MOVIE REVIEW

SOCIOLOGY I

Swades : We , The People

SUBMITTED TO:
Prof. Navaneeta Majumder Ma’am

SUBMITTED BY:
Abhinav Shukla
Semester 1 B
Roll. Number : 61

Date of Submission – 15 August , 2022

FACULTY OF LAW
GLS UNIVERSITY
Introduction

Film Name- Swades:We, The People

Director- Ashutosh Gowariker
Starring- Shah Rukh Khan , Gayatri Joshi , Kishori Ballal , Daya Shankar Pandey , Rajesh Vivek etc.
Distributed by – UTV Motion Pictures.
Producer – Ashutosh Gowariker Production Pvt. Ltd.
Cinematographer- Mahesh Aney
Running Duration – 185 mins

Summary of the Story –

Mohan Bhargav a National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] project manager haunted
by the guilt that he couldn’t took care of Kaveriamma- who helped him while growing up and plan a
trip to India to take her along with him to US.
Things don’t go the way he thought and takes a stand against gender and caste discrimination , social
disharmony , child marriage, poverty, prevalent orthodox mentality to reform the village he was
staying in.
In this course , he rediscovers his roots and himself.
Simultaneously , he falls in love with his childhood friend Gita. This trip completely changes him as a
person and he decides to work on a journey to serve his people and his country.

Analysis –

A) Depth of thinking-

Swades will always be remembered as a film which was ahead of its time and it will be relevant for
many upcoming decades.
Both story writing [M.G Sathya & Ashutosh Gowariker] and dialogue [K.P Saxena] departments
absolutely furnish the on-screen presentation.

The depth of thinking behind this project could be well understood that this film loosely adapts the
early life of Mahatma Gandhi ;- The main character played by Shah Rukh has the same name-
“Mohan”. Both of them study outside India and their internal motivation changed after witnessing the
country into many problems. Eventually, they both serve for the welfare of the people.

B] Emotional impact-

As a film based on 2004 , this was a mature project for the audience as this film educated more than it
entertained. It’s social commentary on our orthodox beliefs system has an emotional gravity which
indulges us in questioning our society.

Apart from this , I want to talk about two sequences which I think has the most emotional impact on
audiences :-

a) The ground-breaking scene where Mohan is already jerked out noticing the plight of poor
farmer , he comes across a boy who is selling water in an earthen glass for mere 25 paise. On
getting no buyers , he spots Mohan and offers him to drink water- emotionally numb Mohan
nods and for the first time he drank water of his land.

By finishing the water , there is a surge of emotions going within him, Melaram hands him the
money as he already gave all his money to Haridas out of sympathy. Tears roll down as train
begins to move with the feeling of helplessness , frustration , anger and sorrow.
b) Mohan’s whole journey of bringing electricity to village-As the movie comes close to conclusion
, Mohan confronts villagers to stop their dependence on other powerful people and institutions who
make false promises. He takes the responsibility in leading a project which requires 100 men to bring
electricity. The scene ends with an old lady watching the glowing bulb and exclaiming “ Bijli ”.

C] Authenticity in relation to what is being depicted-

As of 2004, India celebrated it’s 57 th year of independence – problems which were the social norms
before independence were still practiced in rural societies due to their conservative and orthodox
reasoning.

One example of that is the problem of caste discrimination which was prevalent in Charanpur – all
villagers included those who were outcasted accepted this norm.

One of the portion which really stood out for me was the scene were Mohan went to Kodi Village to
collect rent which Haridas(farmer who leased the land) couldn’t pay.

His problem depicted a true image of our society. Haridas changed his profession from weaver to
farmer as machine-made fabrics were profitable and weaving became a lucrative business. His
freedom to change profession was disliked by so-called decision makers of village[panch]. They
wanted him to pursue weaving even if it meant to sleep hungrily. Nobody offered him water to
irrigate his land. This authentic part of the script is reality of many villages.

For the authenticity of the project , Director Ashutosh Gowariker decided to shot a scene at Launch
Pad 39A , Kennedy Space Centre in Florida , USA. This marked as the first Indian film to be shot
inside NASA Research Centre.

D] Wit or Cleverness of the writing-

This film not only takes Gandhiji as it’s basis but also includes Ramayana as its inspiration.

Example I- The story takes place in Charanpur{named because of foot imprints of Lord Ram and
Sita} Both Lord Ram and Mohan share a similar story. Lord Ram comes back from exile after many
years , similarly, Mohan comes to his motherland after many years.

Example II – When Mohan goes back to US , there is a scene where Mohan wakes up and keeps his
foot on the carpet. The camera focuses on his foot which he uncomfortably moves. This symbolises
his wish to go back to India and he misses those sensations when he kept his foot on his native land.

Another wittiness I felt in the song – Yeh Taara Who Taara, Mohan’s character unites children despite
the socio-economic barrier they have been enforced upon . He also points in the sky to teach them
about ‘constellations’ – one of them being a plough shaped constellation known as Big Dipper
{scientific term}- Plough in Hindi means- “hal”, this signified that he himself is the solution.

