We, the people
Can you talk in images? Can you paint the colors of my land in three dimensions? Can you evoke the smells of forgotten memories? Can you differentiate the manifold tastes of an entire ethos? Swades, the film, did and does that for me. Arguably, the best film to come out of the Indian mainstream cinema in recent times.
From the beginning to the end, it is filled with profound dialogues, scintillating and soulful music, brilliant performances and vibrant cinematography. It brings to life the true India; the many inconsistencies, the innumerable inequities, the uncountable hurdles, the heartbreaking poverty, the heady feelings, the wonderful warmth, the sensual colors, and the sense of being and belonging.
Each time I see it, it is as if I’m seeing it for the first time. Each time I share the joy, sadness, love and laughter of real people in a real film. Each time I miss the many things I’ve left behind. Each time I yearn for a land that is far away yet makes my heart shed a thousand tears. Each time I remember what I gave up in search for material want and worldly knowledge.
Almost every frame is a study in perfection. The film is full of iconic images, the boy selling water at the train station, the lead character traveling in a boat, the language of love spoken solely through the eyes of the actor and actress, the electric bulb lighting up the face of a half-blind woman, the nostalgia for one’s own country told through one heart wrenchingly beautiful and powerful song, and how can one forget the sheer beauty of the music lending an extra dimension to all the scenes mentioned and more.
Every Indian should, no, must see this film. And not just an Indian, anyone wanting to experience what it is to be an Indian and what she is at the core needs to see it. Don’t give in to the clichés of cows, beggars and poverty. India is justly more than the sum of these parts. India is indeed the crucible of all civilization as someone rightly said.
This film is worthy of a hundred awards. I bow to the courage of the director to make such a film, a film which did not appeal to an audience deadened into accepting overacted melodramas, disconnected dramas and unrealistic love stories. I salute the near genius of the music director and I congratulate the visual poetry of the cinematographer and production designer. I hope this will bring in a revolution in mainstream films and mark the beginning of an alternate approach to film making. A style of film making that revels in telling a story and yet does not shirk from pointing out the truth, disguising hard reality or including a message.
We need more people like Mohan Bhargava. We need more dreamers like him who have the courage to fashion a new India, an India worthy of admiration, an India leading the world again, taking her rightful space at civilization’s forefront. To paraphrase Rabindranath Tagore, let her become a teardrop on the cheek of eternity.
Your second paragraph depicts our country with such poetry, Anil.
I, too, agree with much of your sentiment, though I wasn’t too fired up about scenes in the US. It almost felt as if something was unsaid, unfinished. I don’t know…just can’t put my finger on it.
U’ve written this so well that someone who ddidnt find the movie apealing also would now love it 🙂
Btw,i loved it b4 reading ur review…
I really wonder abt the movie heralding a revolution, since it was appreciated by so few – the general consensus was that it was like seeing a documentary. It will take a lot more than one Swades to make the viewing habits of our public undergo that kind of radical transformation….
I recently caught the film on TV, and thought it was well-made. It was a good attempt to try and send the “right” message across to the audience (for a change!)
india, is an amazing place…its an experience but dont worry about being far away from it, you carry it closer to your heart than many from whose eyes it is not so far removed.
tear drop on the cheek of eternity—– The taj?
if there’s one place i would like to visit to get a load on colorful culture, that would have to be india. since i haven’t got the means to got here yet, i’d settle for this film.
gotta find a copy asap.
Mermaid: thank you..yeah I know what you talking about…the US scenes were not so special…but perhaps that was intentional…perhaps the director wanted to contrast the mechanical and material regularity of the protagonist’s life there with the more earthy life in India…thats how I see it!
samudra: ah, I hope so too…the film deserves to be seen by many…
Geetanjali: well I’m given to a little hyperbole so you can excuse me for that…but in the same breath the change if not a revolution has already happened…Parineeta, Paheli, Matrubhumi would have been considered the so called art cinema only a few years back…now they are watched at least in the metros in large numbers so I think slowly but surely people are demanding good cinema…and one day Swades will be considered a masterpiece…it was just ahead of its time…
I’m shocked to hear that many thought of this as a docu…no way…docu’s although well made are usually serious and lacking entertainment value…Swades had loads of entertainment that is why it was such an all round film…
gulnaz: thanks for your warm words…I agree…
Jai: yes, exactly…he had called the Taj ‘a marble teardrop on the cheek of eternity’
slim whale: I hope you do visit India…it is one of the most wonderful places in the world but only if you do not get put off by the extremes…it is an experience you’ll always remember!
and nice having you here…
yup. India has always fascinated me, most especially its ancient culture and history.
and i love extremes.
just remembered, i bought a copy of arundhati roy’s “the god of small things.” will start reading it soon.
i watched it on tv on I-day.
and that’s how i learnt what the damn caller tone on your cell phone was…”yeh taara, woh taara..” heh heh.
