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Swami |
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| Movie: | Swami |
| Director: | Ganesh Acharya |
| Start Cast: |
Juhi Chawla, Mithun Chakraborty, Manoj Bajpai |
| Our Rating: | *** |
| Review By: | Warren Jonathan |
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 'Swami’ advocates the Indian concept that the place of a wife is in her husband's home and her happiness lies in remaining happy with her man whatever the past may hold. The movie has a simple story with simple characters and simple narrative. The movie boasts of extra-ordinary performances by Manoj Bajpai, Juhi Chawla and child artist Amey Pandya which makes this touching film even more powerful. This is a relief from our so called regular Bollywood films, which provide every weekend full of light characters – jumping stories – unbelievable plots – violence and loud music tracks. The most influencing aspect of ‘Swami’ is in its simplicity and in its so called non-filmy plot. Manoj Bajpai and Juhi Chawla have made the characters very real like one among us and never comes a moment when you can separate the actors from the characters. A film like ‘Swami’ takes the viewer back to the 1960s or 1970s. However, ‘Swami’ has not much to offer to viewers at multiplexes who prefer to watch larger-than-life movies. A story of a middle class family, with songs playing in the background, no great sets, no masala, no sub-plots, Swami caters to a really tiny sect of viewers that has an appetite for this brand of cinema. For the wide majority, it's akin to treat oneself with boiled food, with no spices to tempt the taste buds. |
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 Yet, all said and done, ‘Swami’ marks the emergence of a sensitive storyteller in Ganesh Acharya. The film is rich in emotions and that's one thing that can never go out of fashion. Swami (Manoj Bajpai), Radha (Juhi Chawla) and their son (Siddharth) shift to Mumbai after selling off their ancestral home in a village. In Mumbai, they get Siddharth admitted to a school that's patronized by children belonging to affluent families. Everything goes fine until Radha falls ill and is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Swami starts working overtime to raise funds for the operation, but Radha spends the entire amount on a chair that Swami wants to possess so dearly. Radha passes away with just one desire- Siddharth should settle down in America some day. How Swami works towards that dream is the second half of the story. |
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 'Swami’ has an absorbing first hour. The simple story with simple situations finely intertwined with Manoj, Juhi and child actor Siddharth's true to life performances, besides Director Acharya’s brilliant execution. As a matter of fact, a number of scenes make you bleary eyed in the first hour and you can't help but reach out for your handkerchief. But the second hour falls short of expectations. The story stagnates in this hour as a few new characters are injected in short unimportant roles. These characters are a complete put off and only act as a spoke in the wheel. In fact, this portion should be trimmed instantly to keep the movie on the right track. There are a total of 14 tracks in Swami but yet the entire duration of all the songs is just around half an hour. The reason for this can be attributed to the fact that most of the songs are used as background scores and lasts for not more than 2 minutes. The screenplay is interesting in parts. While the first half of the movie is stretched taut with emotions and drama, the second half is quite a let down. This half has two main incidents to speak off -- the daughter-in-law selling off the chair and the son's trip to America. The scriptwriters should have incorporated a few more dramatic moments in the second half to keep the interest in the movie alive. |
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