Swami Movie Review: Swami ? What Was The Point

Must say it was a rather noble idea for choreographer Ganesh Acharya to select an unconventional, non-musical concept for his first film, and rumour has it that the film is somewhat inspired by events of his own life. However, his noble intentions lack vision, heart and substance and hence what ensues is a 2 hour wait for something to happen, a wait left unfulfilled even after the end titles of the film.

Although Swami starts of well with the establishment of Swami (Manoj Bajpai) and Radha's (Juhi Chawla) characters through the voiceover by Amitabh Bachchan and as a viewer you are immediately drawn into the warmth of the two characters and their happily married life. Initially you are drawn into the simplicity of the characters, their lives and the narrative style, reminding you of the 50s and 60s style of cinema. The problem lies in the fact that for any script to engage an audience, there has to be some element of a conflict, which forms the hook and the heart of the film. Even candyfloss films which are only about "feel good cinema" and are not intended to be thought provoking in the least, have some feeble conflict which the film then works towards resolving in order to reach the "and they lived happily ever after" ending. Swami is by no means intended to be candyfloss cinema but ends up achieving the same result; leaves you wondering what the point of the film was. The film chugs along without anything really happening, without any major conflict which needs to be resolved and the minor issues which do occur in the film (they are too minor to be termed conflicts) are completely immature and lack relevance for a film in 2007.

The significance of the rocking chair and its initial importance and obsession for Swami remains unexplained (the attempted explanation given in Mr. Bachchan's voiceover at the end of the film is too insignificant and unconvincing). Radha uses the money kept aside for her treatment of a fatal illness to buy the rocking chair (reminiscent of a classic short story) but unlike the short story, one fails to understand how the chair was more important that the life of a character! Furthermore, you hope that Radha's death will lead to the story picking up post interval, but once again we are disappointed as the death too gives no rise to any conflict. The track dedicated to Anand (Swami and Radha's son) having to go off to America is also extremely immature and makes no sense in the overall context of the film. The track about the friends exercising in the park is also completely pointless and could easily have been removed from the film.

The performances, like the film, start of well but leave you waiting for more, a more which never comes. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Manoj Bajpai or Juhi Chawla's portrayals of Swami and Radha respectively, but there is nothing earth shattering either, although it is more the script than their acting prowess which need to be blamed. Maninder Singh is an absolute revelation as a debutant in his portrayal of the grown up Anand; he is confident, relaxed and holds his own opposite a veteran like Manoj and what's more is that his screen presence is striking. Child actor, Siddharth, as the young Anand is outstanding.

As a director, Ganesh Acharya is let down by a weak screenplay (Bhavani Iyer, Muazzam Beg) and since the script itself lacks emotions, Acharya can only be partially blamed for not being about to evoke emotions in his characters, although some of the interactions between father and son are craftily handled and due credit to Acharya for those far and few in between scenes. One can't help but wonder if it would have been more advisable for Acharya to have a chosen a script more in tune with his strength as his directorial debut in order to grasp the craft first, before taking on what was intended to be a more thought provoking cinematic experience. Alas, the intention and the result are poles apart.