Review of Swades, We, the People

In the film Swades, we follow the epic, revealing path of an Indian man named Mohan. Mohan is a leading project manager for a project called Global Precipitation Measurement in which he works under NASA. Mohan is depressed, and recalls his old maid, Kaveri. Mohan decides to travel to India and visit Kaveri, hoping to bring Kaveri back to the U.S. to live a more peaceful, fruitful life than in India. Unfortunately, it becomes hard when Mohan arrives to Kaveri’s village, as Kaveri tells Mohan that she needs more time to decide. In this midst, Mohan meets an old friend name Gita, Gita is a stubborn school teacher who is very ambitious about education for the children of her village. Mohan brings his American culture into their village, and faces idealistic conflict with his old friend Gita, but introduces new views and stories to some lively characters of the village, a postmaster, a cook, a freedom fighter. His conflict tends to intertwine with the everday lives of the villagers and their elders. Problems arise throughout Mohan’s visit, electrical failure, water, proper schooling. Mohan stays a little while longer as he does not want to leave the village so he can spend more time with Gita and Kaveri as well as the villagers. Through his extended stay, Mohan is sent to collect money from Haridas, who leased land from Gita to farm. Unfortunately, Haridas does not have the money to do such, and Mohan’s journey to collect the money gives him a revelation to help the village. In his revelation, he helps to convince people on their culture and traditions to help better the village. Mohan helps the village, bringing electricity through his turbine, economic outlook fighting against the caste system, and institutes a school to broaden the acceptance of students. He eventually has to leave due to his duties toward the NASA project, but returns in the end to his people and love.
The movie is really a love story, a life lesson, and new perspectives and ideologies intertwined. Although a three hour plus movie, it includes a musical side as well, which is a key element in Indian Cinema, the appreciation and culture of integrating music into the lives of the villagers. In this musical element, the love story connection is made, along with singing about true roots, tradition, and new/old generation connection. Caste system becomes a huge part in the economical, education element of the story, as the elders prefer the caste system to outlay their wishes of the village. Haridas became a prime example of the caste system, which ashamed Mohan of his people’s ideals, due to the fact the Haridas was a weaver, who became a farmer, but was shunned by the village when he traded professions. During a part of the film, the elders argued for the caste system, saying that India is the greatest country in the world because of its “Culture and Tradition”. Mohan argues with the elders on this subject, as he incorporates the ideals of American capitalism into his argument, making this a very important scene in the movie because it assures Mohan’s perspective with the villagers becoming a lot stronger than his first arrival. Indian cinema did well to incorporate American themes like a musical, argue against it’s own beliefs like the caste system, and involve elements of its own culture such as its love of music and appreciation of roots.