all the students aspiring to go abroad. You will be compelled to think. At least, I was.