A commendable effort. Review on Swades

What?s the similarity between Sam Mendes, Farhan Akhtar and Ashutosh Gowariker; apart from the fact that they are all acclaimed filmmakers of the current generation? Apparently, there is none, except the fact that all three made a film (debut in the cases of Mendes & Farhan and Ashutosh's third after Pehla Nasha, Izzat ki Roti & Baazi) that wooed critics and the masses alike. The films were all box-office successes; swept the awards they were nominated for and the trio faced the same expectations when they announced their next film. Add to this the fact that their second film was as different from the first as one could ever think of.

Swades, much touted as Ashutosh Gowariker?s second inning after Lagaan, holds on its own. In fact, in certain respects it is a much better film than the 2001 mega-success. True, it has its similarities with its predecessor, but it's like a novelist using the same words in a different context and emerging with a totally different connotation to them.

It is said that to bring out the effect of light, one needs to know darkness. This basic contrast is used as a backbone for Swades. What can be more apt to bring out the fact of being rooted to reality than some one who as a profession aims for the sky? Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan) is a Project Manager at NASA working on Global Precipitation Measurement ? a technology that takes the guesswork away from forecasting rainfall.

This is the beginning of the recurrent water motif that Gowariker has so masterfully utilized in his film. From the affinity of Mohan to mineral water (one bottle of which he gifts to a minstrel who he picks up on his caravan); to a child water vendor who acts as a catalyst in the protagonist?s life; the singular channel of change in a village; the ultimate ablution in a water body where Mohan washes his soiled feet; to Geeta?s (Gayatri Joshi) first question to Mohan in a classroom about five rivers of India, the source of life acts as a refrain throughout the film.

Other deftly applied symbolisms abound ? especially remarkable is one where Gowariker, the director, removes a great class divide in a village ? an erected movie screen ? to bring to the fore what the film stands for ? a coming together, a unison.

The performances are also remarkable. Kishori Ballal as Kaveri Amma, the mother figure who brought up Mohan, is simply sublime. Gowariker should be applauded for eliciting touching performances from total non-actors ? a despondent farmer who has all but given up hope of providing for his family; an aged woman whose only reaction to her first interaction with a lit bulb is simply uttering the word ?bijli?, the instances are many.

Gowariker?s forte, apart from being a brilliant storyteller, has been his character sketches, a trait that is evident in his recent offering as well. The film brings to light Shahrukh Khan as never seen before ? a cliché that is actually applicable as far as his portrayal of Mohan Bhargava is concerned.

Considered a demi-god, Khan sinks into his character albeit a trifle skeptically at the beginning of the movie, but then settles into it in the same manner he dips his feet in the murky water of the village reservoir. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the debutante Gayatri Joshi. While seeing her acting prim and proper, I could not but help wonder if her character was written with Nandita Das lurking somewhere at the back of the mind of the screenplay writer!

Swades is as patriotic in flavor as any recent release in the same genre, with a subtle difference. Except in two sequences, it makes its statement without resorting to any sort of jingoism.

Look for the brilliant quirks in the film ? the reaction of an eight-year old to a huge caravan in a village, a water pipe turning into a musical instrument, an inverted image of a temple as seen through the eyes of a child looking at it in an upside down manner ? these are the small things that ultimately separate the wheat from the chaff and not an elaborately staged, grandiose item number.