Swades

In this 2004 Ashutosh Gowariker-directed release, Shahrukh Khan comes to the screen yet again as a NRI (non-resident Indian) residing in Washington D.C as a wealthy project manager for NASA. Having lived in the U.S for the past twelve years, Mohan has become accustomed to the luxuries and patterns of the country, but laments his status as an orphan and believes to remedy the emptiness in his life he must venture to India to bring back his devoted nanny, Kaveriamma, played by Kishori Balal. Once in India, Mohan discovers Kaveriamma is no longer in an elderly home and has relocated to a small village called Charanpur. Though equipped with an earnest desire to seek out the only mother-figure has has left, Mohan takes along the extensions of his western lavishness in the form of a fully furnished caravan to combat the potential discomforts of village life. The village of Charanpur provides Mohan with an insight he long been detached from, revitalizing in him an appreciation for his home country as well as new level of awareness to its problems. Plagued with caste prejudices, small resources and interest in education, poverty, and no reliable source of electricity, Charanpur has thwarted progress in almost every way. Gita, played by Gayatri Joshi who makes her debut in this film, stands almost alone in her efforts in attempting to move the village along. Though a native of the village, she is no country bumpkin, having completed her studies at Delhi, and only having made her way back to Charanpur upon the death of her parents to take care of her younger brother and maintain the school that her parents established. She and Mohan were once childhood playmates, Kaveriamma acting as a mother-figure to her as well. Mohan and Gita develop a relationship conceived in a dedication to Charanpur as well as one that is suspended in competition over Kaveriamma. Throughout his stay at Charanpur, Mohan finds himself invested in the the ways of life of the village, becoming a real-life hero for its residents, but maintains an idea of home in the life he has developed abroad. Presented with a new perspective and passion, Mohan is forced to re-evaluate his priorities as a NRI and consider what a backwards town like Charanpur could possibly provide him. -Marianna Faynshteyn