Swades: We, the People
File:Swades movie poster.png
Directed by	Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced by	Ashutosh Gowariker Ronnie Screwvala
Screenplay by	Ashutosh Gowariker
Story by	Ashutosh Gowariker M. G. Sathya
Starring	Shahrukh Khan Gayatri Joshi Kishori Balal
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Mahesh Aney
Editing by	Ballu Saluja
Distributed by	Ashutosh Gowariker Productions UTV Motion Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 2004
Running time	194 mins
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Hindi/English
Budget	21 crore (US$4.19 million)[1]
Box office	23.90 crore (US$4.77 million)[1]

Swades: We, the People (Hindi: स्वदेश, pronounced [sʋəˈd̪eːʃ], English: Homeland) is a 2004 Indian film written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film stars Shahrukh Khan and debutante Gayatri Joshi. Although Swades was not commercially viable at the Indian box office, it was successful overseas and received universal critical acclaim and a cult following from Indian and other South Asian audiences around the world.^[2][3] The film was featured on Rediff's list of the 10 Best Bollywood Movies of the Decade.^[4]

Plot summary[link]

Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan) is an NRI working at NASA as a Project Manager. He had been a student at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school. After twelve years in the US, he decides to return to India to find his nanny, Kaveri Amma (Kishori Balal), with whom he has completely lost touch. Along the way, he meets a number of interesting people from the village called Charanpur where Kaveri Amma now lives; there's the village postmaster, eager to know more about e-mails and the internet, while also having a keen hobby of wrestling; the ex-freedom fighter who teaches history at the local school and is a lone voice of reason amongst the village elders; there's also a cook who harbours ambitions of opening a dhaba on a US freeway, and sees in Mohan an opportunity to get himself a visa.

While Mohan soon adapts himself to life in the village and endears himself to its people, he also encounters some of its harsher aspects. Among them are poverty, caste discrimination, child marriage, illiteracy, a general disregard for education and an apathy to change. He tries in his own way to bring about some change, even succeeding to the point of dissuading the village elders from moving the local school to smaller and far-away premises. In doing this, he earns the respect of Gita (Gayatri Joshi), a childhood acquaintance who lives with Kaveri Amma and runs the local school.

One day Kaveri Amma sends him away to another village called Kodi to collect dues from a farmer named Haridas who has rented their land. Along the journey, Mohan realizes that the problems he had seen in the village mirror those faced by almost all other villages in the country. Haridas, the farmer who owes rent has no money to feed his own family, leave alone pay rent, mainly because the villagers wouldn't support his attempts at a change of occupation from weaving to farming. Mohan returns empty handed, but is full of a new sensitivity and perspective towards the harsh realities of rural India. On the way back, his transition from a mineral-water-only NRI gentleman to a grounded human being occurs when he buys and drinks water from a little kid at a small railway station. This journey to Kodi and back proves to be the turning point in Mohan's life and he comes back with a resolve to take more interest in improving the quality of life of the villagers.

He enlists the support of a few hundred men and guides them through the building of a reservoir beneath a perennial spring on a nearby hill. Buying turbines and other equipment with his own money, he sets up a small hydro-electric power plant that would solve the problem of irregular electricity and make the village self-sufficient.

By then, it's time for him to leave as his project at NASA is near its final stage. Kaveri Amma, whom he had intended to take along with him, refuses to come citing the difficulty of adapting to a new culture at such a late stage in her life. Gita, whom he had fallen in love with, also refuses to come with him, wanting to remain in the country and continue running the school that her parents had founded. He returns alone but feels a growing sense of responsibility towards his country and guilt for not being able to do much for the welfare of its people. He, nevertheless, stays to finish his project at NASA before resigning and returning to India.

Production[link]

Inspiration[link]

Swades is inspired by the story of Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, the NRI couple who returned to India and developed the pedal power generator to light remote, off-the-grid village schools.^[5][6][7] Ashutosh Gowariker spent considerable time with Aravinda and Ravi, both dedicated Association for India's Development (AID) volunteers. Gowarikar supposedly visited Bilgaon, an Adivasi village in the Narmada valley, which is the backdrop of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) movement. The people of Bilgaon are credited with doing 2000 person-days of shramdaan (community service) to make their village energy self-sufficient. The Bilgaon project is recognized as a model for replication by the Government of Maharashtra. Shubham Gupta was also the character in that movie.

