"Yeh jo des hai tera..."

Honest. One word to describe the movie "Swades". A really well-{researched|treated} subject. Touches the heart, specially the ones who are going through the same mental/emotional conflict in their lives (which means expats basically :) ). Not much in the story tho but simplicity with attention to details was the highlight of the rather-too-long movie.

Maybe the real reason why I liked the movie was that the ideas presented in it were exactly my own. I used to think like this always but wasnt sure if it was the right way to think or not. E.g the common excuse for all wrong thats going on around us: "so wat can we do?". Although I dont know the answer to this question but that doesn't mean its a valid response. The hero in the movie had an answer to this question, although a little fairy-tale like but still it shows the way. Similary other ideas, e.g saying "mera mulk sab se achha hai" and forgetting all the weaknesses we have! I am a great fan of the Pakistan cricket team but it should not stop me from criticizing their weaknesses. Same should be done with things in general. We just should not accept status-quo on things which are not the way they are supposed to be. I loved it when Shahrukh Khan said "The truth is that mera mulk sab se achha nahin hai", coz I always said that about Karachi and .... well... didn't get very good feedbacks :P. It doesn't mean that I dont love something, it just means that the good things in some thing can/should not over-shadow the bad ones.

Technically the movie was fantastic too. I realized how much the director had to do with his previous movie "Lagaan" getting the Oscar nomination, which I previously thought to be Amir Khan's baby. I was impressed by his insight into the expats lives/thoughts etc. and the issues they face. The village environment was much more realistic and so were the villagers. Every character looked like it actually belonged to the village - just like Lagaan, where it seemed as if they everyone had been speaking the weird language since their birth! (Unlike Veer Zaara where they made the bengaali looking Shahrukh Khan, with a pakka Delhi-waala accent, speak Punjabi! No offense here to SRK here coz he tried very hard (and it showed) but its just too hard to fool us into thinking that he is a Punjabi).

The most touchy scene I felt was the "Pachees paisa ka glass" boy selling water at the train station.

The songs were the hallmark of the movie for me. They were simple but very sweet-sounding and melodious. My favourite was the "yeh jo des hai tera.." which kinda summarizes the whole idea of the movie, but the others were very good/innovative too. The picturization of the title song was awsome - the way it brings back the images of the village and the ppl, and the sounds in that song are so "true".

Another reason I liked the movie was probably coz of my geeky self - it showed me the NASA research lab inside out! (well almost).

P.S.
I wanted to write Veer Zaara's hopelessness's rant too, but decided upon better usage of my time elsewhere.