Movie Review Of Swades. Review on Swades

Psst - This section will contain some inside trivia about the film.

Quotes - Good one liners from the movie.

Oops - Goofs From the movie.

Director ? Ashutosh Gowariker

Sreenplay ?Ashutosh Gowariker, M.G.Sathya & K.P .Saxena

?The Heart Of India Lies in its Villages.? ? M.K.Gandhi

The above quote sums up the entire movie. Mohan Bhargav (Shahrukh Khan) is a project manager for a massive project for NASA which is building a Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) to detect potential rain zones around the world. When the project is launched it just happens to be the death anniversary pf his parents who passed away in a road accident when he was just 17.

Mohan decides to go back to India one last time in search of his nanny Kaveriamma(Kishori Ballal in a sure shot contention for award for the best supporting actress). When he finally traces her to a small Uttar Pradesh Village Charanpur he comes to know that she is under the care of a firebrand school teacher, Geeta (Gayatri Joshi). Geeta has a 8 year old brother Chiku(Smith Sheth).

Mohan Wants to bring kaveriamma to the US while Geeta wants her to stay in the village. Mohan interacts with Mela Ram(Dayashanker PAndey) who wants to open a chain of Dhabas in USA and with the local postman/wrestler/wise man of the village Nivaran(Rajesh Vivek).

He interacts with the village panchayat and gets to learn that the village is still having electricity cut for 3/4th of the day and there is still caste and feudal fights going on. Instead of sending children to school to get a decent education everyone is making the kids learn family trades to earn a living.

Mohan, having a scientific temper, decides to get all the kids sent to school and decides to built a small dam so that the village doesn?t get power cuts. To do this he has to win the hearts of everyone especially the panchayat. Well meant movie which does not have any histrionics that one would generally expect from such a movie.

Although the story is quite clichéd (haven?t we seen similar stories in Virasat and Main Azad Hoon and the disasterous Mumbai se aaya mera dost) everyone has given their best performance. Good cinematography by Mahesh Sazxena and some wonderful background music by A R Rehman. Although the songs are good, they really hamper the pace of what could have been the best Indian movie on Social Reforms.

Shahrukh Khan Gives his best performance since Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa. All the remaining star cast are good in their roles but if this movie belonged to any one actor then that actor has to be Shahrukh Khan. Near Flawless direction and script by Ashutosh Gowariker (Who had nothing short of sky high expectation after the historic Lagaan) No matter what anyone may say, this is a must watch movie for any good student of World Cinema.

Movies like this will make presence of Indian Cinema be felt globally rather then Silly Movies like Mian Hoo Naa or Veer Zaara. Watch out for the most touching scene of the movie when Mohan goes to get Rent from a farmer who has been given the duty to toil Geeta?s land. Another touching scene in the movie is when Mohan drinks water from the pot in a railway station.

Psst ?

1) The GPM is an actual NASA project which is scheduled to be completed by 2007 and the shooting has actually been taken inside the famous Kennedy Space Centre.

2) The script of this movie was one of the most closely kept secrets in the Indian Film Industry. There were rumors that this movie was a remake of Apollo 13. Sharukh Khan once even jokingly said that Lagaan had a cricket match at the end of it and Swades will have an Ice Hockey Match.

3) Film was conceived way back in 2001 by Ashutosh and he wanted Sharukh Khan to be in Lead role.

4) If anyone of you are wondering where you have seen Gayatri Joshi before? She is the same model who was paired with Shahrukh Khan in the Hyundai Santro Commercial about 3 years back.

5) Length of the film is 210 minutes.

6) Entire Movie was shot in a small Maharashtrian Village called Bahai which is near Panchgini in Maharashtra.

Quotes ?

1) ?Its like this. Diya jalaye hamarey angaan main. Aur Roshni padey neighbour ke aangan pe.?

2) ?Go, light you bulb.?

Oops ?

Although I didn?t find any goofs in the movie. I may have missed on some continuity glitches or some other goofs. Please let me know if you do find any.