Genre: Bollywood, Musical
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi
Composer: A.R. Rahman
Synopsis:
Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan), an Americanized NASA scientist, returns to his native India to find the nanny who helped raise him. He hasn’t seen her since his parents’ funeral (they were killed in a car wreck when he was in college) He wants her to return to the U.S. with him so he can take care of her. His mission forces him to think about what is important to him, his responsibility to his roots and the real meaning of success.
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Sarah’s 2 Cents
Over the past year or so I have been renting the occasional Indian movie because I had heard a lot about “Bollywood” and wondered what it was like as a genre. I’ve found it to be one I really enjoy. The biggest draws for me are the music and dance typically included in Indian movies, but occasionally I’ll rent one that doesn’t have as much of that, but is still enjoyable.
Swades is one of those films. I was impressed by this movie from the beginning. It is not just a good Bollywood film – it’s a good movie, period. The story is quite good and the cinematography is beautiful. A.R. Rahman’s (who also composed Lagaan) music is wonderful.
This is probably the first (and likely the only) story in this genre that I can identify with. The overall theme in the story of “going home and making a difference there” is one that I think anyone who hails from a depressed area can identify with. The underlying theme is uniquely Indian, as a scathing criticism of India’s harsh caste system and the inability of people to solve problems on their own.
In one very intriguing and unexpected exchange, Mohan, the main character sits down with village elders and answers questions about his time in the U.S. and how things are there. He answers their questions politely at first, but when one elder says that India has something that America will never have – “culture and tradition” – he lashes out. He tells them that India will never get ahead with tradition that refuses to allow people to adapt to new economic situations or innovate to help the community prosper. “Culture and Tradition,” Mohan says, is what people resort to when they have nothing else to offer. I guess 12 years in the US will make you a strong advocate for “yankee ingenuity.”
Swades doesn’t skimp on some melodrama, though, it wouldn’t be Bollywood without it! Mohan falls in love with a local girl (of course) and naturally she initially can’t stand him. But the way this particular movie includes the typical boy meets girl, girl loves to hate to love boy scenario is fresh. There aren’t the usual family restrictions – parents that want to marry her off to a better match and so on. She is actually a strong girl with a career of her own who isn’t mad at him for really silly reasons and admits and understands his internal conflict about whether to stay or go back to America.
As noted before, the musical numbers are infrequent with little dancing, but the music aside from the songs is great. The musical numbers – especially a song about the stars with children singing their hearts out are great. One odd thing , however, is the translation on the lyrics…they seem to use weird biblicalesque words. Lots of word ending in ‘th for no reason (like doeth and maketh). Not sure what that is all about – if they were going for a supposedly poetic sound or someone just didn’t know english that well.
So, all in all, a great movie.
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