It’s been 17 years of this beautiful film few days back. Last year when I got to know that it had been 16 years, I immediately penned down my thoughts about it. Did not post about it as, because of some reasons. Here’s what I had penned!

December 23, 2020

It's been 16 years of Swades. I've seen this one when I was little, I had a dvd player and a pirated copy of Swades. If I say and it had left me intrigued and mesmerised since then, it would be blatant lie and just any other article ever. What I can say for sure is that, it set me to think and question. Contrary to other films, this one has no NRI flashy sequences, no romantic extravaganza, something as I kid would have loved to watch. It just, set me to think. I never got the film then, and was quickly lured by other activities.

Until I re-watched it 5 years back during my 10th std board exams. This time, it seeped in me, left me questioning actions that I had planned further on, left me wondering about the picture India is showcased as and India actually is. It set me to think, again.

THE train scene, has me held everytime I see it.

I had planned to do something about it, not sit still and ignore the scenario that many of ours are facing. It's naive to some extent, I get that. Getting inspired by a movie made for commercial purposes and gearing up for solving problems in villages. Wow.

As you might expect, these thoughts were quickly displaced by more immediate concerns like entrance exam preparations, etc. But what remains true is that it left an impact, a film rarely did.

About Film: Yes it has it's glaring flaws; Large length of film, age-old dialogues, misplaced songs, lack of a formal 3-act structure (Premise, Conflict and Resolution) But the narrative is immensely powerful. Stark contrasting to earlier SRK movies. “Ye Jo Des Hai Tera” by AR Rahman is bound to make you listen it more than once. Vinit Masram has covered this beautifully under his video essay series on his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d--JlOvnD8

To be honest, I am not a pro-nationalist. I am of sincere, maybe naive ideology that countries are basically boundaries that humans have artificially created. On an organic basis, there cannot be "My Nation" simply because I was born in it. More so it is pointless to think "My Nation" is greatest.

I’m nobody to comment on the concerns and problems a large section of India faces. I guess privilege speaks here. But what I closely associate with is the situation of Indian cinema’s landscape, as a cinema enthusiast. The films being produced are flashy, un-realistic and attempting to lure people by popular topics of sex and violence. They showcase a very pretentious world, which none of us or very few perhaps live in.

There are many noturgent-important and urgent-important topics which are rarely touched upon. Ignoring them or passing it off as "hey it's none of my concern alright!?" is, NOT the way. For anybody who knows about this, and passes a comment knows the pretentious nature. He just wants to ride the wave of priviledge.

What's the way? I’ve loved the approach Anand Gandhi takes. Please do give a visit to his website, https://memesyslab.com/

I do not know what I can do about this. But I guess acknowledging is the first step here. As Simple as that.

Consuming content that has been historically preaching same topics lead us nowhere. Acknowledging that, thats the case helps us realise the hollowness, these films preach. Everything else follows later on I guess. Atleast thats what I think :)

Jai Hind.

Mohan Bhargava