I saw Swadesh on Sunday but didn't get the time to write anything about the movie. I think I was not doing justice to the movie by not writing anything about it.
Swadesh is different. Its not like some movie where a hero come from US and finds the village to be like countryside of NewZealand or misty Ireland. (Recall MAIN PREM KI DIWANI HOON from our own Sooraj Barjatya)
When Mohan Bhargav (ShahRukh Khan) lands in the old age home in NewDelhi to find his nanny Kaveri Amma, the old are singing a bhajan and that too without music. This is how bhajans are sung in India and not with Bally Sagoo and his remix. (Recall KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI - Raghupati Raghav Raja Raam)
I went to my home town Kharagpur from 10th to 14th of December and was frustrated to see the roads there. The roads were like 20 ft wide maximum and have been like that since I was born. they have not widened at all, with cycle rickshaws, bikes, cars, trucks, buses all plying on them and avoiding the pot holes which have omnipresent since stoneage.
You can see the IT boom even in a small town in India like Khapagpur; Internet cafes, 5 mobile service providers and computer in all my cousins homes. But what about basic amminities? There is power cut everyday in the town, municipality is still not able to provide water to all the houses in the town, no sanitation, kids still sleep near the rail tracks, shit on rail tracks, there is no transport facility although the population has increased at a great pace. In all the years I have lived there, not even a single big factory has comeup. Where does the youth get employed? What do they do after gradutaing?
Well Swadesh made me think atleast.
There was this lady sarpanch she says to Kaveri Amma "ARRE BARAF KA MUSTAKBIL YEHI HAI KI USKO PANI MEIN HI PIGHAL JANA HAI" (Ice knows that it has to melt and mix with the water) Mera kustakbil kya hai uuparwala jane, par aapne sheher ke liye kuch toh karna hai. Jis sheher mein aap pale badhe ho uski khushboo aap mein bas jati hai.
No movie had so much impact on me as Swadesh.
Coming back to the movie. Its right paced because Mohan Bhargav cannot just realize one morning that "OK I want to live in India-I want to do somthing for the community". Ashutosh Gawarikar has given right amount of time to Mohan Bhargav to realize that. And Gita (Gayatri Joshi) doesn't even know she is falling in love with this guy. And in the end of the movie when Mohan Bhargav tells Mela Raam that he will send the sponsorship papers as soon as he reaches US, Mela Raam replies that his desh is India and he doesnt feel like going to US anymore (Mela Raam wanted to open a Dhaba in US) . He says, "Its like keeping diya in your own house and giving light to the neighbour where as there is darkness in your own house" Think of it like this: Guy has brains and works for Microsoft or Cisco or NASA in USA where as he can work for Infosys or Ranbaxy or DRDO in India. Very-very well written dialogs.
The songs of Swadesh are too cool. And Thankgod Thankgod there is no song where SRK is dancing and models from around the world with blond hair are dancing on "BALLE BALLE SAY SHAVA SHAVA" ( Thats possible in all movies of Karan Johar, even the Gora kids of 1st grade in London can sing, Jana gana Mana, utter non-sense) Ok Mr.Karan Johar you love India but show some reality in your movies.
The song "YEH RASTA HAI, HAI KEH RAHA" just runs through, its very soothing to the ears. The song "YEH TARA WOH TARA" is just too good. It tells us that each person has to do specific tasks in the life (Lohar, Kisaan, Kumhar) and if he doesn't do that life doesn't move ahead. Tries to tell that the uppercast and lower cast are not needed in the society.
Swadesh is a must see for We... The People of India....
5 comments:
Amen...
I loved what you wrote, but please rewrite the following for me since I did not really understand it:
"Its like keeping diya in your home and giving light to the neighbour and giving light to neighbour, when diya in your home and there is darkness"
I still need to see Swades.. I missed it wen they showed it here.
Anil
hey anil, sorry man woh galti se do baar likh diya. thanks for pointing that out. i changed it now. thanks :)
I saw Swadesh and I really felt the word of Mr. Mela Ram.
But i will like to tell u my experience of the so called research organisation like DRDO, ISRO, CSIR, BARC. I had worked in one of the organisation for 5-6 years in the scale of scientific officer. I had really seen the struggle of Indians techie when they work in Govt reseacrch organisation.
I tell u all the organisation has very much common in them. i.e. No Human Resource Management. Because of which the talented suffers and those who does buttering escapes promotions also leads the section, divsion and the organisation. All top bosses in those organisation are burden to the nation, because they hardly work and at the same time they create lots of hurdles in work or by promotions. All research organisation are now polarised into zone i.e. some of bengal, Up, Bihar, Mallu, etc. In this polarisation enviroment there can not be fair research because the polarisation creates specific windows also obstacles to people of other domain. Also the increment and salary of these research organisation matures on joining or on pay commission itself. Due to dis-satisfaction of salary also people does nt care to work to their full potential. Seeing all this i saw my future becoming section head or division head of unproductive unit. I thought to quit the organisation and go to US. At US the life is very difficult but no body cares for other also. So there is no ploarisation in research organisation also the salary is good. Highly paid salary keep the enthu of
the person in work and they contribute 300% at US.
I would say the same person who are performing 300% in NASA, Microsoft, CISCO, Honeywell, etc. will not perfom at 5% of its capacity at Indian Research Organisation. Also a fact that over 15-22 years none of the IIT graduate (B.Tech) candidate joins BARC, CSIR or ISRO. U may know the reason why.
It was very painful for me to take a decision to go US. I was having every thing in India my family, friends also a permanent Govt. job. But we scientific people are not clerk, we need some motivation for ourself. It comes only in work or by earning. Staying in Govt organisation can not provide money to me. Also the work enviroment is not conducieve.
Any milestone taken by the organisation was initial effort of the founder. The organisation now works on target ignoring personal satisfaction of the scientist working in the organisation.
So at thsi situation, after learning abt so much about India, i would never opted to come back to India as what Mohan decides in SWADESH. In fact I would have earned and helped some section of Indians by providing money for some basic necessacity like what MOHAN did elecrical generation program. But I would have not stayed at India.
Also one more thing There is no provision in Indian so called research organisation to recruit personnel who had worked abroad. Only at IIT some prof. post are open to MS and PhD candidate.
Other wise those research organisation says that MS at US is not recognised as valid qualifications.
The Girl Gita at SWADESH is mad, I will tell you there is no Indian Girl who will not like to marry an engineer of NASA. she will get everything in life. Also we NRI takes good care of wife.
I may ask Ashutosh and Shahrukh to do some research in life of the scientist of research organisation of BARC, CSIR, ISRO, NPCIL. Also if u go to mumbai, mankhurd police station u will get the police record of nos. of scientist committing suicide at Anushaktinagar.
When Indian go abroad for study they learn technology at a lower cost and they in return pass on the technoilogy to India absolutely free of cost. This is actually reverse brain drain. Look Dr. homi bhabha and its research organisation is product of reverse brain drain. if Bhabha would have never been to UK for higher studies, how come he could have started an atomic research institutions.
Coming back to Mela Ram feeling, i do feel same that instead of working and developing our nation, we are developing America. But there is no way for us. India is not a place for scientist. Only the politicians, corrupts and Lazy bones can survive in India.
But as and on behalf of NRI, I promises to do something to India like what Dr. Homi Bhabha Started an Nuclear reseach organisation. Mr. Mohan in swadesh started electric generating station.
This movie touched my soul too. Kudos to Ashutosh Gowarikar, sadly his movie did not get its due respect.
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