The Film Swades by Ashutosh Gowariker Essay -- India Indian Film Movie

SwadesAfter the international success (including an Academy Award nomination) of Lagaan (2001), writer-producer-director Ashutosh Gowarikers follow-up is at first glance a very contrary film whereas Lagaan gave new life to the Hindi historical film by being located entirely in 1893 and in Champaner, an imaginary Indian village, Swades opens with a shot of the globe that zooms down into contemporary Washington DC, where its hero, so unlike the earlier films simple villager Bhuvan, is a manager working on NASAs Global Precipitation Measurement project. Whereas Bhuvan, lacking the ability to converse in English, nevertheless has to learn the wily ways of the British colonial rulers in order to literally beat them at their own game, Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan), the hero of Swades, is apparently a fully assimilated, literally globalized scientist who skillfully handles a press conference in high-tech, jargon-laden English. And whereas Lagaan begins with the imposing voice-over o f Amitabh Bachchans immaculate Hindi, that language wont be heard in the Hindi film Swades for almost ten minutes, and then as hybrid Hinglish spoken by Mohan and his colleague Vinod.But Swades soon draws Mohan back to his native India and to Charanpur, another imaginary village, in search of his beloved Kaveriamma (veteran actress Kishori Ballal, most celebrated in Kannada theatre, film, and television), the humble woman who raised him but who he has shamefully neglected following the death of his parents in a car crash when he was in college. Once the film adds a romance with Gita (Gayatri Joshi in her film debut), a village belle and schoolteacher of the feisty and independent sort, and begins to focus upon a inclination (the generation o... ..., auditions, and Social Relevance Information. The latter consists of a summary of Indias caste system complied only for the purpose of the film and necessarily does not consent with any other researched sources. Truly interested vi ewers might nevertheless be encouraged to seek out other researched sources.Works CitedJigna Desai, Planet Bollywood Indian Cinema Abroad in East Main Street Asian American Popular Culture. Ed. Shilpa Dave, LeLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. New York NYU Press, 2005.Sunaina Marr Maira, Desis in the House Indian American offspring Culture in New York City. Philadelphia Temple University Press, 2002.Vijay Mishra, Bollywood Cinema Temples of Desire. London Routledge, 2002.Arvind Rajagopal, Politics after Television Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2001.