Swades is the story of an Indian man, Mohan Bhargava, who works as a project manager for NASA. Upon reaching a major stepping stone in his current project he decides to find his childhood nanny in India. While in India, he relearns many things about his old country and the problems facing it.
Swades used a lot of techniques made famous through Bollywood films, but in contrast has a strong political and social commentary. The use of music video-esque scenes created transitions and provided good entertainment like most Bollywood films, but the scenes actually provided story line. The coloring of the film is bright and colorful, but not quite as much as most Bollywood films. Overall Swades makes its self more appealing to international audiences by toning down the bollywood stereotypes. Although Swades departs from many of the stereotypes it does not completely abandon them making it able to be successful locally as well.
Poverty, caste discrimination, child marriage, illiteracy, a general disregard for education and apathy to change are all addressed in this film. Cinematography in this film exemplifies the problems that the poor of India deal with. One example is with the man who is leasing from Gita, in which the lighting is really dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment