Inside the mind and heart of Venkatesh Sridhar

I saw Swades yesterday - an amazing movie not because of the story’s strength but because of story’s simplicity and realism. The movie is very realistic and there is no usual bonhomie that is shown in almost every bollywood film.According to me this is Ashutosh Gowariker’s best movie - better than that of Lagaan. This is more realistic and likeable.

My favorite scene is when SRK says (translated into English)
” I dont believe our nation is great(mahan), but yes I believe that we have the capacity and talent to be great.”

The villagers are horrified and they say that we have culture and tradition and because of that we are great. SRK replies

“Pardon me but since you have raised the topic I am saying this , whenever we start to lag behind in competition we take umbrage in our so called great culture and tradition. America is a nation that has developed on their skills and talents and they have evolved their own culture and to say that our culture is better than theirs is not right. And what culture are you talking about? A culture which discriminates its own people based on the work that they do? A culture which does not allow a handloom maker to become a farmer? A culture where people are treated unjustly? What culture are you talking about? All of us say that this nation is going nowhere and this is true for all of us - you,me and everybody else. But, what do we do about it? - nothing. We blame the govt for every problem when we ourselves dont contribute towards improving the system. We dont want to help ourselves that is the biggest problem.”

I was taken aback. I was like hey I do that. I am here cribbing on the net doing nothing and then I realised that this is it - it’s time I did something and hence I am going to work a lot for ‘We The Indians‘.

We The Indians is a proposed NGO. The idea is of my friend Monica Datta and I liked the idea and I agreed to help her out.

But seeing Swades has changed my outlook. Using We The Indians as a tool I am going to try and educate people to leave aside their differences for the common good. Once all of us Indians learn to do that we would definitely be the great nation that we all dream of.