SWADES- we the people
Ramesh Ramanathan, head of Citibank’s derivatives in Europe, will be a very happy man watching Swades. Ramanathan and his wife set up Janaagraha, in India to increase the public participation in local government. Though well settled in Europe, he felt that he owed to his homeland and thought it was his duty to show his gratitude towards it.
Similarly, we see most of our freedom fighters got their degrees abroad. If they could, they would have settled there and enjoyed the benefits. But they choose to fight for our freedom. Swades has some social message. It targets the middle class and NRI’s. In this film, the director doesn’t say to repay what the country has done for you. But he tells to give a thought. Each individual can make a difference to his homeland.
Swades is neither a masala flick like Veer Zaraa, Main Ho Naa, nor a patriotic film. Swades is a simple sweet story telling each one of us can make a difference to the improvement of our homeland.
Swades marks the return of Ashutosh Gowarikar, whose film Laagan made it to the nominations of best foreign film category at Oscars. Moreover Lagaan was also called a commercial success
Shah Rukh Khan who thrives in love stories has shed his chocolate boy image and has been shown in a subdued role.
Swades also marks the debut of model turned actress Gayathri Joshi.
The music is composed by A R Rahman and lyrics by Javed Akthar. The costumes have been designed by Oscar award winning designer Bhanu Atahiya.
Story: (No Spoilers)
Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) works as a project manager in NASA. He works for rainfall monitoring project and later for launch of satellite into space.
He remembers his parents on their death anniversary and realizes he has been neglecting his tai maa/ kaveriamma (Kishori Ballal) who looked after him when he was young. He then decides to his village and bring his tai amma to America.
He then arrives in Delhi and from there onwards he locates her in a village called charanpur. He also finds Geeta (Gayathri Joshi), his childhood friend, who takes care of his taiamma and falls in love with her. Geeta lives with kaveriamma and her small brother, she teaches in a village school which is only upto 4th Standard.
In the village, Mohan sees the caste system, no proper electric facilities, no proper school and poverty ridden village.
He is upset wants them to change them for the better.
The rest of the film deals with-
Can Mohan bring the happiness to his villagers? Can he solve their Problem? Will he take his Kaveri amma to America? Or will he settle in India to help his people and repay whatever his homeland has done to him?
To know all the answers watch Swades in theatres.
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Contd… (Contains spoilers)
The first half involves introduction to various characters like Mela Ram (Dhayashanker Pandey), Nivaran-Postman (Rajesh Vivek).
Mela Ram own a Dhabba and dreams to start a restaurant in America with mohan’s help. His scenes are very hilarious. Watch out for the special Bhangra BGM by blazee. It sounds too good.
The film contains some humorous moments like Kaveriamma asks Mohan how is NASHA (NASA). Mohan is worried maybe she is thinking he is upto drugs,
when Mohan takes bath, Geeta ties Mohan’s Dhoti, mohan and mela ram’s dialogues, Yaddon ki Bharaat cinema shown in the village and many more…
There are few memorable scenes like, mohan with the help of villagers gets electricity generating machine, the panchayat scenes when he says India isn’t great, and the plight of villagers that brings tears in Mohan’s eyes.
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MusicThe main highlight of the film is its music composed by ar rahman. The songs are already chartbusters. Aashista song is not seen in the film, and also pal pal hai bhaari song was not needed in the film, they have jinserted just because it was a Dusherra day. Yeh tara and yuhi chala are treat to watch. The climax features Yeh jo des song where the flashbacks are shown. Very emotional and innovative.
The cinematography is decent, the dialogues by K P Saxena are perfect, and the BGM is extraordinary.
The Story is penned by M G Sathya .
Performance wise, Shah Rukh Khan steals the show. He is projected not like a superstar but like Mohan- an ordinary man. Calling this as his best act may not be an overstatement. He shines all the way.
Gayathri Joshi as Geeta is perfect. It doesn’t look as if she were performing her debut.Might win Best Debut award. Her interaction with Mohan are awesome.
Other artist Kaveriamma, Mela ram, post master all have done a very good job.
But the main hero of the film is its director Ashutosh Gowarikar. Since his last offering was such a huge success, it would have been a difficult time for him to direct this film. But he has proved he is one of the best directors in India. He has used his screen play in an effective manner. He knows his job, and has taken out the best form his cast and crew.
But still there are some limitations. The first half especially the first few minutes move very slowly. The 2nd song Yeh tara comes very late in the film. Similarly, there are 3 songs in the second half which comes in quick succession.
Box Office Swades might have an encouraging first week, as people will be curious to find out more about this film. But from second week it might face difficulty because- the film has no masala, since it is more of realistic movie, it will have few takers, and also musafir which is into second week is doing pretty well, also another biggie ATHWS is releasing next week which will surely dampen the prospects of Swades. To put it bluntly Swades might suffer in BO.
Comaprison Laagan or Swades?? I’ll go with Lagaan. Though Swades is better than Veer Zaraa.
If you are upto meaningful cinemas do watch Swades, if you like films made by chopras and johars better avoid it.
I would give it 8/10
critique (4/5) box office (2/5)
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