A majority of film critics familiar with South Indian cinema allege that the film is a remake of the Kannada film Chigurida Kanasu, based on a novel of the same name by K. Shivaram Karanth, a playwright and Jnanpith Award recipient. This claim was repudiated by Swades writer M. G. Sathya who said that he had been working on the story since the 1980s. The rudimentary theme of the film, however, resembles the Kannada literary masterpiece.^[8]

Themes[link]

Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi noted the theme of Gandhism in the film.^[9] The name of the main character portrayed by Shahrukh Khan is Mohan, which was also Mahatma Gandhi's birth name (Mohandas or "Mohan"). The film also opens with the following quotation from Gandhi:

Taking the Ram Lila episode as its point of departure, a paper^[10] presented at the DANAM-AAR conference on 6 November 2009 in Montreal attempts to demonstrate how the narrative of the movie systematically engages and reinterprets the religious and national epic Ramayana with Mohan and Gita cast partly in the role of Rāma and Sītā. The essay simultaneously interprets its moral framework and its aesthetics of the gaze (nazar) in the light of the classical Indian theory of the purushārthas and the rasas respectively. The ambivalent treatment of the non-resident Indian (NRI) and the themes of exile and of nostalgia, in both their psychological and metaphysical dimensions, are also explored, especially around A. R. Rehman's soulful rendering of "Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera".

Gowariker also tries to address the lack of a scientific temperament and widespread ignorance among the rural folks through the energetic number "Ye Tara Wo Tara" where Mohan is seen encouraging the children to experience the fascinating world of stars through his telescope. In a symbolic manner, the song rejects the defunct divisions of caste and class and at the same time, through its protagonist, tries to instil in the audience an appreciation of curiosity and observation.

Casting and filming[link]

Panorama of Menawali - the village in Maharashtra where Swades was shot

The role of Mohan was first offered to Hrithik Roshan who refused after reading the script.^[11]

Swades was the first Indian film to be actually shot inside the NASA research center at the Launch Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center of NASA in Florida.^[12][13] To add to the authenticity of his film, Gowariker actually wanted to shoot the scene in the NASA space center rather than on a set. The rainfall monitoring satellite known as the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) in the film is an actual NASA mission and is currently scheduled to launch in 2013.^[14][15]

Reception[link]

Critical reception[link]

The film received overwhelmingly strong critical acclaim from critics. Most of the critics felt that Shahrukh Khan's performance in Swades is his best performance till date. Subhash K Jha of Indiatimes Movies gave 4.5 stars out of 5 and said "Swades is a unique experiment with grassroot realism. It is so politically correct in its propagandist message that initially you wonder if the government of India funded the director's dream."

Mayank Shekhar from MiD DAY gave 4 stars and called it 'bravo!' and added "I cannot think of a better film for the longest that deserved a stronger recommendation for both touring cinemas of India's villages, and plush multiplexes of Mumbai or Manhattan." Jitesh Pillai of the Sunday Times of India gave 4 stars and said "After Lagaan, what? The answer's blowing in the wind. Swades. Here's the verdict: This is a gusty and outstanding film. Welcome back to real, solid film-making." He added "Swades is undoubtedly the No 1 movie of the year." Shradha Sukumaran of Mid-Day gave 3.5 stars and said "At the end of it, Swades is a far braver film than Lagaan. It could have hit the high note — if it hadn't tried so hard."

Swades went on to become a cult classic and currently holds a rating of 8.2 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database, and Khan's performance as Mohan Bhargava is considered to be one of his best by many.^[4]

Box office[link]

Swades flopped at the Indian box office due to its offbeat theme and non-commercial nature, however it performed well in the overseas market where it was declared a semi-hit grossing £2,790,000 (12,26,00,000 Indian Rupees).^[16][17] It has however garnered a cult following ever since and has been appraised critically. The worldwide gross of the movie was 23.90 crore (US$4.77 million).^[1]

Soundtrack[link]

A. R. Rahman's soundtrack was acclaimed by critics and audiences. His background score won him the Filmfare award. However, he lost the Filmfare award for Best Music Director to Anu Malik. It remains the only time he has been nominated for the award and not won. Udit Narayan won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the track "Yeh Tara Woh Tara". All lyrics written by Javed Akhtar, all music composed by A. R. Rahman.

Awards[link]

[edit] National Film Awards

• Best Male Playback Singer - Udit Narayan^[18]
• Best Cinematography - Mahesh Aney

[edit] Filmfare Awards

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Background Score - A.R. Rahman

[edit] Global Indian Film Awards

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Newcomer - Gayatri Joshi

[edit] Zee Cine Awards

• Best Female Debut - Gayatri Joshi
• Best Story

[edit] Star Screen Awards

• Most Promising Female Newcomer - Gayatri Joshi

[edit] Bollywood Movie Awards

• Best Debut Female - Gayatri Joshi

Film Café Awards[link]

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan^[19]

Rupa Cinegoers Awards for Jury Best Actor[link]

• Jury Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan^[20]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Swades at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site

Reviews[link]

• BBC review - BBC
• Times of India review - Times of India
• Love, devotion, and service: Retelling the Râmâyana in Gowarikar's Homeland (Swades)