Swades:Rahat Raihan's review
Swades-We The People (2004)
Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar
Cast:
Shah Rukh Khan
Gayatri Joshi
Movie review by
Rahat Raihan:
Rating: 4/5
What happenes when the numero uno star of the country teams up with a director whose last film (Lagaan) was nominated for Academy award?
The answer is constant: Huge expectations, unbelievable craze, much hype, keen interest & lots of waits and eagerness.
But has Ashutosh Gowarikar's 2nd directional venture
"Swades-We The People"
reached its sky high expectations?
Before answering the question, lets have a quick look on the story of the film:
Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) is a brilliant young Indian scientist working in NASA who returns to his homeland to find his childhood nanny, Kaveriamma (Kishori Ballal). Mohan finds her at a village named Charanpur with a beautiful young lady Gita (Gayatri Joshi) and her brother Chikku (Master Smit Sheth). Mohan spends some days at the village and becomes introduced with characters like
Mela Ram (Dayashanker Pandey) & postmaster Nivaran (Rajesh Vivek). They introduce him with the real India with whom he wasn't introduced before. He becomes a part of the village & tries to solve different problems of the villagers.
Well. The answer of the first question is a loud....... " YES ".
Mr.Gowarikar is in terrific form yet again. Swades is, no doubt, one of the most accomplished works we have watched so far in the Indian film industry.
Mr.Gowarikar proved that he is a craftsman per excellence by his directional debut, LAGAAN. And with SWADES, he only takes it to a new level altogether.
The sequences are brilliantly executed. A number of scenes can remain ever fresh in your memory. For example, the scene when a little boy was trying to sell a glass of water to Mohan at a railway station. It was superb. The exquisitely beautiful rural looks have given the film a rich taste. The story & screenplay are flawless. They won't give you any opportunity to ask questions like "Why" & "How". The dialogues are well worded, if not amazing.
AR Rahman's music is melodious. The title track is among the bests of the year. It gives a soft hearing & does make an impact. Among the others "Ohi Chala Chal" & "Saawariya" stand out.
Choreography is per average (One expects more as LAGAAN was rich in this field). But cinematography by Mahesh Aney is in a word, fantastic. The way Mahesh has captured the rural looks by his amazing camera works is simply brilliant.
But the field where the film fails is its pace.
It starts promisingly with the much hyped NASA scenes but loses its speed just when SRK comes to India. The plane scene is beautifully canned. And the scene when SRK looks at his homeland through the window is mesmerizing. The first meeting of SRK & Gayatri also leaves an impact. But the village sequences are very slow despite being well filmed.
A number of scenes could easily be deleted to keep the pace going. One wonders what the editor of the film actually did!
Swades also fails in the field of entertainment. It doesn't offer anything to hold audiences' attraction for a long time of more than 3 hours. So, the typical masala movie lovers won't find it very interesting one.
Come to the performances.
Swades completely belongs to Shah Rukh Khan. Swades without SRK is like a body without soul or a cigarette without nicotine. It's not only hard but also impossible for any other actor to carry the role with such confidence that SRK does.
This performance can easily be ranked as one of the best ones we have ever watched from any actor.
But Gayatri Joshi fails to bear the responsibilities revolved upon her. She was not at all convincing. That may be because of the pressure of sharing screen space with the biggest star of recent time in her debut film. The role should be offered to any other actress. Also,she is not a well dancer. Comparing to the dancing track of Gracy Singh in LAGAAN, her same kind of track is a huge disappointment. Her make up was also not up to mark. She neither looked a modern time smart lady nor a plain village woman.
But, Kishori Ballal does justice to her role. She was flawless.
Among the others Rajesh Vivek & Dayashanker Pandey stand out.
On the whole, Swades is a very well made film with a power packed performane from the leading man. But it will test your patience for sure.
Can be prescribed for full family watching.
A must watch for every NRI as well as every SRK fans.
But the film will find its way really hard at the box office. Inspite of names like SRK & Ashutosh attached to it, may disappoint badly at the box office.
