Swades is a film that hopefully will set the standard on what Indian cinema should really be all about. We see soo much crap these days and soo many Hollywood rip-offs, its great to see some originality. I must admit i wasn't a big fan of Laagan but however i knew this director was going to bring something different to the film unlike most bollywood directors who have NO talent what so ever. The person who really stole the show was Gayatri Joshi who you would never think was her debut role. Shah Rukh naturally played himself, although performance wise i thought he did an outstanding job in Veer-Zaara. This film explores culture, values, and tradition which are the main elements of India. I wasn't a big fan of Veer Zaara. I think Yash Chopra is overrated. I was pleased to have watched Swades following Veer Zaara just to so i know that there's still hope for Indian cinema.