E] Originality-

In this spectrum , this film is largely based on 2003 Kannada film “Chigurida Kanasu”. The only
difference between both the movie is the scale. The Kannada version revolves around Delhi and
Karnataka whereas Swades had a whopping budget of 25 Crores.

Actor turned Director Ashutosh Gowariker was also inspired by his own Zee TV’s Series called Yule
Love Stories Ep:Vapasi. In this episode , Gowariker himself played the role of NRI and the character
of Kaveriamma was played by the same actress.

Ashutosh also took inspiration from real life NRI couple - Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi
Kuchimanchi who returned to India for “Bilgaon Project” , Maharashtra.
This couple provided electricity to each and every house of village by building a mini reservoir and
pedal powered system.

CREATIVE ELEMENTS

A] Dialogues –

Dialogues elevates scenes into a powerful section which remains with audiences even after they leave
cinema halls. Dialogues are responsible for the cult status they acquire over time.

Hence, Dialogues became a important component when the film revolves around issues of societal
and political problems. More than entertaining , these educate people by doing social commentary on
the society they are living in.

Instance I- “Jab bhi hum muqabale mein dabne lagte hai tab hum ek hi cheez ka aadhaar lete hai –
‘sanskar, parampara”

These words by Mohan are very relevant to this point that many people around us defend our country
on topics such as high corruption within the system, spiking crime rates against women ,
communalism , casteism, pollution etc by commenting that we are ‘highly cultured individuals’.
Instead of dishonouring our culture and values , we should admit the problematic aspects we have
and work in a harmonious way to end these problems.

Instance II- “Mere aasuon ka swaad , mere mann ka namak hi samajhta hai.”

The poetic interpretation behind this line is harsh. The pain Haridas faces as a man to feed his family
is signified here. Wordplay on saline nature of tears is well executed.
Instance III- “Joh kabhi nahi jati, us hi ko jaati kehte hai.”

A very stereotypical line which shows how engraved is casteism in the mind of villagers.

END NOTE- Dialogues are essential because they speak the situation, circumstances , internal
motivations of a character and the direction where the story is going.

B] Characters –

1] Mela Ram –

I feel Mela Ram’s character arc is one of the most complex written character. He loves to cook and
want to open a “Dhaba” in US , Ironically , he belongs to a caste from whose hand people refuse to
drink water.

Mela Ram supported Mohan for the cause of influencing the backward class of Charanpur to educate
their children despite knowing the fact that he might be alienated from villagers.
Introduced as a comical character , Mela Ram is a layered character who has many facets. Kudos to
the actor Daya Shankar Sharma who played this role flawlessly.

ICONIC DIALOGUE - Apni chaukhat ka diya, giving light to neighbor's house.

2] Gita-

I see Gita’s character as one of the driving factors which forces Mohan to take a stand and the way
which he later walks on. She is a symbol of woman empowerment and gender justice – Gita is true to
her roots and dislikes the idea of serving a foreign institution in a foreign land {which later resonates
to Mohan by choosing to work for the community and wanting to do the same work at Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre}. Through her character we see a glimpse of Goddess Sita from the song “Pal
Pal Hai Bhaari” where she longs for the love of Lord RAM.

C] Use of Colour –

The colour pallets and combinations with which movie has been shot is perfect and vivid – this film
constantly finds itself between the lines of dim and bright shots which very well translates into a great
film .

D] Camera Techniques –

We have to give credit to the cameraman who beautifully shot the landscapes of rural India – giving
us a authentic treatment towards their crafts.

One of the most used camera techniques throughout film is the “pan-in & pan-out” technique. The
first one is used when there are lot of objects in a frame but the centre of attraction is one of them.
Another one is used for capturing the reactions and conversations of other actors whose storyline
revolve around the main protagonist.
E] Mood and Tone –

The bottom-line is that ‘Swades’ is a feel-good inspiration film which every individual has to must
watch.

F] Symbols –

This film uses the conflict of Western v Indian to symbolise many subtle ideas.

Example- Mohan being a resident of US , uses packet of Marlboro cigarettes, Apple MacBook ,
Caravan to travel , wears TagHuer Watch (Swiss Luxury Brand) , drinks bottled water- Aquarius ,
uses Gillette, Adidas , Fa products , Motorola Mobile handset.

These product placements across the movie tells a lot about Mohan’s way of living a lavish life.

G] Costumes or anything that contributes –

Academy Award winner Costume designer Bhanu Athaiya was hired for this project. Special
emphasis was given to Mohan’s character as he comes from a first world country, accordingly he was
dressed in an occidental way by which the character always stands out from the rest of the people.

Music and Soundtrack-

The music is composed by ‘The Mozart of Madras’- A.R Rahman which has its own beauty resulting
in elevating the emotionality of scenes.
Songs like “Yun Hi Chala Chal” and “Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera” have became a must during road travels.
The first song describes the beauty of countryside India in its lyricism, also a call-back that Mohan is
reminiscing about old days.

‘Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera’ played during the climax when Mohan takes a trip down the memory lane
about his recent trip and experience to Charanpur . glimpses of villagers shown attaches the audiences
on how badly he wants to go again and stay there forever on his motherland.