The emancipation of Mohan. Review on Swades

There is a scene in Swades where Mohan Bhargava opts to drink water from a mud cup instead of his regular mineral water bottle.He is traveling in a local train to a very remote village and there peeking out of the window he sees a shabby looking boy selling water for 25 paise a cup.

As the boy comes to Mohan's window and requests(or more appropriately pleads with) him to buy a cup , Mohan's face turns from quizzical to somber and without taking his eyes off the boy he hands him some coins, takes the cup of water in return and drinks from it while struggling to control his emotions.Even as the train starts to leave the platform his eyes are still locked at the boy counting his income*.This is a small but the first in a series of incidents that not only shake Mohan's conscience but also urge him to get seriously involved in the plight of these people.

Mohan works in NASA as a Project manager and stays in the US.After a lot of delay he finally gets the time to come to India to try and pursue his childhood nanny Kaveri Amma to go with him.She is like a mother to him and he finds it unacceptable that in her old age he is not being able to take any care of her.

What begins as a simple two weeks mission prompted by nostalgia and affection turns into a journey to the heartland of rural India, both literally and metaphorically.As he travels through the remote villages in his luxurious caravan he comes face to face with the dust bowl image of India.As he starts spending time in Kaveri's village he meets various interesting characters.

The naive village cook who wants to open a chain of dhabas in partnership with him in the US.The progressive thinking postmaster who tries to do the best of whatever resources he has.The backward caste people who are actually scared of coming anywhere close to the other villagers and live a life of ignominy.The village elders(Panchayat) who although respectable, keep ignoring the problems and ask people to learn to live with them.

But none more interesting than Geeta, an educated young lady who stays with Kaveri and Chiku(younger brother) and teaches in a school.She is suspicious of Mohan in the beginning and keeps on giving unsolicited enlightenment to him on Indian culture in a matter of teasing.Naturally a stranger to these type of people Mohan keeps on experiencing the village life albeit in a detached manner like that of a tourist and keeps on pursuing Kaveri Amma in the meantime.

All that changes once he makes a trip to the home of a poor peasant who despite all his hardwork can never feed his family.These scenes of abject poverty jolt him out of his comfort zone and he is no longer in a hurry to return.He become increasingly aware of his responsibilities towards his fellow country men who are far less privileged than him.He starts searching for ways in which he can offer help.Extending his vacation amidst a lot of pressure at his workplace he stays on till he , with the help of the villagers successfully complete a project which produces electricity for the region.

He returns to America with only a heavy heart and a disturbed mind.But once his NASA project nears completion he decides to go and settle in that same village for good.He simply can't ignore the call anymore.

*Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera, Swadesh Hai Tera, Tujhe hai Pukara

Yeh woh Bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahi sakta.*

Shahrukh Khan as Mohan Bhargav has given probably his best performance till date where he has kept away from all that sleepwalking he does in his countless romantic avatars and given an earnest character all the sincerity and seriousness it deserves.Gayatri Joshi as Geeta looks mesmerisingly beautiful even in simple saris and has done more than a splendid job as a first timer.Kishori Balal as Kaveri Amma is very endearing as well.The music given by A R Rahman touches your heart with effortless ease with some really great songs like Yeh tara woh Tara, Yun hi Chala and others.Another highlight is the camera work which has shown Rural India with all it's colours and beauty.

Above all, the whole movie has great direction written all over it.Asutosh Gowarikar has not only made the hugely relevant subject of a documentary both entertaining and highly inspiring but he has also gone on to extract the best performances from his actors.The subtlety and simplicity of his depiction is worth a standing applause.This definitely is his best work till date and I highly doubt anyone else in Bollywood coming up with a better product on this kind of script.The way he has captured various facets of village life is superb.With all due respect to Shahrukh's brilliant protrayal, Swades is Gowarikar's movie.

P.S-Comparing the recent "Slumdog Millionaire" with Swades I found that they both deal with similar subjects.Yet at no moment I felt that Gowarikar was exploiting the poverty angle by overplaying it , which is what Danny Boyle has done a bit.