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Swadesh -- LeapFrog -- Deesheaa

Yesterday night I saw Swadesh. I have read various reviews of the movie which ranged from acerbic to outright discrediting the movie. But finally I found a review which resonated with my perspective, here it is from GoldScriptFilms

Three years back, I was sent by this paper to cover a small village called Arnala, a few minutes’ boat-ride across the backwaters off Virar.

More than five decades after Indian independence, just about 150 kms from the gleaming glass walls of Nariman Point, the excited, dancing denizens of this tiny hamlet had for the first time seen a little, lit lightbulb in their huts and by-lanes that morning of 2001.

It is this callous, happily overlooked contradictions of human lives that finds a fulcrum in Gowariker’s second film. (After Lagaan, and now Swades, I submit, it’s time to bury his actual first three flicks — Pehla Nasha, Izzat Ki Roti and Baazi — to repressed public memory).

A leading NASA space engineer Mohan Bhargava (Khan) on one end is involved in launching a sophisticated satellite that detects rain-zones with utmost accuracy.

On the other end, the village in Uttar Pradesh that he visits for a few days still relies on a faux-expert who looks up to the sky, says it’s clear, that it won’t rain for two days, and all nod in unison.

The true ‘blue-suede-shoes’ NRI returns to ‘swades’ to take back his surrogate mom (Kishori Ballal — absolutely adorable) he’d neglected for years in pursuit of professional ambitions.

She lives in a village, 200 kms away from Delhi. With a young, urban-educated firebrand social worker/school-teacher (Joshi — a meticulously treated character).

And among dirty denizens who live almost literally in dark ages — all prisoners of a panchayat’s phony dictums and their own unquestioned value systems.

The mostly unconcerned yuppie Mohan finally meets his moment of truth courtesy a famished, former weaver who cannot turn to farming because of rigid rules of casteist segregation.

And his moments of personal triumph concern how, with about a 100 people, he builds a mini-dam that makes the village self sufficient to produce its own electricity. That he does this in a few days appears questionable.

Also, stand warned: Since we’re too used to ‘munch’ movies than watch them, to some, portions of this picture may seem preachy, or the plot placidly paced. But any short cuts on that front, it’s easy to tell, would’ve trivialised the picture’s premise and substance.

The prime one of which, that I loved most, is how we, as a nation that still lives in the villages, project our failures to vague, satisfying notions of ‘parampara’, ‘sanskar’ or how we’re a “great nation” after all. I felt a quick recall to the popular street retort to Rajiv Gandhi’s buzzwords in the 80s – “Na Roti, Na Kapda, Na Makaan, Lekin Mera Bharat Mahaan!”

Certainly, Gowariker’s village — given its home-architecture; absence of law and order chaos; unsure accents… — doesn’t seem to belong to UP to me at least.

But the painstaking detailing when the plot gets laid out, the conviction to contain rhetoric, and to ensure that no individual element of the film (cinematography, dialogues…) divert attention from its core is absolutely marvelous.

As for the lead protagonist Khan (brilliant), let’s just say, in an entire career that spans a string of no-brainer, schmaltzy cinema hot off the shelves of Bollywood’s money-making masala stores, this is the by far, the most significant film he’s done yet.

You feel for this fable (M S Satya, Gowariker). You feel for its infectious idealism. And if you noticed I haven’t mentioned Lagaan yet, well, it compares well. Almost a sequel in spirit.

For this is another inspiring account of what self-empowered underdogs can accomplish through sheer zeal and phenomenal focus.

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.

Finally, an honest, fine example of an unfortunately debunked, bastardised term called ‘crossover’.

Well, you must wondering what is the connection with Deeshaa. Before addressing that point, I want to point you towards one more article that I have posted : 'LeapFrogging' - Leapfrogging and why it Matters - Emerging Technology in the New Developing World.