Rajesh Khanna, fondly known as the first superstar of Hindi cinema was born on 29 December 1942. He saw unprecedented success followed by an unfortunate bad phase, accompanied with fading stardom. But he continued to act in movies irrespective of their fate at the box office. Today’s movie is perhaps his last hit where he plays a central character. Swarg is directed by David Dhawan This was before his entry into the comedy genre for which he is more famously known.

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The Plot

Swarg means heaven and here it is the name of a mansion like house owned by Kumar (Rajesh Khanna). Kumar lives with his wife Janki (Madhavi). The other occupants are his 3 step siblings – Ravi (Dilip Dhawan), Vicky (Raja Bundela), and Jyoti (Juhi Chawla). Ravi’s wife is Naina (Neena Gupta). Kumar had promised his dying stepmother (Shammi) that he and Janki will shower all their love and care on the 3 siblings. In order to avoid complications(!), they decide not to have children. Kumar sells the old house they were living in and sets up a garment business with the money. He achieves success through his hard work and becomes a rich and respected businessman.

Their is one more occupant in Swarg – Krishna (Govinda), an orphan. Kumar had met the young boy Krishna is a temple and brought him home. Krishna grows up as a servant in the house but he is a servant only in name. He worships Kumar and can go to any extent to ensure his happiness and well being. Krishna also has some light hearted moments with the college going Jyoti. Krishna is a movie buff and crazy about acting. He likes to sing songs and mimic well known actors. His dream is to become a successful hero.

Kumar has received a substantial business order and needs a loan of Rs 50 lakhs. He has approached Chowdhary (Vikas Anand) for the loan. It is agreed that Swarg will be kept as mortgage and the loan is sanctioned. All is going well.

But where there is heaven, there is bound to be hell. In the Mill Owners Association’s election, Kumar defeats his rival Dhanraj (Paresh Rawal), who was the president for many years. Dhanraj is the opposite of Kumar. He is a corrupt businessman and is afraid that his misdeeds in running the association will be exposed by Kumar. He tries to bribe Kumar, who slaps him in public, warning him not to try such antics.

Kumar and Janki arrange Jyoti’s engagement with Choudhary’s son. The engagement day arrives, celebrations are in full swing. Then disaster strikes. Kumar gets a call that his factory has caught fire. The whole factory is gutted and life takes a turn for all.

Money lenders arrive at Kumar’s house requesting him to pay their debts. Kumar seeks money to rebuild his business and requests his siblings to act as guarantors. Apparently, they have their own businesses. They blatantly refuse his request. Kumar manages to use his savings and satisfy the debtors. Jyoti’s engagement is broken.

Ravi, Vicky and Naina start showing their true colours. Kumar asks them to not indulge in avoidable expenditures like arranging a grand party for Naina’s birthday but he gets insulted. Vicky goes to the extent of stealing Jyoti’s wedding jewellery and put the blame on Krishna. Surprisingly, Kumar believes Krishna is the culprit and asks him to leave the house. Krishna is shocked and has no option but to leave.

Janki admonishes Kumar, who explains to her that he did not want Krishna to live in this polluted atmosphere and had to send him away with a heavy heart.

Krishna heads to Mumbai. After a dramatic encounter with a local goonda, he befriends a film production manager with a funny name Airport/ Adda (Satish Kaushik). Airport offers him accommodation and the job of a spot boy in the film studio. Krishna is a hard worker and one day luck shines upon him unexpectedly. He gets a chance to perform a movie scene when the actor performing it keeps on bumbling leading to multiple retakes. Krishna accepts the challenge and performs the scene brilliantly. He gets cast in the role. He gradually becomes a celebrated actor.

And Kumar? Life is hell. His step brothers are against him. Dhanraj arranges for Swarg to be auctioned to further humiliate Kumar. Janki can’t bear this and commits suicide. Ultimately Kumar leaves with Jyoti and start leading a poverty driven life.

A rich and successful Krishna arrives in Swarg to find it locked. He comes to know the shocking events and changes that have taken place since he left and plots revenge from Dhanraj, Ravi and Vicky. He hatches a plan with Airport to destroy them financially and teach them a lesson. Will he succeed? Will he be able to reunite with Kumar and take him back to his “Swarg”?

The Music

The lyrics are by Sameer and music by Anand Milind. The songs have the typical late 1980s and early 90s vibes. Govinda gets to dance in most of them like Filmon ke saare hero, Bam bam bam bam Bambai, Tum sajana ke ghar and the love duet Kaise kate din. One song is a sad song Ae Mere Dost picturised on Rajesh Khanna after Govinda leaves the house.

My Thoughts

Swarg’s plot is stale and can be seen in many multi starrer movies made during this period. A well to do family falling on bad times, there is separation, sacrifice and ultimately time for reunion. Rajesh Khanna hams at times but performs well in the emotional scenes. Govinda shows his acting mettle in the initial scenes where there are light hearted moments and later when he becomes a star and starts planning revenge. There is the inevitable love angle between Krishna and Jyoti which thankfully is very short and portrayed through a song. Paresh Rawal is effective as the scheming Dhanraj. So is Satish Kaushik as Krishna’s friend and co-plotter.

Overall, though predictable, David Dhawan succeeds in weaving a cohesive and entertaining story. Its strange he stopped making such movies eventually and stuck to the comedy genre.