A filmmaking revolution?. Review on Swades

All hail a revolution!? Well almost.

Swades as a movie will commercially fail. It is bound to. We, as an audience are not ready for the movie. This movie is a throwback to times where filmmakers actually wished to say something through their cinema. Memories of socially relevant films like ?Satyakaam? (Hrishikesh Mukherjee) are evoked when one sees this movie. However, that didn?t work at the box office, and neither will this.

The audiences here go to a movie theatre to see fantasy and take a break from their lives. Just like the villagers in Swades, who opt to see ?Yaadon ki Baarat? to distract them from their lives of intermittent electricity and low quality, our audience too does not want to be reminded of all the problems they have back home when they go to see a movie.

However, Gowarikar does have a target audience here. He is talking to all those Mohan Bhargavas out there, he is talking to the metropolitan audiences, who don?t have these discomforts. He is trying to tell us directly what its like to be on the other side. He means to point out how things we take for granted are the most precious to our less fortunate cousins. He means to show us, that we can and should do our bit here. So, yes, Swades will fail commercially. Why? Because more than 50% of our population does not get electricity and water regularly, and when they get a few moments of leisure, wont they prefer something happier like ?Mein hoon na??

Enough of lecturing, now to the movie review:

Swades is packaged beautifully. It is shot and presented well and has beautiful cinematography. The music is on the higher side of above average and the lyrics as might be expected from Akhtar sahib are superior. Rehman, does not do as well as he did in Lagaan, but it is definitely far superior to other soundtracks on the market. The background score is brilliant and seams the movie together well.

Gowarikar as a filmmaker, does not live up to our expectations completely. He has a great story, a good message and a great medium. When one leaves the theatre however, one thinks that the finished product could have been better. That was not a feeling one felt while leaving Lagaan. His execution of the scenes is sensitive and has handled all characters efficiently. The characters of Kaveriamma and Mela Ram are brilliant and a stroke of genius on his part. Mohan Bhargava is also a good creation, and Gowarikar has handled all aspects of his character with a beautiful subtle undercurrent of emotion. Where does he fail then? I personally accuse him of something that I call ?self-indulgent filmmaking?. This is where the director just can?t let go of any of his scenes on the editing table. Everything is so dear to him that he sacrifices the good of the movie, just to show every minute part of his vision. Swades could have been 90% more effective if only its running time was reduced by an hour! The dialogue also seems too preachy at times and many a time is just repetitive and boring.

Performance wise, everyone is above par. Kaveriamma is brilliant, and since I have a grandmother just like her, I was totally touched and understood her relationship with Mohan completely. It is refreshing to have a relationship like that highlighted in Bollywood. The supporting characters were not given as much depth as they could have been given. There could have been a few useful sub plots, but the writer chose not to go that way, which is his prerogative. Geeta (Gayatri Joshi) requires special mention. The character is very well etched and well handled. Joshi gives it her best and ends up handling it as a pro. Rather stiff and maybe not able to handle crying too well, Joshi still ends up exemplifying her character?s dignity and simple lifestyle. She is a find, but I do not think she will ever be able to look this good or get as good a role ever again.

Shah Rukh Khan is undoubtedly the star of the film. He has almost all the screen time devoted to him or even if he is not in the frame, the dialogue is about him. SRK delivers good in this movie. He lives his character exceedingly well and handles all the subtlety and muted emotion with élan. This is perhaps the best performance of his career. Having said all that, SRK is still SRK in the movie. Flashes of his ?starness? are almost inevitable. Hamming too, though considerably less compared to other roles, is still present. Though he is to be applauded for his effort, I think the days are gone where he could give a performance as unaffected as ?Circus? or ?Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa?.

To end this, I would like to borrow from a comment made by a radio reviewer on a station here in Mumbai. He said, that in cricketing terms Swades has a ?line and length? problem. The line is perfect, but the length is too long.? I think that summarizes my verdict too. The movie has not too much of a re- watch value (DVD VCD sales might be affected due to that), but it does have a high ?watch once? value. So do go ahead and try it out once.

Comments and rating eagerly awaited. Debate most welcome.