Swades (2004)

A successful Indian scientist returns to an Indian village to take his nanny to America with him and in the process rediscovers his roots.

Director:

Ashutosh Gowariker

Writers:

M.G. Sathya (story), Ashutosh Gowariker (story)

Stars:

Shah Rukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi, Kishori Ballal

Top Rated Indian Movies #47 | 14 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shah Rukh Khan	...	Mohan Bhargava
Gayatri Joshi	...	Gita
Kishori Ballal	...	Kaveri amma
Smit Sheth	...	Chiku (as Master Smith Seth)
Lekh Tandon	...	Dadaji - Freedom Fighter
Rajesh Vivek	...	Nivaran Dayal Shrivastav
Daya Shankar Pandey	...	Mela Ram (as Dayashanker Pandey)
Farrukh Jaffar	...	Fatima Bi
Vishnudutt Gaur
Raja Awasthi
Vishwa Mohan Badola	...	(as Visshwa S. Badola)
Bhim Vakani
Rahul Vohra	...	Vinod (as Rahul Vora)
Rajesh Balwani
Bachan Pachehra	...	(as Bachan Pachera)

Storyline

Set in modern day India, Swades is a film that tackles the issues that development throws up on a grass root level. It is to this India, which is colorful, heterogeneous and complex that Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan), a bright young scientist working as a project manager in NASA, returns to on a quest to find his childhood nanny. The film uses the contrast between the highly developed world of NASA, which has been at the forefront of advances in space research, and this world back home in India, which is at the crossroads of development. Mohan's simple quest becomes the journey that every one of us goes through in search of that metaphysical and elusive place called "home".

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Plot Keywords:

india | village | nasa | postmaster | childhood nanny | 

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Taglines:

We, the people

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

17 December 2004 (India)

Also Known As:

Swades

Filming Locations:

Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$424,804, 19 December 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$1,223,240

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,570,413

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ashutosh Gowariker Productions, Dillywood, UTV Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

195 min (Blu-ray)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital Dolby SR Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ashutosh Gowariker first offered Hritik Roshan the lead role, but he declined saying his image didn't go with the character.

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Goofs

When Mohan speaks to his colleague Vinod for the first time from postmaster's office in charanpur, the background shows daylight, also vinod's background shows broad daylight, however, due to geography, it should be night time, at one of the places.

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Quotes

Mela Ram: Apni chaukhat ka diya, giving light to neighbor's house

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Connections

Referenced in Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah: Chennai Express Special Part 1 (2013)

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Soundtracks

Dekho Na
Sung by Alka Yagnik & Udit Narayan
Lyrics by Javed Akhtar
Composed by A.R. Rahman

User Reviews

coming of age

Thank god for swades. Its been ever so often that as Indians we have lamblasted the mushy, one track nonsensical movies that were being churned out by bollywood and yearned for something slightly honest and celebral. And now it seems that the moment has arrived. Swades has finally reached the next level of Indian movie-making with the help of ashutosh, srk and rahman where the execution, the concept and the treatment of the film is at least (i can safely assume) close to world standards. There is no point comparing lagaan (the directors 1st movie) to this movie as his earlier venture was purely fiction with no semblance of realism in it. However this movie has so many ingredients of being a pathbreaker for Indian cinema that its almost scary. The feelings and expectations of an nri set aside, it tells the story of middle and upper class India losing touch with the harsh realities of the sufferings of the less fortunate ones all around us (and the fact that we can do very little to change the ongoing scenario is even more glaring and painful). Besides this the movie also deals with the desires and priorities of humans inspite of the trials and tribulations of daily living.

The maturity of the script, the actors and the score makes it a journey of epic proportions without it looking epic at all. The normalcy of the movie is something which might (and hopefully will) change the way cinema is seen and made in India in the future. One can only hope.