One can’t be sure how many people would turn up for a movie screening scheduled to begin at 8 am sharp on a Sunday morning. But a houseful crowd, consisting mainly of students from schools and colleges in Navi Mumbai, was up and about in the early hours of April 10 at the Meghdoot theatre, Vashi. The movie to be screened was Swades, and the screening was to be followed by an interaction with Ashutosh Gowariker, who directed the movie. The programme was organised by Men Against Violence & Abuse (MAVA), a voluntary organisation working on issues of gender-based violence, and Navi Mumbai-based Harmony Counselling Centre. 

For those who haven’t seen it, Swades is the story of Mohan Bhargava, a project manager with NASA, and NRI for about 12 years. Bhargava’s short trip back home turns into a discovery, not just of rural India, with its multitude of issues, but also an unearthing of his own desires and goals. Encountering poverty, caste divides and ‘now it’s on, now it’s off’ power supply, Bhargav does what he can to change things while he’s in India. He goes back to the US in a couple of weeks, only to return for good when he realises that swades is where his heart is.

Once the movie screening was done with, it was time for the interaction with Ashutosh Gowariker. And it was in this discussion, facilitated by Harish Sadani from MAVA and Hemangi Naik from Harmony Counselling Centre, that the young movie audience, responsive to begin with, went all out interacting. One student wanted to know why the caste issue was identified but ultimately left unresolved in both Swades and Gowariker’s earlier movie Lagaan. Gowariker’s response was measured. “I have a simplistic nature and that comes through in the movies as well. The caste system as such cannot be eradicated. Even in the film industry, people are seen as actors or directors. There’s this view that actors cannot be directors. That’s a caste system as well. But we don’t have to treat people differently based on it.”

On being asked by Agnels student Rinku Arya why he only focused on problems in villages, Gowariker answered, “Problems exist, albeit on a very different level, in cities as well. But I think we are all very connected to our villages. So I concentrate on those issues.” 

Another student wanted to know if the love stories were necessary in both Lagaan and Swades. “Yes, I think they were,” Gowariker answered. “There are some basic emotions, among them love and compassion, without which, most works of art are incomplete.” To the viewer who wanted to know how permission was obtained to shoot in NASA premises, the answer was, “I sent them a script, requesting permission to shoot there. They liked it to so much that they actually gave me a choice of three locations to shoot at, free of charge.”

Swapan Purkayastha thanking Ashutosh for his significant contribution towards MAVA's cause

Ashutosh Gowariker running for MAVA at the "Mumbai International Marathon" in JAN 2005

It was also time for movie trivia with Gowariker in the driver’s seat. From how A R Rahman came up with the introductory music to the song Ghanana Ghanana, from the movie Lagaan, (he looped Shankar Mahadevan’s voice singing the song) to how Gowariker got Shahrukh Khan to do away with his trademark gesticulating (“I asked him not to use his hands and neck so much. To which he responded, ‘So you want me to act like Aamir Khan?’”)

Ask Gowariker if it is a big risk to make the kind of offbeat movies that he does and he says instantly, “All movies are a risk. But Swades was perhaps a bigger risk to make than Lagaan because it had no formula and so many messages.”

For T S Chanakya students Nitin Trivedi and Sajal Shukla, who hadn’t seen the movie earlier, the screening and interaction was a novel Sunday activity. While for Fr Agnels student Gursahiba Sahni, who had seen the movie earlier, it was, “A chance to see a good movie again, listen to the director and also meet with all my friends.” 

And what did Gowariker think of Navi Mumbai? “I’d always wanted to come to Vashi. We often pass by on our way to Pune. Now I’m finally here. And I quite like it.”

And for students from DAV School, North Point School, Modern College, Fr Agnels, T S Chanakya and Sainath, among others, this was a critical appreciation exercise that they quite liked as well.