Shah Rukh Khan plays Mohan Bhargava; an Indian NASA scientist migrated to America as he finally manages to shed off his star persona, enacting a subtle but powerful performance, thanks to director's marvellous vision and excellent story-telling. The film starts with American-based Mohan feeling a deep regret over not being able to take care of his nanny (Kaveri amma), while she was old. He expresses his feelings to his associate Vinod (Rahul Vora) as in how Kaveri amma was next to his mother and how she took good care of him when he was a child.
Filled with an urge to find Kaveri amma, Mohan takes a leave for a week from NASA and sets off to India only to find Kaveri amma in a village called as Charanpur. The fictitious village Charanpur (assumed to be 200 kms near Delhi) broadcasts an Indian rural life which is full of loving, caring and affectionate people but is simultaneously plagued with problems of illiteracy, caste system, child labour and child marriage. As India enjoys urban development, technological leaps, and the software boom, here villagers still struggle to accumulate basic needs such as education and electricity.
In this small village of Charanpur, Mohan finds himself in a world that stands as the polar opposite to his American lifestyle. He tries to convince Kaveri amma to come with him to America much to the dismay of Geeta (Gayatri Joshi), who lives with Kaveri amma. Geeta is the hindrance in Mohan's task to bring his nanny with him to America. She is strong-willed, straight-forward and has immense love for India and its culture. She repeatedly retorts to Mohan's criticism of the government's inability to provide for its people by questioning his contribution to this society.
The film starts deviating from this a bit as Mohan decides to channelize his energies in making Charanpur a better place to live as he sees the social evils, the village faces. He helps Geeta in persuading more children in the villages nearby to pursue education, thus gradually falling in love with her. Aided by a local postman Dayal Shrivastav and a local dhaba-owner Mela Ram, Mohan sets off on a mission to bring in more children in their local school. Mohan tries to enable greater access to education, especially for girls, and integration of the castes & appeals to the more liberal members of the village except the conservative council members. With time, Mohan becomes more of a diplomat and less of a dictator.
Shah Rukh Khan is sincere, takes you through the gamut of the journey his character Mohan experiences, and even brings in shades to Mohan Bhargava's character. I could literally sense a lighting spark in Mohan's eyes to make his country, one of the best nations in the world. He criticizes the people, claiming that they are irresponsible and do absolutely nothing to make their country progress to pinnacle of glory and you can't help but agree to his diagnosis.
One of the best climax scenes is the part where Mohan, with the help of his brilliant mind and his experience in the field of science, tries to generate electric power in Charanpur. The scene is shot so beautifully in the village showing how Mohan along with the villagers work day and night to introduce electricity in village starts to get lost in its own darkness.
Sure, no one doubts the sincerity of the idea behind making Swades. Conceptually, it is totally noble. It is admirable how the director keeps the movie totally grounded and down-to-earth, not retreating to any commercial pressures. In spite of the movie being of 189 minutes long, the movie doesn't feel to be slow as the director keeps it extremely well paced. Swades is a sensitive story of good triumphing over the evil, only this time evil doesn't have a face but is rather equated with regressive ideology. Indeed Shah Rukh Khan's performance as Mohan Bhargava will go down as one of his best and the most genuine performances till date.
No comments:
Post a Comment