- A successful Indian scientist returns to an Indian village to take his nanny to America with him and in the process rediscovers his roots.
- Set in modern day India, Swades is a film that tackles the issues that development throws up on a grass root level. It is to this India, which is colorful, heterogeneous and complex that Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan), a bright young scientist working as a project manager in NASA, returns to on a quest to find his childhood nanny. The film uses the contrast between the highly developed world of NASA, which has been at the forefront of advances in space research, and this world back home in India, which is at the crossroads of development. Mohan's simple quest becomes the journey that every one of us goes through in search of that metaphysical and elusive place called "home".—Anonymous
- Swades is a terrific movie which sends a message of patriotic love. Mohan Bhargava(SRK) is a scientist working for NASA who returns India to take back an elderly women(Kaveriamma) who helped him grew up. Mohan discovers, and realizes more about Indian origins. He realizes that his country requires him more than any other country. He starts and successfully completes a project of providing electricity to the village in which Kaveriamma is residing. He falls in love with Gita, a school teacher, who stays with Kaveriamma. He realizes the importance of staying in India with her and after one trip decides to stay forever in India.—muvi-fan-73
- Set in modern day India, SWADES tackles the issue facing the citizens of this nation at grassroots level. The India of SWADES is colorful, heterogeneous and complex and it is to this environment that Mohan Bhargava [Shah Rukh Khan], a bright young scientist working as project manager in NASA, returns to, on a quest to find his childhood nanny.What begins as a simple mission prompted by nostalgia and affection turns into a journey to the heartland of rural India, both literally and metaphorically. Mohan finds his nanny, Kaveriamma [Kishori Ballal], the symbol of motherhood, in a village called Charanpur with an admirable young woman Gita [Gayatri Joshi] and her younger brother Chikku [Master Smit Sheth]. Mohan begins to interact with the Panchayat, which has at the helm the dogmatic but the just village chief. Along the way he encounters the quirky but endearing Mela Ram [Dayashanker Pandey], who sees Mohan as his ticket to the chain of restaurants he will start on the American freeways. Mohan befriends the local postmaster Nivaran [Rajesh Vivek], stuck to his old-fashioned ways, and the village children, whose future is inextricably linked with that of the country. Soon, Mohan finally realizes that it is his scientific temperament as well as his understanding of societal complexities that can drive the villagers to participate in a movement to better their lives.—Hariharan
- Of East Indian origin, Mohan Bhargav is one of the millions of Non-residential Indians settled in the United States of America. Mohan is employed with N.A.S.A., and has been assigned to the task of measuring precipitation, which he accepts. He gets a little homesick, and reminisces about his life in India, his late parents, and his nanny, Kaveriamma. He impulsively decides to travel to India, and see how his nanny is doing. He finds out that his nanny has re-located, and after several inquiries he finds out that she lives in Charanpur - a place famous for the actual markings of the footsteps of Lord Ram and Devi Maa Sita when they were on their 14-year exile from Ayodhya. Mohan does locate Kaveriamma, who is overjoyed to see him. She introduces him to a young woman by the name of Gita, and Mohan gets attracted to her. This attraction gets him involved in the many problems facing Charanpur, and he decides to lend a hand to ease them. But will a young educated man like Mohan be accepted by the villagers, and will be considered competent enough to adjust to their way of life?—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
- Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) is an Indian who works as a Project Manager on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) program at NASA in the United States. Mohan came to America for college Studies and kept on living there after his parents in India died in an accident. Vinod (Rahul Vohra) is Mohan's friend in the US. Mohan keeps worrying about Kaveri Amma (Kishori Ballal), a nanny at his home in Uttar Pradesh who looked after him during his childhood days. After his parents' death, Kaveri Amma went to live-in an old age home in Delhi and eventually lost contact with Mohan. Mohan wishes to go to India and bring Kaveri Amma back with him to the US. Due to recent success of Phase I of his project, he takes a few weeks off and travels to India. He goes to the old age home but learns that Kaveri Amma no longer lives there and went to a village named Charanpur a year ago. Mohan then decides to travel to Charanpur, in Uttar Pradesh.
