Swades
There will be no spoiler here. Just praises. The late U.S. president, John F. Kennedy once said: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” I am taking this quote out of its context to reflect on a magnificent Indian cinema I recently saw: Swades. I had doubts at first about this movie. The Shah Rukh Khan label seemed to form my prejudice. And the first half hour of the movie formulated exactly my premature assumptions. Though, after an hour or two (this movie ran 3 hours and 30 minutes), I was impressed, and inspired. Hey, any movie that gets me writing must be phenomenal! And this gem by Ashutosh Gowariker, the director of the critically accalimed Lagaan, I consider to be the bravest movie to come out of Bollywood. You all may dispute me. Mira Nair, you might say, may be an exception. But, she has not ever produced a movie succesfully out of Bollywood. While, Swades, with its critical social questions walk a dangerous tightrope, manages to bloom out of the murky and binding giltz of Bollywood. Any movie coming out of Bollywood never escapes the infamous formula: hero, heroine, romance, violence, humor, dance, music, and happy ending. Okay, so Swades submits to those formulas.. not all though. Just a few in fact. And it passed censorship. I am astonished. However, it was bashed by Indian critics and failed Indian Box Office. I must admit that there are glitches here and there and unnecessary storylines, but its daring attempt to question contemporary issues such as the idea of the nation, the paradox in national identity, the notion of “natural” culture, its glorification and its abuse, race/class discrimination, power, loyalty, roots, alienation, and so much more deserves commendation… It’s refreshing to see a Bollywood movie that entertains but challenges you to think. Maybe, those ciritcs cannot handle a movie that asks questions, and leaves it open for answers. I was impressed (notice that I used this word twice already?). This movie compeled me to reflect and ask: what have I done for my country, more importantly my community. Do we owe allegiance or loyalty to an imagined idea that has never given back anything to us. What is roots? I have never felt connection but alienation from the society that hates my heritage. Strange, yet paradoxically true. But why am I so compeled to do something? Why do I care? I don’t consider myself as a savior, or have the confidence to think so. But, I hear its cries and I am drawn. I say, if we wait for the right person to come, then we’ll never move, budge. I’m not saying progressing because we are already riding the waves of progress. We just don’t know it. We aren’t sensitive enough to notice the potentials in the progressing time that consumes us. I wish the lyrics from the soundtrack could ring true for me:
this country of yours is your motherland
and is calling out to you
his is a bond which can never break
how can you forget the scent of your earth
you can go anywhere but you’ll always come back
in new paths, in every sigh
to your lost heart
someone will say
this land of yours is your motherland
life is telling you
you have achieved everything now what’s left
looks like hapiness has been showered on you
but you’re far from your home
now come back oh crazy one
where at least someone will call you their own
and will call out to you
that very same country
this land that is yours…..
this moment has hidden in it
a whole century of life
don’t ask why in the road
has come a fork with two ways
you are the one who should choose the path
you should choose
which direction to take
this very country
this land that is yours….
My heritage is complex and has never been rooted. Yet this land far from my heart calls. See Swades. I dare you.
