It's All Geek to Me!

« Vishy's Indian English Dcionary: 420 | Main | Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: STD booth »

July 28, 2005

Movie Review: Swades

[I am quite notorious for seeing fairly well known movies long after they come out. I saw the landmark Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge for the first time more than 8 years after it came out. I saw Swades only recently, even though it has been out for at least half a year now. Nonetheless, here's my belated review.]

Swades: We the People is an introspective, whimsical tapestry of vignettes woven around the experiences of Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan), the story's protagonist, who visits India after spending some time in the United States. Mohan is a project manager at NASA, whose mission is to launch a satellite that measures global precipitation. Standing at his balcony overlooking a stunning view of downtown Washington, D.C. (just how much does he make?), he realizes that he has grown too self-absorbed recently and forgotten his nanny, Kaveri Amma. Just as news of his successful petition for American citizenship comes through on his voicemail in the background, he decides to pay her a two-week visit in Delhi. When he reaches Delhi, he is told that Kaveri now lives in a village more than a hundred miles away. He rents an RV and drives to this village, but not before running into an enigmatic schoolteacher (Gayatri Joshi) in a bookstore. Mohan quickly surmises that behind her pretty face lies an idealistic, opinionated and culturally correct mind that is lightning quick with arithmetic (his calculator use in this scene is an amusing sop to Indian audiences about how arithmetically 'soft' he has become after moving to the United States).

Mohan arrives at Kaveri's village and finds out that the enigmatic schoolteacher from the bookstore was Geeta, his childhood playmate, who lives with Kaveri (how serendipitous!). Kaveri moved from Delhi to the village to raise Geeta, when she lost her parents. Geeta teaches at the local primary school started by her parents. Mohan's affair with the village and with Geeta begins in right earnest. Mohan is simultaneously touched by the simplicity and frankness of the villagers and appalled by the quality of life in the village. Electricity itself is a luxury and the local postman, who appears to be the most educated of the lot, hasn't even heard of the Internet. The village is too riven by caste politics to unite and do something about these inconveniences to their lives. In fact, many of them are used to these disruptions and have learned to carry on just fine. When reminded how dismal their lives are, they cling to India's millennia-old culture and heritage that they will always have no matter how tough the going gets.

Mohan decides he will have to prolong his vacation. Starting a crusade somewhat reminiscent of the President he serves, he sets about fixing the situation using persuasion, tact and several dollops of Shahrukh Charm (tm). Geeta's school is in imminent danger of being downsized if enrolment doesn't rise. He hits the road and lobbies the villagers to send all their children, not just the boys, to school. He deplores how the villagers lead dismal, disunited lives, while clutching at the culture-and-heritage straw at every oppotunity. He boldly states that even with its great and cohesive culture, India is not the greatest nation on earth, but merely has the potential to be so. He also challenges centuries-old prejudices that prevent villagers from different walks of life from coming together to tackle their problems. As the villagers start waking up to their own potential, he initiates a project to build a local hydroelectric power plant and sees it through to completion, backed by his NASA experience in project management. In a very real way, he positively affects the lives of the villagers, who have been swallowing their sense of helplessness and shame for so long. He returns to the United States filled with pride at what he accomplished and remorse at having left behind Geeta and the simple village life.

If the movie had ended here, it would be convincing, short and sweet. It would have noted India's glaring deficits in the material plane and would have illustrated how these could be overcome. However, it is not just for NRIs (referred to once in the movie as Non-Returning Indians) that this movie was made. In a somewhat unabashed act of pandering to the love story-hungry RIs (resident Indians), the unconvincing and weakly played out chemistry between Mohan and Geeta is made a pivotal reason for Mohan's return to the same village a few months later. Through most of the movie, Shahrukh's Mohan seems to be bursting at his seams to apply puppy-eyed, dimple-cheeked Shahrukh Charm (tm) upon Geeta with full force. However, the screenplay and direction keep thwarting his special Shahrukh moves, so that the audience is left wondering, "He left his cushy NASA job and apartment with a stunning view for this"? At one point in the movie, Mohan openly admits that Geeta lives by a totally different set of values and ideals than his. It is fortunate that the future of Mohan's and Geeta's relationship is left unclear beyond Mohan's return to India, because foisting their wedding on the audience would have been too much.

Even with the unconvincing ending, Swades has several sound points to make about the state of India today, and the complex conflicts tearing Non Resident Indians apart when they make their life choices. The musical score is by the multi-talented A.R. Rahman and provides a pleasant counterpoint to the progression of the story. All in all, the movie definitely deserves at least one viewing, if not a few more, for all the subtle references to sink in. Taking a line from the one of the movie's concluding scenes, it is more important to think of what the audience gains by watching this movie rather than what it has to lose.

Posted by Vishy at July 28, 2005 11:35 PM

Comments

Posted by: the nav at July 29, 2005 02:53 AM

Posted by: Vishy at July 31, 2005 01:55 AM

Posted by: Ravi at August 14, 2005 12:00 PM