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Swami
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'Swami' - A simple touching movie

By Aparajita Ghosh
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

‘Swami’ is a very unlikely directorial debut by choreographer Ganesh Acharya. One would have expected song and dance in the film. But ‘Swami’ is far far from Bollywood stereotype.

The movie is a very simple and touching tale of a middle-class man, his wife and their son. Apparently, Acharya seems not the least besotted with the gloss and glitz of commercial cinema. Rather he believes in tapping the emotive appeal of the medium.

Acharya

opts for non-flashy starcast: Manoj Bajpai, Juhi Chawla and child artiste Siddharth. And he tells his story in a very simplistic and straightforward way. The film’s story mostly moves in a linear direction. Songs are played only in the background and the cinematography is non-stylistic.

The movie begins with Amitabh Bachchan’s voiceover introducing the characters.

Swami (Manoj Bajpai) is a simple, humble and compassionate man married to Radha (Juhi Chawla). They live in a small home in a South Indian village. Though they are poor, the husband and wife share the hardships and little joys of their lives together.

Swami has a desire to buy a rocking chair. He has had this longing ever since his childhood when he was slapped and scorned for sitting on a rocking chair that belonged to someone else.

This rocking chair is used as a metaphor for Swami’s dreams and unfulfilled desires.

Anyway, with the passing of time a son is born into the family. Swami, too, gets a job in Mumbai and the family moves to the city.

Radha, inspired by images of tall building on TV, wants her son to grow up to get a respectable job in the US.

The couple gets their son admitted to a good school. But before Radha’s dream is realized, she falls sick and is diagnosed with a fatal illness. She eventually dies. Now, Swami has just one aim: to fulfill Radha’s wish and give his son the best of life.

A film like ‘Swami’ does not hinge so much on its cinematic form as it does on its story content. The movie is replete with emotional moments that will leave you with moist eyes.

However, it must be admitted that the film begins to drag in the second half. A little bit of editorial pruning will do the film good. Also the characters in it begin to look uni-dimensional after a while.

‘Swami’ rests on strong performances by Manoj Bajpai, Juhi Chawla and Siddharth. Bajpai digs his teeth into the very skin of his character and enacts the part with utmost conviction. His facial expressions, body language and voice modulation: everything is up to the mark. Juhi Chawla is a complete natural. She brings a subtle mix of tenderness and charm into her character. Child artiste Siddharth gives a commendable performance.

On the whole, ‘Swami’ may not have the usual trappings of a commercial movie but it is rich in emotions. And that is its strong point.

Rating **1/2

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