Swades
Click to viewRoad music!
So, I literally put this in the player because I've been unable to watch Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which is the one EVERYBODY likes. For not the first time, I'm convinced something is wrong with me.
Anyways, in this one, SRK is a NASA engineer. OK, stop laughing. My dad was an aerospace engineer IRL, so the technobabble seems especially silly to me. Anyway, he gets nostalgic for his old nanny back in India, so off he goes. It turns out, she's taken up residence in a small village, so he borrows a friend's caravan and is off on a road trip. He picks up a random dude on the way and they sing a snappy road trip number (see above) which pretty much made me fall in love with this picture, come what may.
Anyways, as you've probably guessed, there's a feisty woman in the village, plus some assorted colorful characters. There's a couple of adorable scenes with SRK riding a motor scooter piled on with two other guys. That's another thing I loved about this film, it's a rare one where India actually looks like the India I remember visiting. And they're somewhat realistic about the problems there: SRK confronts much Stuff That Needs to Be Done, including getting kiddies to school and finding more reliable electricity.
This was a neat film. There were sad bits, but they kept up a cheery attitude, there were a couple of catchy songs, including a dance with the kiddies (I'm a sucker for kiddies dancing) and a really affecting scene where SRK teaches the village a bit about the constellations. The ending was on the fairy tale side, but I think I can forgive. I've seen a few BW films now about ISSUES, but it's mostly dramatic stuff war and terrorism. A bit harder to make an entertaining film about how folks need clean water, but this one succeeds.
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