Swades : A Cult Classic

Swades: What a beautiful movie that goes against the mainstream masala Bollywood films! If there’s a cinema other than Iruvar and Bombay that pierces patriotism into your heart, it’s this one: Swades: We the People. I can’t believe I hadn’t watched this gem until last weekend, that’s almost 20 years of knowing every song from the movie but not giving the attention it deserved. Shah Rukh Khan as Mohan Bhargav would’ve inspired thousands of NRIs to return to their homeland, but our country wasn’t ready to see their biggest star as a down-to-earth NASA engineer who comes in search of his nanny, only to dance to the song Yeh Tara Woh Tara to unite the lower caste children with the elites. We weren’t ready to see him give a reality check on why India is not the greatest country in the world and how it can be one. No one was ready to accept the king of Bollywood driving a caravan instead of a Lamborghini to a small village in rural India and toiling hard to light a bulb instead of romancing his love interest with long, cliche dance numbers. And I don’t think anyone is ever ready to sit through the scene of Shah Rukh Khan sharing the screen with a little boy at the railway station who sells a cup of water for 25 paise. The move was crisp, stuck to its essence, and baffled the audience because they weren’t ready for any of that. That’s exactly why it was a major box office failure! Swades was too pure, too innocent in its form and approach, but let me tell you this, it deserves to be celebrated as a cult classic.