Swades: We, the People (2004)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Ashutosh Gowariker

Writers:

Ashutosh Gowariker (story) &
Ashutosh Gowariker (written by) ...

Release Date:

17 December 2004 (India)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

We, the people

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Childhood Nanny | Rural Life | Boy Selling Water | India | Ferry Boat

Awards:

10 wins & 16 nominations

Cast

Shahrukh Khan	...	Mohan Bhargav
Gayatri Joshi	...	Gita / Gitlee
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Raja Awasthi
Vishwa S. Badola
Kishori Balal	...	Kaveri amma
Rajesh Balwani
Makrand Deshpande	...	Fakir
Vishnudatt Gaur
Farrukh Jaffar	...	Fatimabi
Bachan Pachehra
Daya Shankar Pandey	...	Mela Ram
Rich Petrelli	...	Command and Control Center Operator
Peter Rawley	...	John Stockton
Smith Seth	...	Chikku
Eduardo Takamura	...	NASA Scientist
Lekh Tandon
Bhim Vakani
Rajesh Vivek	...	Nivaran
Rahul Vohra

Also Known As:

Our Country (International: English title) (USA)
Desam (India: Tamil title) (dubbed version)
Swades - Heimat (Germany) (TV title) [de]
Swades: Nous, le peuple (France) [fr]

Runtime:

USA:189 min | India:210 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | Dolby SR | Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Not Rated | Germany:o.Al. | UK:U

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Ashutosh Gowariker Productions Pvt. Ltd.

Trivia:

When Mohan and the villagers get together in the school for a celebration, we can see a blackboard in the background with a design drawn on it with chalk. That design is actually the logo of Ashutosh Gowariker Productions.

Movie Connections:

Features Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973)

Soundtrack:

Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera

Truly made from the heart

Ashutosh Gowariker, has really made this movie straight from the heart. It has none of the ridiculous clichés one is typically used to seeing when one sees a story about an India returning home. He has captured something which perhaps no other Indian movie has - that love for ones country can be strong without making an excessively big deal about it.

It is a long movie. But I think the rather leisurely pace of the movie is required because it gives enough time for the protagonist, Mohan Bhargava, to come to India (with his mineral water and caravan) and start to fall in love with its beauty as well as understand its incongruities which frustrate us all as well. I thought there were three moments in the movie that captured it all

1. The feeling he gets when he starts to land in India. All of us feel it. I do even today. It's called coming home. 2. The mineral water - that is a classic. In fact it is a character of its own throughout the movie and plays its own part! 2. The boy serving water at 25paise to the train passengers and Mohan Bhargava's reaction

I am saddened that Indians both in India and around the world have not liked this movie. It will be remembered as an epic. 2.