Ashutosh Gowariker asks, through his protagonist, if in spite of all the imperfections that we exist in, can we seek to love? Here, his love has more than one meaning. When Mohan Bhargava decides to take a leave from his work at NASA and travel to India for two weeks in search of Kaveri Amma, a woman who was more of a mother to whom than his nanny, his journey takes him to Charanpur, a small village where the people are eccentric and electricity is a guest who stays only for couple of hours every day. As he reunites with Kaveri Amma, he also meets Gita, a childhood friend. What was an attempt to convince Kaveri Amma to travel back to the US with him slowly becomes the glimpse of a country’s grassroots.
Mohan’s journey takes him to the depths of rural India, and he finds himself in a world whose rooted traditions and lack of modernity manage to strike a chord that affects him beyond measure. In fact, at times, you might just forget you are watching a film set in modern India until you see Mohan using his MacBook. This unconventional connection is one that is beyond the normal; it is born out of not careful observation, but fleeting moments of feeling and deep human connection, which Mohan finds himself building as he begins to realise that maybe the soil from his homeland is not that bad after all. You see, Mohan isn’t necessarily someone who is irrationally disapproving of the nation, and has a genuine reasoning behind certain opinions.
At the time of its release, Swades was never taken too well by audiences, but years later, the film was deemed ahead of its time. Gowariker’s film captures the landscape of rural India in all of its large scope. He allows the character to soak in the guilt of his privilege and forces him to find a way to be part of the people and not the problem. Mohan never has inhibitions; he sees people as human beings and is never one to believe in the notions of caste, a practice he constantly deems as a thing of the past that should never have survived through the years in the first place. His nostalgia for the past is broken by the reality he is put in, and in his stay over the few weeks (which he even extends later), there are several moments that bring forth a change in Mohan’s entire thought process. He finds himself extremely affected by those around him and does not quite do things out of the need for self-fulfilment as much as he does out of genuine niceness. He is not the confused NRI who is mystified by his motherland – Mohan is the returning NRI who finds love in nature, the very nature wherein he was nurtured.
There are notes of melodrama in Gowariker’s film, but there is also a genuine heart that beats throughout. As Mohan finds love for Gita, he finds love for his homeland. He finds more to the nation than just culture and tradition, in the people whom he cannot quite get out of his mind. As an audience member, I remember the first time I watched this film, I too could not forget this film and the people in it. While Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades is naive, sometimes it is that exact kind of honesty that allows you to find belief in the very spirit of human connection itself. As we celebrate Independence, we must remind ourselves that as a people, it is not necessarily taking the big step that is crucial. In fact, sometimes, even the smallest steps can lead to the greatest of change for the better. Swades is a film for the people, and as Mohan finds a newfound love for India, he knows that despite all its imperfections, there is a charm about this nation that makes you believe in its people
Published – August 18, 2025 02:04 pm IST
