Hi......
What follows is just a personal view of one of the few meaningful movies I have seen this year...........
Swades in a nutshell is the story of a scientist , Mohan Bhargava working for NASA , who traces his roots only to rediscover himself. Kaaveriyamma his nanny and Geetha his lover all seem very real......I would’nt delve more into the plot because it would absolutely be a waste of time........please find that out for yourself..........
Shahrukh Khan for the first time in his career , instead of playing the same old ’’shahrukh’’ , lives the character of Mohan Bharagava. Although I would’nt call it the performance of the year but still would rate it as his best.
Geetha played by Gayathri Joshi is simple yet effective although she can improve quite a lot in the histrionics department. And Kishori Ballal breathes life into Kaveriyamma’s character with ease. The rest of the characters in the movie are portrayed beautifully by the supporting cast.
AR Rahman again proves his versatility with the score. The background music leaves u spell bound and surely asking for more.Music proves to be a big asset to the movie without which it would have lost much of its entertainment value.
Ashutosh Gowariker after Lagaan , dons the directors hat again for a movie that could easily be termed a perfect sequel to LAGAAN.. Swades treads the Lagaan path in screenplay while dealing with an entirely different theme which I found quite relevant in today’s circumstances.Both these films place the country in the forefront and leaves the audience with a thought or two.Although Lagaan was a little bit on the louder side I would term Swades ’subtle and sweet’. Comparisons between the films are inevitable but I for sure would like to limit it to that.
This movie belongs to Ashutosh , A R Rahman and Shahrukh Khan.
Ashutosh effortlessly narrates the story with a dose of humour although the film could have been edited in parts to curtail it to atleast 3 hours. Rahman and Shahrukh add entertainment value to the movie and infact by a huge amount.
I believe in cinema that conveys a message and at the same time entertains.Swades definitely succeeds in doing that and strongly appeals to my sensibility.
As for the Title ’The intelligentsia and the masses’......yes I believe this is the kind of cinema that should appeal to both , although the length of the movie may go against it.
Although 4 / 5 would be the apt rating for the movie I would like to rate it 4.5 / 5 just because I feel we need to encourage film makers who dare to tread the untrodden path and bring a certain amount of freshness to Hindi cinema which quite desperately needs more of this.
Thanks for reading through and I definitely feel this is a MUST WATCH for every indian.
Give it a go !!!!!!!!!!!