Gangs Den

Swades

I heard mixed reviews about this one before I saw it. That brought down my expectations, which, in hindsight, is good because if I was expecting a movie as good as 'lagaan' i wd have been disappointed. But in itself 'swades' is a good movie. (3.5/5)

It starts slow, and does not get really gripping until the end of the first half (barring some comedy). The second half picks up where left off, and hits some highs.

The real plot of the movie does not settle down initially. For a while one might even wonder if this is a love story. Some scenes have a documentary look to them in the first half. Some are thought provoking, yet boring, like the discussion between Mohan and Geeta about government/policy/ individual_contribution.

For those who like Shahrukh, you can see the 'ddlj' shahrukh in some scenes. He, as usual, aces them. When he tells Geeta to not miss him much, when he tells Geeta that he knows one man who can tolerate her etc. When Geeta tries to intimidate him in the school with 'GK' questions, he shows off his knowledge and before you know it turns into a well-handled love scene. Shahrukh does his antics well. In the 'what can i do for the village' second half also, the love story is handled deftly and elegantly. The song and the scene before it in which Geeta expresses her love comes to mind.

Having seen lot of 'elderly characters in bollywood movies' play such tricks one easily assumes that Kaveriamma has something in mind when she asks Mohan to collect money from Haridas, a poor farmer who rent's Geeta's land. But one does not expect the highlight of the movie to be the next 10 minutes. The whole episode when Mohan meets Haridas is heart-wrenching. The soft touch the director gives when Mohan sleeps that night (looking at moon through the bed's roof) is an exclamation point. The best scene of the movie comes on Mohan's return journey in the train station 'Ajite' where a kid sells water to Mohan. Shahrukh excelled in showing his emotions there. Given that you see Shahrukh drink bottled water until then, (and refer to the rest as 'you indians'), this can be thought of as the 'transformation'. Subsequent discussion with the village heads on Dussera about why India is not the greatest country was good in all aspects.

Like these some shots do make you sit up and notice, although they aren't as many or as frequent as in a lagaan.

Geeta (Gayatri Joshi) did a great job in her limited role. She seems to be more of a cosmetic character in the second half. Kaveriamma did well. Among the rest, MelaRam and Postman did memorable jobs.

The climax seemed a bit lengthy, especially when Geeta gives a token of tradition/culture to Mohan on his departure. But the montage of the memories Mohan has from 'swades' is well done. Especially showing Geeta in the rear view mirror (memories) in his Jaguar.

I am sure some scenes in the second half make most NRIs think about if/when they can_go_back/should_have_gone_back. I am not sure how many NRIs actually return to India wathing this movie, however, given the nature of quick sentiments that we have, a larger donations to tsunami victims can result from those who watch the movie.

The unit, the director and Shahrukh should be patted on their back for attempting to make such a big budget, message oriented movie, and almost pulling a great one out of it..

Posted by gangs at January 8, 2005 04:54 AM