Swades: Vibrant canvas of characters on journey of self discovery!

Much has been said and written about this classic over the years. Swades is probably last movie from the saddles of Bollywood which had (we call them) superstar actor(s) and mainstream director working together not to chase 100/200 crore club, but to create something beautiful, meaningful, long lasting and realistic piece of art! Its pity that none of today’s established actor/directors are looking keen to trace back and walk on the path of legacy Swades has created!

Swades work on many levels, but I think what makes is so unique and repeat watch is its characters!
As they say, every character written shall complete its circle at the end of story. And Swades does that beautifully!

From protagonist Mohan Bhargava to flash and go water selling boy, everyone has their story to tell. Ashutosh Gowariker has taken his time to detail out each character and though that has made length of movie quite long for some, in the end each character leave its own impact. It forces us to sit back and think about them and that is enormous achievement which most of movies fail to do!

There is subtle chemistry between Mohan and Gita. If you have noticed, since the scene from Bookstore, Gowriker has tried to establish Gita as other side of coin of Mohan Bhargava. She is equally talented as Mohan, but she decides to stay back in remote Charanpur and teach poor kids, rather than going after lucrative professions that she was capable of.  As movie proceeds, Gowariker hints their dual in plenty of scenes where she has point and Mohan has to listen to her and introspect. And with each of that, seed of staying back in country and doing something for betterment of society rather than just talking, start growing in mind of Mohan. Epitome of this circle is well crafted at the end of movie. It is refreshing to see, how people actually fell for each other when they find someone alike. No running in gardens and candy floss! We, Indian viewers need more of that!

There is theme of Gandhism with old school teacher, fondly called as Dadaji, who is working along with Gita in hope of changing stubborn mindset of villagers to send more kids to school. When Mohan arrives and starts colliding with gritty panches, burning out frustration over their thinking, each time camera moves to old Dadaji. He has little smile of some accomplishment. In Mohan, he seems to have found someone he was looking whole life. And finally when he was on death bed, he could die in peace as knew he had passed the baton in right hands! Dadaji is symbol of generation which was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and had hopeful of new India, which unfortunately did not happen as they had dreamt of.

Kaveri Amma could understand what Gita had chosen for herself, knows her struggle and hence reluctant to go with Mohan to US. She knew poor Haridas could never pay off Gita’s debt but still send Mohan to visit him. When Mohan is back with nothing but grim shock of reality, she has smile and precise words to talk with him and let him know ‘this is dismal situation in most of us live here.’ Brilliantly written!

There are few deeply moving scenes. One where Mohan and Melaram request poor wager to send their kids to school, second monologue of Haridas and most remarkable of all, kid selling water for few pennies on platform. These are some best depicted scenes of cruel world we live in on silver screen and they are enough to melt heart of any sensible human. Bravo Swades!

Also there are array of wonderful and realistic characters. Melaram, who is trying to from escape reality with US dreams. Burly Post Master who is also part time wrestler. Couple of village administration pnaches, one of which later realizes importance of education for girls; and one, on more stubborn stance of how whole casteism and all is right and Mohan has no business in Charanpur other than enjoy few days as guest.
And off course at the end there is ‘Bijlee’ old woman, who is depicted as symbolism of hope!
Among all these representatives of different shades of India, we have Mohan Bhargava, who lives this journey of finding true self and roots of him, brilliantly portrayed by Shah Rukh Khan.

Swades is vibrant canvas of all of these characters held together by superlative performances and great narration. It has meaningful songs penned by Javed Akhtar and soulful music by A. R. Rahman. Here unlike songs do not become obstacles in narration, rather take story forward, unlike most of Hindi movies.

We might belong to any layer of this spectrum, but at the end this is our land and we owe something to it! Swades concludes with this powerful massage.
This is story of us- we, the people of India!
Swades will always challenge inner self of you. It asks so many questions and makes you bit shaken at the end. That’s beauty and biggest success of it! Kudos to makers of this extraordinary piece of realistic Cinema!
 #12YearsOfSwades