“Swades” is a unique experiment with grassroots realism. It is so politically correct in its propagandist message that initially you wonder if the government of India funded the director’s dream.

As for the lead protagonist Khan (brilliant), let’s just say, in an entire career that spans a string of no-brainer, schmaltzy cinema hot off the shelves of Bollywood’s money-making masala stores, this is by far the most significant film he’s done yet. For this is another inspiring account of what self-empowered underdogs can accomplish through sheer zeal and phenomenal focus. I cannot think of a better film for the longest that deserved a stronger recommendation for both touring cinemas of India’s villages, and plush multiplexes of Mumbai or Manhattan. Finally, an honest, fine example of an unfortunately debunked, bastardised term called ‘crossover’.

The movie is much more than about the homecoming of an NRI. It is about his transformation, about the catharsis of emotions that floods his mind when he feels his insignificance in the face of a seemingly insurmountable mountain, and about his desire to bring about change. It is about those little drops of water making the ocean or the little grains of sand that make the land…It takes conviction in one’s belief to make a movie like this, to swim against the tide so to say. Gowarikar does it magnificently while sending a message across – stand up and be counted or stand down and be counted out.