Interesting that i was reminded of you then, was completely sucked in by the film, and read this now.
i have a feeling your current situation has a lot to do with how the film affected you. I am not sure if you would have been as impressed if you saw it here. Wonderful film on its own, no doubt, and fabulously entertaining in so many ways. You know how I believe you must let a film absorb you to truly enjoy it.
I think that’s what you have done.
By the way, while watching I asked myself how I would have felt if I was watching it in a situation similar to yours. I realise if I were to write about it, I probably would have written something very like this :-).
slim whale: lets hope that you make your way there soon..and lovely book that not so much for the plot or story but for the beauty of the language…it it like reading poetry in prose form!
Non-Sensei: hey, now it is my turn to be surprised at your presence here but its good to have you here all the same and thanks a lot for that detailed feedback…
to answer I actually saw Swades for the first time when I was in India last…and I had been impressed and inspired by the film back then itself…but naturally (as you put it so well) my love for the film has grown with each viewing…(must have seen about 5-6 times already)…I won’t deny that my situation colors my perception of the film and makes me relate better to the lead character and the film…I guess that would be true for any Indian living abroad…but that should not give the impression that the movie is accessible to only nostlagic Indians living abroad…I still think the film tackles important and relevant issues in a beautiful way…subtle but sure…
documentaries in the traditional sense are not “entertaining” as much as informative. that’s no longer the case.
i recently saw “the thin blue line” by errol morris which was directly responsible for freeing an innocent man from the death penalty. the film was set up like a “whodunit”—a reenactment—and was so convincing that it changed what a documentary could be. it was about as riveting as anything i’ve ever seen on fim in any genre.
so more power to people like morris and bhargava who seek to move beyond the realm of the ordinary.
and this is a terrifically penetrating review which should be published tonight, yesterday last week.
finnegan: thanks for the reco…didnt know this docu..will try and find it…but what you said is true…for a long time I was under the impression that docu’s are boring and too serious…most of them still are I guess…and then I started viewing some and realized how seriously entertaining they can be! perhaps Moore influenced a lot of changes with his famous and popular docu’s…
(and to make it a little clear…Bhargava is the name of the lead character in the film!)
Here’s an excellent page on the topic. Not comprehensivem since there’s so much that crosses boundaries. It’s a good place to start:
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/docs1.jsp
Oh, I almost forgot to mention a film which was not mentioned here. It’s called “The Battle of Algiers” by Gilo Pontecorvo. It is one of those I’d mentioned which crosses genres. I saw it many years ago while I was studying film at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and was absolutely stunned by it.
I now have a DVD copy of it propped up on a shrine. Ok, no, but you get the idea.
http://www.rialtopictures.com/battle.html
finnegan: hey, thanks again for the reco…being a poor student constantly on the edge of financial catastrophe I cannot afford Algiers (priced at a whopping 37 bucks on Amazon, The Criterion Collection is superlative but well above my means!)…fortunately, I immediately found alternate sources for both *winks*!
great that you found a cheaper source. I tend to cut down on my dvd intake so that i can pick up either criterion or else “artificial eye” which is another fantastic labour-of-love collection: http://www.artificial-eye.com/home.html
one of the main reasons for these two choices is their usual inclusion of either director participation (so long as they are still alive and willing!), or else terrific extras like extra scenes, etc…very much the collector’s sort of items.
great that you were able to secure an alternative!
finnegan: oh well, its more like a ‘free’ source if you know what I mean…btw I found another source for the complete decalogue (or dekalog) too recently…did you see them?
and I agree about the ‘labor of love’ part…I wish I had the means..I’d surely have splurged on these special releases by such companies which truly understand the love for cinema people have…