A bunch of strangers find themselves facing each other in a battle to prove their links to a family tree that goes back over 400 years and claims over ancestral wealth—Hasith Goli’s Swag has a wacky premise, unfolding in multiple timelines at once, playing according to its own internal logic. The Raja Raja Chora director deserves accolades for the ambition itself. However, the ambition doesn’t quite find a match in the storytelling department here. Swag is not just a plot-driven film but also one with a strong message to deliver. At the same time, it throws at us multiple characters and their backstories.
Irrespective of what the film’s promotional drive wanted us to believe, Swag is not a comedy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t successfully tread the satirical terrain either. The film plays it straight, telling the zany story of greed, obsession with dynasty and bloodline in a way that eschews dark humour and critique about oppression or patriarchy for the longest parts. Once it employs these storytelling elements, however, it goes straight into the preachy zone. A concept like this requires plenty of heavy lifting, and kudos to Hasith Goli for such a bold attempt in his sophomore film. While there is plenty to admire here, it offers little to be awed by.
Swag is also an expansive narrative, one that spans many generations and time periods. Once the film reaches its interval mark and all the principal characters and their interlinks are in place, the goalpost becomes evident, as does the filmmaker’s intentions of making a particular point about gender hierarchy and gender-based oppression. And once the message-driven intention is out in the open, and the characters readied to be redeemed, reformed, and rooted for—it leaves little else to be done.
For a story like this to land smoothly, these characters needed to be written more strongly. Hasith Goli saves all his empathy for two characters—Revathi (Meera Jasmine) and Yayathi’s youngest child. With such an expansive narrative, it’s understandably difficult to lay a strong foundation for each character, but we struggle nonetheless to fathom the actions of some of these other characters that keep us emotionally distant from them. For instance, we are never given a reasonable explanation for Bhavabhuti’s disdain for the girl child. Similarly, Ritu Varma’s Anubhuti is a bewildering character, a ‘bad feminist’ in other words. We are introduced to her as an independent, self-reliant woman. Later, at a point, she is also shown as someone who cannot tolerate the idea of living off a man’s earnings. And yet, her feminism is relegated to her own independence and doesn’t translate into empathy for other women. Swag’s preachy energy is rather misplaced and jumbled that way. The film has its heart in the right place but lacks deft vocabulary to articulate its earnestness effectively enough. Vivek Sagar’s music, fortunately, is an energetic companion to a narrative that struggles to find its feet.
In what is undoubtedly the film’s most touching segment, a young boy hailing from an orthodox background yearns to learn classical dance. And while he remains in fear of his father, the love he gets from his sisters nearly makes up for everything else. In a heart-wrenching visual, the sisters take off one of their bangles and gradually pass them on to the brother. More than just the idea of the scene, the image itself leaves quite an impression, especially with the way the camera slowly lingers from one sibling to the next one. We progress only when we help each other and carry the baton forward—it’s all a futile battle for wealth and upholding dated beliefs otherwise.
Which brings us to Sree Vishnu, undoubtedly the biggest strength of this film. While the Mental Madhilo star is clearly having a lot of fun carrying the unique looks and prosthetics of multiple characters, it’s in essaying the part of Bhavabhuti’s twin-sibling where Sree Vishnu truly excels. There is a certain vulnerability that he brings to these parts in the second half that elevate the film and keep us invested in the character, bringing a much-needed poignance to the narrative without making it mawkish. It’s almost a one-man show in these post-interval portions, because after a point, Swag gets too mired up in its own set of rules and conditions, struggling to find the sweet spot between whimsy, drama, and social commentary. It is in Sree Vishnu’s best moments that Swag comes the closest to realising its full potential.
SWAG
Cast: Sree Vishnu, Ritu Varma, Meera Jasmine, Saranya Pradeep, Daksha Nagarkar
Director: Hasith Goli
Rating: 2.5/5