Mohan decides to rent a recreational vehicle to reach the village fearing that he might not get the required facilities there. he is misled by a girl he met on the way when he mentions his name. He strays off course, but meets a Fakir (Makrand Deshpande), who offers to take Mohan to Charanpur. Upon reaching Charanpur, he meets Kaveri Amma, and learns how his childhood friend Gita (Gayatri Joshi) (the same girl who misled Mohan), who after her parents died, brought Kaveri Amma to stay with her. Gita runs a school in Charanpur and works hard to improve the living conditions of the villagers through education. However, the village is divided largely by caste and religious beliefs. Mela Ram (Daya Shankar Pandey) is an aspiring chef and tries to impress Mohan with his cooking skills so that Mohan takes him to USA with him. He has a dream of opening Indian Dhaba on US freeways. Mela Ram is of Scheduled Caste
Gita does not like Mohan's arrival as she thinks that he will take Kaveri Amma back with him to the US, leaving her and her younger brother Chikku alone. Kaveri Amma tells Mohan that she needs to get Gita married first and that it is her responsibility. Gita believes in women empowerment and gender equality. This attracts Mohan towards Gita, and he too tries to help her by campaigning for education among backward communities and also girls. She says no to a prospective match when the groom's family puts a condition that Gita will not teach at school after the marriage. Mohan thinks problems of India cannot be solved. Gita says at least she is trying to do something for India, not like Mohan who is working for a foreign nation.
Mohan attends the village panchayat where he sees the Block Dev officer is corrupt and wont finish the electrification work in the village. He accuses the villagers of stealing electricity. Meanwhile the panchayat wants Gita to vacate the existing school building and take a smaller building farther away from the village. But Gita argues to retain the larger building as she wants to enroll more kids. Panchayat gives her 3 months. Panch are Vishnudutt (Vishnudutt Gaur), Panch Fatima Bi (Farrukh Jaffar), Panch Munishwar (Visshwa Badola), Panch Narayan (Bhim Vakani), Panch Hariya (Dilip Ambekar) and Panch Gungadin (Raja Awasthi). Inspired by Gita, Mohan tries to rally Mela Ram and town past master Nivaran (Rajesh Vivek) to enroll more kids in school. The scheduled castes are afraid to send their kids to school and the higher caste won't accept that their kids and scheduled castes study in the same school. even Vishnudutt doesn't send his granddaughters to school.
Kaveri is torn whether to stay with Gita or go with Mohan to US. Slowly love blossoms between Mohan and Gita. Kaveri can see that Mohan likes Gita. Kaveri Amma asks Mohan to visit a nearby village named Kodi and collect money from a man named Haridas (Bachan Pachehra) who owes it to Gita. The story gives a journey to Mohan very similar to what happened to Mahatma Gandhi after he came back from South Africa. Mohan visits Kodi and feels pity seeing Haridas' poor condition, which is such that he is unable to provide his family with meals every day. Haridas tells Mohan that since his caste profession of a weaver wasn't earning him any money, he shifted to tenant farming. But this change in profession led to his ostracizing from the village and the villagers even denied him water for his crops. Mohan understands the pathetic situation and realizes that many villages in India are still like Kodi. He returns to Charanpur with a heavy heart and decides to do something for the welfare of Charanpur. But slowly the villagers warm up to Mohan and some craftsmen and Vishnudutt start sending their kids and girls to school. At Dusshera, Mohan tells the entire village about Haridas's story and says that in India we don't want to solve our problems and hide behind our culture and traditions.
Mohan extends his leave by three more weeks. He learns that electricity inconsistency and frequent power cuts are a big problem in Charanpur. He decides to set up a small hydroelectric power generation facility from a nearby water source. Mohan purchases all the equipment needed from his own funds and oversees the building of the power generation unit. The unit works and the village gets sufficient, consistent power from it.
However, Mohan is repeatedly called by NASA officials as the GPM project he was working on is reaching important stages and he must return to the US soon. Kaveri Amma tells him that she prefers to stay in Charanpur as it will be difficult for her to adapt to a new country at her age. Gita also tells him that she will not settle down in another country and she would prefer it if Mohan stayed in India with her. Mohan returns to the US with a heavy heart to complete the project. However, in the US, he has flashbacks of his time in India and wishes to return. After the successful completion of his project, he leaves the US and returns to India with intentions of working at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, from where he can also work with NASA. The film ends showing Mohan staying in the village and wrestling near a temple.
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